This Italian two-reeler from 1913, "Il Giglio Nero," variously translated as "The Black Lily," "The Black Lily Gang" or "The Sign of the Black Lily Gang," is derivative of Louis Feuillade's pulpy serial "Fantômas" (1913). Presented as the last and only two-reeler of five short films restored by La Cineteca del Friuli for the online part of the 40th Pordenone Silent Film Festival, presenter, film preservationist and historian and one of the festival's founders, Paolo Cherchi Usai also cites as an influence the Éclair crime film "Zigomar the Eelskin" (1913).
It's an overly-elaborate battle of the witless between a criminal gang and the police detectives. In this one, when the gang discovers a detective is on the case, they send a note informing of where they'll be, whereupon they're promptly arrested. Criminal masterminds these aren't. But this is the same group where a robber breaks into a home only to slam a door to alert an otherwise oblivious occupant to his presence. Fortunately for the robber, I guess, instead of using a telephone to call the police, the damsel faints. But, the gangsters did apparently spend a lot of time and resources on a lair with a hidden door and a trap door for a detective to fall into and risk drowning--even though a flimsy set wall isn't too convincing. It seems the filmmakers were no masterminds, either. I usually don't look for such things, but I even caught the filmmakers visible in a shot from a car reflection.
One of the more interesting things here extends to the entire heist or con-film genre to come. The intricacy of the crimes and their detections is rather the point, to reflect the artifice of the filmmaking process itself--if not always literally as in that car reflection. So, we get both sides dressing in disguises, as actors playing actors, even if there is no logical reason for it in the plot.
It's an overly-elaborate battle of the witless between a criminal gang and the police detectives. In this one, when the gang discovers a detective is on the case, they send a note informing of where they'll be, whereupon they're promptly arrested. Criminal masterminds these aren't. But this is the same group where a robber breaks into a home only to slam a door to alert an otherwise oblivious occupant to his presence. Fortunately for the robber, I guess, instead of using a telephone to call the police, the damsel faints. But, the gangsters did apparently spend a lot of time and resources on a lair with a hidden door and a trap door for a detective to fall into and risk drowning--even though a flimsy set wall isn't too convincing. It seems the filmmakers were no masterminds, either. I usually don't look for such things, but I even caught the filmmakers visible in a shot from a car reflection.
One of the more interesting things here extends to the entire heist or con-film genre to come. The intricacy of the crimes and their detections is rather the point, to reflect the artifice of the filmmaking process itself--if not always literally as in that car reflection. So, we get both sides dressing in disguises, as actors playing actors, even if there is no logical reason for it in the plot.