1 The Severed Head (La T?te coup?) 2 The Fatal Ring (La Bague qui tue) The Surrealists were the first to acclaim Louis Feuillade's ten-episode serial Les Vampires for its combination of fantasy, realism, comedy and anarchy; "for love and sensuality" (Robert Desnos) and a singularly poetic use of the urban landscape. Later, Alain Resnais would claim Feuillade as one of his gods. The intricately woven narrative of Les Vampires is full of mysterious disappearances, false identities, and a thousand and one tists of plot, revolving around a gang of criminals who hold all France ransom through a series of brilliantly executed crimes. The ingenious Vampire Gang, led by the fetching Irma Vep (Musidora), confound the bourgeoisie as they rob it of jewels and cash. The gang members take on different personae to fit the crimes; thus, the diabolically beautiful Ms. Vep is variously seen as a maid, a typist, a mademoiselle and a viscount, while the First Grand Vampire (Jean Ayme) shows up as Dr. Nox, the Count of Noirmoutier, Big Jules, and Monsieur Treps, real estate agent-to name just a few of the disguises. The Vampire Gang are clearly the heroes of the serial; the Le Mondial reporter who tracks them down is but a clever straight-man for their exploits. Les Vampires remains one of the most convincing commentaries on the fascination of evil ever to reach the screen. Nor was Feuillade's salute to anarchy lost on his contemporaries: a great furor of protest arose against his glamorization of crime, while Andr?Breton dubbd the film "a masterpiece of twentieth-century art."