Le Trust, ou les batailles de l'argent (1911)
Directed by Louis Feuillade

Film Review

Despite being almost completely overlooked today, Le Trust, ou les batailles de l'argent represents an important milestone in both the history of Gaumont and the career of the young company's most valuable asset, Louis Feuillade.  A fast-moving criminal intrigue, it anticipates the hugely popular thriller serials that Feuillade would go on to make for Gaumont over the next decade - Fantômas (1913), Les Vampires (1915), Judex (1916), Tih Minh (1918) and Barrabas (1919).  René Navarre plays the principal villain, a tenebrous, cross-dressing private detective who bears more than a passing resemblance to his most famous screen creation, the criminal mastermind Fantômas.

With the art of film narrative still very much in its infancy, Le Trust, ou les batailles de l'argent can hardly help appearing pedestrian and contrived by today's standards, but Feuillade's slick direction, with its use of strong visuals, together with Navarre's magnetic presence, makes it an absorbing piece, and in it we can readily discern the origins of the modern crime thriller.  The characters are convincingly played by members of Feullade's familiar repertory company and, even if the plot is ridiculous, we are hooked by the performances.  Navarre's Julien Kieffer isn't only a prototype Fantômas, he is also the template for just about every movie villain there ever was, and watching him in this film, exuding menace from every pore, you can convince yourself he is easily one of the most sinister of crime fiends.

Film Synopsis

Darbois, a wealthy industrialist, declines an invitation to join a trust headed by the rubber magnate Jacob Berwick after he receives a telegram from a young scientist, Jean Brémond, who claims to have invented a revolutionary new form of rubber.  Before Brémond can reach Darbois, he is kidnapped by Julien Kieffer, a private detective in Berwick's employ.  The scientist is taken to Berwick, who offers to spare his life in return for the chemical formula of his new compound.  Brémond proves to be one step ahead of his abductors...