Les Vampires (1915 Silent Crime Serial film) (Ep2) The Ring That Kills

Episode 2 – "The Ring That Kills"
Grand Vampire in disguise as Count de Noirmoutier, reads that ballerina Marfa Koutiloff (Stacia Napierkowska), who is engaged to Philippe, will perform a ballet called The Vampires. To prevent her from publicizing the Vampires' activities and to deter Philippe, he gives Marfa a poisoned ring before her performance, which kills her onstage.

Amidst the panicking crowds Philippe recognizes the Grand Vampire and follows him to an abandoned fort and is captured by the gang. They agree to interrogate Philippe at midnight and execute him at dawn. Philippe finds that the Vampire guarding him is one of his co-workers, Oscar-Cloud Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque).

They decide to work together and capture the Grand Inquisitor when he arrives at midnight. They bind and hood the Grand Inquisitor and set him up for execution in place of Phillipe. At dawn the Vampires arrive for the execution, but the police raid the lair. The Vampires escape, but as they flee, they mistakenly execute their own Grand Inquisitor, who turns out to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

FACTS:
If you desire further info on the Les Vampires, visit the Wikipedia link below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Vampires
The serial consists of ten episodes, which vary greatly in length. Being roughly 7 hours long, it is considered one of the longest films ever made. This is a French production.

Les Vampires is a 1915–16 French silent crime serial film written and directed by Louis Feuillade. Set in Paris, it stars Édouard Mathé, Musidora and Marcel Lévesque. The main characters are a journalist and his friend who become involved in trying to uncover and stop a bizarre underground Apache gang, known as The Vampires (who are not the mythological beings their name suggests).

The serial consists of ten episodes, which vary greatly in length. Being roughly 7 hours long, it is considered one of the longest films ever made.[2] It was produced and distributed by Feuillade's company Gaumont. Due to its stylistic similarities with Feuillade's other crime serials Fantômas and Judex, the three are often considered a trilogy.

Fresh from the success of Feuillade's previous serial, Fantômas, and facing competition from rival company Pathé, Feuillade made the film quickly and inexpensively with very little written script. Upon its initial release Les Vampires was given negative reviews by critics for its dubious morality and its lack of cinematic techniques compared to other films.

However, it was a massive success with its wartime audience, making Musidora a star of French cinema The film has since come under re-evaluation and is considered by many to be Feuillade's magnum opus and a cinematic masterpiece. It is recognised for developing thriller techniques, adopted by Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang, and avant-garde cinema, inspiring Luis Buñuel, Henri Langlois, Alain Resnais, and André Breton. It is included in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.