Fantomas Unleashed

The second film in a French adventure comedy series. Fantômas escaped at the end of the previous film. Now he has a new plan: to abduct scientists and use their work for himself. One of his targets is Professor Lefèvre, who is going to a congress in Rome. Commissioner Juve learns of it and lays a trap: he will take the professor's place. The journalist Fandor has the same idea, and the two men put on the same disguise without knowing it. From there the film becomes a confusion of identities; there is more than one professor at the congress and none of them is real. The narrative then moves to a villa, to a masked ball and finally to a chase. The humour is again in Juve. He is irritable, hasty and keeps falling into his own traps; the devices his men develop work backwards every time. Jean Marais plays both Fantômas and Fandor; Louis de Funès plays Juve and Mylène Demongeot plays Hélène. André Hunebelle directed. Most of it was shot in Italy. It was a large box office success in France and the most watched of the three films. An entertaining choice for anyone who likes French comedy of the 1960s and light spy parody. For a viewer expecting a tight plot, the narrative is a pretext and the film moves from scene to scene.