Saw Les Vampires, a silent French serial film from the 1910s. It follows a criminal gang known as "the vampires" as they are pursued by a plucky reporter who is foiling their plans and exposing their identities. The series is extremely silly and fairly entertaining in a somewhat dry, silent-movie-ish way.
The main characters are the journalist and the head of the vampires (known as the Grand Vampire) who changes fairly often (on account of being foiled by the reporter all the time.) The real heroes of the series however are the side-kicks of the central characters: the evil and seductive Irma Vep and the bumbling Mazamette. Mazamette is a big-nosed guy who starts off as a gag side-character but who becomes more and more central, getting great mileage simply from his lanky body and giant nose. Irma Vep is the true star however. She is captured and recaptured, always surviving and popping up again. She seems incredibly competent and resilient. She's also just a huge amount of fun, with the other vampires celebrating her return. She is introduced dancing on a stage, preceded by a single black title card reading just "Irma Vep." Amazing!
The series itself is a little goofy. The vampires have these outlandish, elaborate plots to gas and rob all of France's upper crust, to paralyze the journalist with a special perfume, to hypnotize their maids into acts of sabotage. The journalist foils them, but their power is so grand and their numbers so great, I began to wonder who in Paris was not a vampire by now. The series is fairly okay and never becomes too tedious however, which is pretty good for me for a silent film, all things considered.
One other little note: I was very disappointed that the woman with black bat wings that shows up everywhere when you image-search "Les Vampires" is not one of the vampires at all, but a ballerina in a completely unrelated performance.
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