Georges Franju's homage to the early crime serials of Louis Feuillade (including Les Vampires, Fantomas and Judex) is itself a strange and beautiful film. Franju evokes the French avant-garde--the surrealism of Dali and Cocteau, the poetry of Jean Vigo--and camp nostalgia in a world in which mysterious, black-clad figures effortlessly climb walls, white doves appear from nowhere, and good inevitably conquers evil. The story returns to Feuillade's era, ca. 1914, and the setting of the original Judex: the castle of the wealthy banker whose many wrongs Judex (“the judge”) intends to redress, aided by his sidekicks, Cocantin and The Liquorice Kid. Meanwhile, the banker's daughter is falling in love with the legendary sleuth, who turns out to be vulnerable enough where it counts. In fact, in some ways, the film is about the fatality, the “tired destiny” (à la Fritz Lang) of those who must play out the archetypes of good and evil.