Belphegor: The Phantom of the Louvre (Creation Oneiros Scorpio...

The success of the pulp mystery series Fanta´mas, launched in 1909, inspired many successors including Arnould Galopin's Tenebras (1911), Gaston Rene's Masque Rouge (1913), and Arthur Bernede's Judex (1917), co-created with film director Louis Feuillade. In 1927, Bernede produced another simultaneous book and film project ― Belphegor. Belphegor concerns its eponymous criminal mastermind, a hooded maniac whose name derives from a malefic demon, and who is obsessed with retrieving the lost treasure of the Medicis from its ancient burial-place. Only Chantecoq, the "king of detectives", aided by a news reporter and his own daughter, can hope to unveil the sinister and sadistic figure that nightly haunts the Paris Louvre and its catacombs with a hunchbacked henchman, the pair dealing death, panic and confusion to any that stand in their way. And with that unveiling comes one of the most stunning twists in the genre to that date. Belphegor was also made into a highly successful 1960s serial for French televison, and a feature film entitled The Curse Of Belphegor. More recently it was filmed as Belphegor, Phantom Of The Louvre (2001), which also generated an animated television series. It remains one of the key works of early French pulp fiction.

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'The moonlight fell upon the statue of the demon Belphegor, and Bellegarde examined it very carefully. He murmured: "What a great pity it is, my old Belphegor; you write so well and yet you cannot speak! You must know everything about the affair which we are investigating." Bellegarde suddenly remembered the ancient history of this medieval statue, which came from the Cathedral of Dol, in Brittany. Centuries ago, purely by chance, a sacristan had discovered inside the statue a secret chamber which contained several hundred pieces of gold. Bellegarde murmured: "Have you, by any chance, a secret place inside you now which contains anything of interest to us? After all, there would be nothing extraordinary in that. Let us then look, to see what this divinity may be hiding in its stomach or its head." And taking from his overcoat pocket a little electric torch, he flashed it slowly all over the statue. He peered into the demonic face, which was clenched in a most terrible rictus. The centuries which had elapsed had scarcely rendered its features more beautiful. Bellegarde was examining the statue very carefully when suddenly, behind him, a shape appeared, robed in a dark shroud and wearing a hood which looked like a mask, through which one could just perceive two shining eyes. It was the Phantom of the Louvre, just as Pierre Gautrais had described to his superiors. Holding a club in its right, black-gloved hand, silently ― as if its feet did not touch the ground ― it advanced towards Jacques who, absorbed in his examination, could neither see nor hear it. Just as the night-prowler reached Bellegarde, and was going to give him a terrific blow with his club, a man darted out from behind a mass of stone and, seizing it by the wrist, cried in a loud voice: "Thief; I've got you!" Jacques stood up with a start and gave an awful shout. By the light of the moon he could just perceive, two steps away from him, a pair of figures ― one was Claude Barjac, and the other ― the Phantom of the Louvre! With a cat-like movement, the Phantom escaped from Barjac's grasp and, like a flash of lightning, raced towards the staircase of the Victoire de Samothrace. Jacques, who had instinctively seized his pistol, fired it in the direction of the Phantom, who had already disappeared into the darkness. ...'

About the Author

Arthur Bernede (1871-1937) was a highly successsful mystery serial novelist in Paris, and is best-known for Belphegor and Judex. In 1919, Bernede joined forces with actor Rene Navarre, who had played Fanta´mas in the Louis Feuillade serials, and writer Gaston Leroux, the creator of Rouletabille, to launch the Societe des Cineromans, a production company that would produce films and novels simultaneously. He authored almost 200 adventure, mystery, and historical novels.

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