''La Maison du mystère'' (English: ''The House of Mystery'') is a French silent

serial film A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...

directed by Alexandre Volkoff for the Albatros film company. It was made during 1921 and 1922 and was first shown in 1923. It was co-written by and starred

Ivan Mosjoukine Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin ( rus, Иван Ильич Мозжухин, p=ɪˈvan ɨˈlʲjitɕ mɐˈʑːʉxʲɪn; —18 January 1939), usually billed using the French transliteration Ivan Mosjoukine, was a Russian silent film actor. Career in R ...

Plot

Julien Villandrit is the owner of the estate of Les Basses-Bruyères and its textile factory, where the manager is his childhood friend Corradin. Julien marries his neighbour Régine, unaware that Corradin also loves her. Julien is sent to gaol for a murder actually committed by Corradin. The only witness to the truth is the woodsman Rudeberg and Corradin buys his silence by paying for the education of his son Pascal. Julien's struggle to clear his name and to rescue Régine and their daughter Christiane from Corradin's scheming extends over many years and faces many setbacks.

Cast

as Julien Villandrit *

Charles Vanel Charles-Marie Vanel (21 August 1892 – 15 April 1989) was a French actor and director. During his 76-year film career, which began in 1912, he appeared in more than 200 films and worked with many prominent directors, including Alfred Hitchcock ...

as Henri Corradin *

Hélène Darly Hélène Darly (born Éliane Émilienne Pauline Pilate; 4 May 1900 – 17 May 1994) was a French film actress whose career was most prominent in the silent film era. Biography Hélène Darly was born Éliane Émilienne Pauline Pilate in the 11t ...

as Régine de Bettigny *

Francine Mussey Francine Mussey (6 October 1897 – 23 March 1933) was a French film actress whose career began in the silent film era of the 1920s and ended in 1933 when she committed suicide by ingesting poison at age 35. Mussey was born in the 18th arrondiss ...

as Christiane, daughter of Julien and Régine *

Nicolas Koline Nicolas Koline (1878–1973) was a Russian stage and film actor. He established himself in Russia as a stage performer with the Moscow Art Theatre. He emigrated from Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 and came to France with La Chauve-So ...

as Rudeberg * Wladimir Strijiewsky as Pascal, son of Rudeberg *Bartkevitch as Marjory * Sylvia Gray as Marjorie *Claude Benedict as Général de Bettigny *Nina Raievska as Mme de Bettigny *Gilbert Dacheux as Urbain * Simone Genevois as young Christiane *Fabien Haziza as young Pascal

Production

In 1921 the Russian émigré producer Joseph N. Ermolieff undertook three film serials through his company Ermolieff-Cinéma, including one based on ''La Maison du mystère'' by the novelist Jules Mary. Filming began in the summer of 1921 but was then interrupted for six months when its star, Ivan Mosjoukine, contracted typhoid fever. When production resumed in 1922, it was under the aegis of

Films Albatros Films Albatros was a French film production company established in 1922. It was formed by a group of White Russian exiles who had been forced to flee following the 1917 Russian Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War. Initially the firm's pe ...

, the successor to Ermolieff's company. The first episode was released in France on 23 March 1923 with its remaining nine episodes appearing at weekly intervals.Lenny Borger
Programme notes for ''La Maison du mystère''
at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2003.
Archived
at the Wayback Machine, 17 April 2019.) Retrieved 14 July 2020. The titles of the ten parts of the serial were: Episode 1: ''L'Ami félon''. Episode 2: ''Le Secret de l'étang''. Episode 3: ''L'Ambition au service de la haine''. Episode 4: ''L'Implacable Verdict''. Episode 5: ''Le Pont vivant''. Episode 6: ''La Voix du sang''. Episode 7: ''Les Caprices du destin''. Episode 8: ''Champ clos''. Episode 9: ''Les Angoisses de Corradin''. Episode 10: ''Le Triomphe de l'amour''. Studio scenes were filmed in Montreuil and some location shooting was carried out in Nice and Cannes.Catalogue des restaurations et tirages de la Cinémathèque française

Archived
at the Wayback Machine, 21 December 2019.) Retrieved 14 July 2020. A number of the cast and the technicians were Russians who had moved to France after the Russian Revolution. The story allowed Ivan Mosjoukine to appear in numerous disguises in the course of the film and to display the range of his acting.

Reception

The response to the serial's release was positive: "Its success was immediate and phenomenal. Critics who had previously denounced the serial as artless, lowbrow fare were almost fulsome in their praise of the film's stylish upgrading of melodramatic clichés, sheer pictorial elegance, and narrative imagination, not to mention the utter credibility of the performances. For Mosjoukine it was the ultimate consecration after four succès d'estime, and once again served as a showcase for his multifarious talent. But the film also opened doors for Charles Vanel ... and the astonishing Nicolas Koline..." One critic in 1923 admitted that his longstanding disdain for the serial film had been overturned by this example of the form: "It is no longer a case of a film made of preposterous situations, of astonishing escapades, of heroines ten times slain and ten times resurrected, but, on the contrary, of a very lucid adaptation of Jules Mary's novel. A grasp of rhythm, of weight, of truth, and beautiful photography full of clever discoveries are the mark of M. Volkoff's direction...." The film was re-released as a feature film in 1929 (with a running time of 159 minutes). It was remade as a sound feature film with the same title directed by

Gaston Roudès Gaston Roudès (born 24 March 1878, Béziers, Hérault, France; d. 5 November 1958, Villejuif, Val-de-Marne Val-de-Marne (, "Vale of the Marne") is a department of France located in the Île-de-France region. Named after the river Marne, it ...

in 1933.

Restoration

The 1929 feature version of the film was restored in 1985 for the Cinémathèque française by Renée Lichtig, and she completed a restoration of the serial version with tinting in 1992. A 3-disk DVD edition of the serial was issued in the USA by Flicker Alley in 2015.''La Maison du mystére''
at Flicker Alley. Retrieved 15 July 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:House of Mystery (1923 film), The 1923 films Film serials Films directed by Alexandre Volkoff French silent feature films 1920s French-language films French black-and-white films