I uploaded Judex, the 1916 silent serial, to the internet archive. You can watch it here, or click through to learn more.

Judex is the title of a 1916 silent French film serial concerning the adventures of Judex, who is a pulp hero, similar to The Shadow, created by Louis Feuillade and Arthur Bernède.

Judex served as the inspiration for The Shadow, who went on to inspire Batman. In many ways, these films represent the prototypical superhero films, and in fact foreshadow the “Cliffhanger Serial” style that was used for super hero films throuhgout the 1930s, 40s, and 50s (which gave way to Super Hero TV shows of the 50s and 60s, and so on.)

Of course, Judex was itself created in response to Les Vampires and Fantomas, earlier silent works from the same director.

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