1938 film by Léon Mathot

最早的《卢浮魅影》经典默片版，后来苏菲玛索还演过一个现代的翻拍版。 After becoming the name of a heavy metal group,"Belphegor" was first a silent movie,then a sensational miniseries in the sixties ,and was remade in a "modern way" a few years back. "Belphegor" seemed to come too late in 1927. The serial boom long over (Feuillade's works such as "Les Vampires" "Judex" or "Fantomas" were made in the previous decade),it was already an anomaly at a time when the silent age was about to come to an end .Today,it is often overlooked when they speak of French silent era (obviously,the 1965 miniseries buried it). "Belphegor" has moments of brilliance:the scenes in the Louvres ,where the phantom appears in the middle of the night ,in search of something in the dark corridors;the flashbacks which take us to the reign of Henri the Third and his notorious mom,Catherine de Medicis -after all,the Louvres was their home.Even stronger: Simone on her deathbed with lots and lots of flowers and candles :such a scene might have inspired Jean Cocteau and Jean Delannoy for the final scene of "La Princesse de Clèves" (1961) .Simone herself is a complex character and her motives are less clear than they appear at first sight.

Ferragus, ancien bagnard, est à la tête d'une puissante société secrète. Dans l'ombre, il veille sur Clémence Desmarets, sa fille, qui vient lui rendre visite en cachette. Un soir, Auguste de Maulincour surprend Clémence dans une rue mal famée de Paris et il décide de la suivre pour en savoir davantage sur cette charmante personne, perdue dans un lieu où elle ne devrait pas être. Ferragus a remarqué l'intérêt que Maulincour porte à sa fille et il décide de tout faire pour empêcher le jeune homme de connaître la vérité sur la famille de Clémence, ce qui nuirait à sa réputation. Il utilise des moyens machiavéliques pour se débarrasser de Maulincour.