His brother Yildirim (Yildirim Gencer) takes over with the approval of the police. He’s described as “Security’s best guy.” Fantômas moves into a house on the Bosporus. While Norman Bates would be proud of the exterior, inside it consists just of an Ed Wood set where a curtain embroi- dered with an F is flanked by statues brandishing lamps. If the villain’s activities weren’t lethal, his taste in décor would be. A countess performs a dance with veils for him and is instantly taken on as his partner. Behçet becomes his right-hand man, sporting a leather cap. He isn’t promoted to head waiter—however much the object he carries about resembles a tray, closer inspection reveals that it’s a metal hand for which he seems to have no use.
Yildirim meets Uncle and haggles over how many cigarettes to give him in order to meet Pence—presumably just asking the police to in- troduce them would be unkind to the plot. Pence puts his mask on and helped by his assistant Mine (Nebahat Çerhe) shoots everyone in Fantômas’ TNT factory, then takes off the mask to meet Yildirim. He seduces Fantômas’ bellydancing ac- complice Gulgun, who says “Your eyes are killing me.” A bit of mild bondage persuades her to ad- mit that Fantômas’ house is on the Bosporus. Uncle is consulted for the location, since “he knows everything,” and it would be unreasonable to won- der why they didn’t just ask him in the first place. Fantômas isn’t pleased with her and, having un- tied her, pokes her to death with a red-hot poker that a sidekick hands him and takes back when he’s finished. There’s style for you.
Behçet, having reverted to his Russian head- gear, kidnaps the professor and his daughter (Gülgün Erdem) to obtain the microfilm. Yildirim offers Fantômas a gold shipment but is tied down to “wait for death,” a threat whose force is rather undermined when Fantômas’ entourage have to avoid tripping over the ropes as they leave. Fantômas sends Cansel (Feri Cansel) to seduce Pence, but she falls for him instead—perhaps it’s the leather mask he’s put back on. Fantômas ap- proaches Jabar, a local hood, for help in finding Pence, a meeting rendered rather less dramatic by the spectacle of the countess scratching her nose or wiping it with a finger when she thinks nobody is looking. This does seem to take ignor- ing the camera a little too far. Pence appears and shoots a few more people, but Fantômas flees. We can only assume he didn’t want to find him after all.
Mine captures Jabar and delivers him to the police together with a cough. (Perhaps she caught
it from the countess.) A reporter interviews Pence while Fantômas stabs the professor’s daughter. The next scene reveals that the reporter was Fantômas without his disguise, which seems to demonstrate that he’s able to confound time and space or at least the film editor. Behçet captures Mine and Uncle to the tune of Leonard Bernstein, but Uncle hides beneath a piece of furniture to phone Pence, by no means under his breath. Pence and Yildirim duly intervene, and Pence sits in Fantômas’ chair in order to leap on a minion. A series of fights shot from within a descending lift has a touch of B-movie inventiveness. By the end of the scene, at least the population of a small village must have been wiped out, figuratively speaking, while some of the stunts might have peopled a casualty ward for real. Fantômas is undramatically unmasked with his back to the camera. The police take over, and Pence de- clares that the crime busters have done it for their country. All exit to the Turkish national anthem. It’s as if Batman were to be accompa- nied by “The Star-Spangled Banner,” or James Bond to rouse a gracious queen.
The Onar Films transfer is a little scratchy but intact. It includes a documentary on the director’s prolific career, as well as trailers, filmographies, biographies, a photo gallery and a poster insert. The disc is limited to 500 numbered copies. Be the first on your block to own one.
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