The Vampires or, The Arch Criminals of Paris

Louis Feuillade, Gaumont, 1915 to 1916: ten episodes, more than six hours. Journalist Philippe Guérande (Édouard Mathé) tracks a criminal league that calls itself the Vampires; Musidora, in a black bodystocking, is Irma Vep, an anagram he has to decode on a hotel board. Each chapter ends on a trap, a poison ring, a roof. The Cinémathèque française holds the set that circulates. Feuillade was still shooting Fantômas logic in wartime Paris, one episode ahead of the censors.