Georges Franju and Feuillade's grandson Jacques Champreux adapted the original film and really caught the feeling for the old serial. As someone who has tried to watch the original Feuillade serial and only made it to three chapters it's a slowly paced antique, I prefer this version.
The film has a very interesting cast. Franju decided on casting a magician, Channing Pollock as Judex, Pollock was once labeled "the handsomest man alive". He certainly makes a good looking hero and wears a cape very well. The heroine is Edith Scob who was the woman without a face in Eyes Without A Face. The actor Francine Berge is Judex's nemesis Diane Monti and does a good job of walking the line of campy villainy, one misstep in her performance and she could have ended up as a Batman villain.
Many filmmakers have attempted to revive old film genres. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have made a career out of it. Watching films like the original Star Wars and the Indiana Jones series can be enjoyable but the filmmakers still adopt a kind of winking tone in their presentation letting the audience know that these old film genre cliches are not to be taken very seriously.
The success of Judex lies in the ability of Franju to take the old serial seriously and add an ability to transcend the genre corn and cliches into something approaching in this case a fairy tale like atmosphere in the storytelling.
The film has good photography and many strange scenes such as the party with the guests wearing weird bird costumes and an oddball climax involving a fight between Diane Monti and a circus performer.
103 minutes written by Jacques Champreux and Francis Lacassin.
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