Les Vampires (1915 Silent Crime Serial film) (Ep1) The Severed Head

Episode 1 – "The Severed Head"
Philippe Guérande (Édouard Mathé), a reporter working for the newspaper "Mondial" who is investigating a criminal organisation called the Vampires, receives a telegram at work stating that the decapitated body of the national security agent in charge of the Vampire investigations, Inspector Durtal, was found in the swamps near Saint-Clement-Sur-Cher, with the head missing.

Being turned down by the local magistrate (Thelès), he spends the night in a nearby castle owned by Dr. Nox (Jean Aymé), an old friend of his father, along with Mrs. Simpson (Rita Herlor), an American multimillionaire who desires the property. After waking up in the night, Philippe finds a note in his pocket saying "Give up your search, otherwise bad luck awaits you! – The Vampires" and discovers a mysterious passage behind a painting in his room.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Simpson's money and jewels are stolen in her sleep by a masked thief, but Philippe is suspected of the crime.
Philippe again visits the magistrate, who now believes his case, and they trick Dr. Nox and Mrs. Simpson into waiting in an anteroom. At the castle, Philippe and the magistrate find the head of Inspector Durtal hidden in the passage in Philippe's room. Back in the anteroom, they find that Mrs. Simpson is dead, and that Dr. Nox has vanished. Her pocket contains a note from the Grand Vampire saying that he has murdered the real Dr. Nox and is now assuming his identity.

FACTS:
If you desire further info on the Les Vampires, visit the Wikipedia link below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Vampires
The serial consists of ten episodes, which vary greatly in length. Being roughly 7 hours long, it is considered one of the longest films ever made. This is a French production.

The film is said to have established the genre of crime thriller, creating cinematic thriller techniques used later by Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang. The use of gadgetry such as canons and bombs were also adopted by Lang in films such as Dr. Mabuse the Gambler and The Spiders. It is also said to have inspired experimental filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel and French New Wave directors such as Alain Resnais and Georges Franju. Some have called it an early example of a gangster film.

Written and directed by Louis Feuillade. Set in Paris, it stars Édouard Mathé, Musidora and Marcel Lévesque. The main characters are a journalist and his friend who become involved in trying to uncover and stop a bizarre underground Apache gang, known as The Vampires (who are not the mythological beings their name suggests).

The serial consists of ten episodes, which vary greatly in length. Being roughly 7 hours long, it is considered one of the longest films ever made. It was produced and distributed by Feuillade's company Gaumont. Due to its stylistic similarities with Feuillade's other crime serials Fantômas and Judex, the three are often considered a trilogy.

Fresh from the success of Feuillade's previous serial, Fantômas, and facing competition from rival company Pathé, Feuillade made the film quickly and inexpensively with very little written script. Upon its initial release Les Vampires was given negative reviews by critics for its dubious morality and its lack of cinematic techniques compared to other films. However, it was a massive success with its wartime audience, making Musidora a star of French cinema.
The film has since come under re-evaluation and is considered by many to be Feuillade's magnum opus and a cinematic masterpiece. It is recognised for developing thriller techniques, adopted by Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang, and avant-garde cinema, inspiring Luis Buñuel and others. It is included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.