Saturday, March 21, 2015

FANTÒMAS CONTRE SCOTLAND YARD - Michel Magne - "Whose Zooming Who" (1967)

Tonight's Saturday Night Special is the third and final film in the 1960's trilogy of Fantômas Films following "Fantômas," and "Fantômas Unleashed!"

 This last time out, it's "Fantômas Vs. Scotland Yard," and just like in the first two movies, the music was created by Michel Magne, and here's a small sample of what you're in for!

 The basic concept is that Fantômas is going to put the big squeeze on a bunch of rich Scots! His clever idea this time is that he's going to charge them a large tax to guarantee that they are not killed! Pretty good deal you gotta admit! So a whole bunch of people are going to converge on this Scottish castle, the home of the Lord and Lady Lord Edward MacRashley to try and figure out what they can do about it!

 The diabolical masked man Fantômas has been pretty busy stirring up lots of trouble again!

 Of course Jean Marais and Mylène Demongeot have their ongoing roles as Fandor and Hélèn, and Jean also plays the character of Fantômas! Don't get the idea that it's like Superman and Clark Kent, in these Fantômas movies it's just one actor playing more than one character! Mylène Demongeot is just cute as a button in a Hayley Mills or Tuesday Weld, or a young Britney Spears kind of way!

If the castle weren't haunted, there would be even less story! Lady MacRashley holds a seance to prove the point!

Le Commissaire Juve storms off from the seance and first sees a ghost, and then....

.........he finds a body hanging in his room!

Since Le Commissaire Juve is the leading authority on how to let Fantômas get away, he has been brought in from France to help in the investigation, and provide all the comedy relief! As in the other two films, Louis de Funès reprises his role as Le Commissaire!

These two enterprising gangsters are going to a mobster meeting where they are planning to rub out Fantômas and take over his tax scam for themselves!

Imagine their surprise when one of those gangsters turns out to be Fantômas himself!

Actually, you don't have to imagine it at all, because this is exactly what they looked like when the truth became known!

Here's a good shot of a couple of the Fantômas masks!

Now  Fantômas changes himself into Lord MacRashley himself, so he can work this whole circus from the inside out!

Fantômas couldn't possibly pull off all these stunts by himself without the dedication of his disciples!

Fantômas has a rocket stashed in the castle so he can get away just in the nick of time!

It's not going to be so easy this time buddy! They call in the Air Force, and quickly dispose of the rocket, and it's the end of the Fantômas legacy forever!

Oh, No, not so fast!! WTF!? Fantômas didn't really need to escape again, there's not going to be another sequel! While everybody was focused on the rocket, Fantômas just rides a bicycle out the back door, and is picked up by what's left of his henchmen!

For some unknown reason, all these Fantômas movies are ridiculously difficult to find, but if you really like goofy Euro crime comedies, this trio is worth searching for, but Good luck, you're most likely going to need it!

No comments:

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??