The House of Mystery (DVD), Flicker Alley, Mystery & Suspense

Serial films, or Ciné Romans were well-established in France before World War I, where they are most closely identified with writer-director Louis Feuillade. At Albatros, Russian émigré producer Joseph Ermolieff produced three serials in 1921, all adapted from roman-feuilletons by the phenomenally successful Jules Mary. The first two serials have not left a trace in the annals of film archives. But the House of Mystery (La Maison du mystFre), Ermolieff's third serial, (begun in the summer of 1921 and not completed until 1923) by Alexandre Volkoff (with fellow studio director Viatcheslav Tourjansky providing some important and uncredited second-unit work), is a triumph of the genre and a complete delight that not only survived, but also was restored in it's original ten-episode format by the Cinematheque Francaise.