Judex: The First Superhero Movie (1914)

Superheroes (and supervillains) conquered the printed page with new and frequent adventures, but when we look at how they developed on film, they took several years to reach the big screen. In fact, the honor of “first superhero movie” doesn’t belong to any American character, but to the French avenger Judex, created by Louis Feuillade. It’s a long serial with 12 chapters and 300 minutes of footage, and Judex himself is a complex figure who walks the line between good and evil. Sound familiar?

A Vengeance Born in the Shadows

A young man sees his family ruined by the machinations of a corrupt, villainous banker. He swears vengeance and adopts a new identity to carry it out. That alone is enough to design any superhero… or why not a supervillain? French writer, director and producer Louis Feuillade explored that possibility in two of his stories, Fantômas and Les Vampires.

The success of both serials was immediate, but Feuillade was criticized for “glorifying criminals” in his projects. As a response, Feuillade decided to create a new character with certain heroic traits that aren’t immediately obvious. An “antihero”, if you will.

The result was Judex, whose first film was made in 1914, but the impact of the First World War delayed its release until December 1916. Judex’s secret identity is Jacques de Trémeuse, who swears vengeance against the banker Favraux for his ruthless actions, which drove Jacques’s father to suicide. Of course, things aren’t that simple for Judex. On one hand, he ends up in love with Favraux’s daughter, the beautiful Jacqueline; on the other, he must rescue her from the criminal known as Diana Monti.

Anyone who takes the trouble to watch the twelve episodes and the prologue of Judex will recognize several aspects. Clearly Judex served as a source of inspiration for The Shadow, which reached radio and comic format 16 years later, and even for Batman itself. At the same time, it would be madness to deny that Judex borrowed some things from The Count of Monte Cristo.

Judex had a direct sequel, but today it is considered a lost film, from which not a single frame survives. The first remake arrived in 1934, and the second in 1963, with American actor Channing Pollock in the role of Judex. The two original Judex novels were written by Feuillade himself and writer Arthur Bernède, published in 1917 and 1919 respectively.

It would be a little unfair to say Judex was forgotten by the public, but there is no doubt that the mechanics of the “avenger-vigilante-with-double-identity-who-fights-evil-in-his-own-way” were saturated in record time, and a new wave of much more attractive characters pushed Judex to the bottom of the barrel. Even so, he was the first on screen, and no one can take that away from him.

Judex - Complete series: Click here