GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #6

ARSENE LUPIN

 Lupin was often a force of good while operating on the wrong side of the law.  In this he shares certain similarities to Hornung's Raffles.  Lupin is a brilliant rogue who pursues a career of crime with carefree elan and mocks the law for the sheer joy of it rather than purely for personal gain.  Lupin is young, handsome, brave, and quick-witted; he has a joie de vivre that is uniquely and recognizably French.  His sense of humor and conceit make life difficult for the police who attribute most of the major crimes in France to Lupin and his gang of ruffians and urchins.  From the outset of the stories it is known that the light-hearted, philandering Lupin did it.  Rather than restoring the rule of law Lupin amuses himself by making fools of the police and living the life of a cultured rentier, while occasionally helping damsels in distress - Lupin relies upon a quaintly idiosyncratic code of honor that is sustained by robbery and dedicated to self indulgence.

Like most criminals and detectives of this era of literature, Lupin is a master of disguise.  And he employs numerous aliases including Jim Barnett, Prince Renine, Le Duc de Charmerace, Don Luis Perenna, and Ralph de Limezy.  His various names combined with his brilliant disguises make it nearly impossible for the police to identify him (the reader of his exploits encounters a similar difficulty).  Towards the end of his career, in line with the growing pressure of censorship and the political radicalism of the time, Lupin becomes increasingly more conservative and ends up collaborating with the police - usually for his own purposes and without their knowledge.  Eventually he becomes a full-fledged detective and, although he is as successful in his endeavors as ever before, his heart does not seem to be in it.

Lupin was created by Maurice Leblanc who was born in Rouen in 1864.  He was saved from a burning house when he was only 4 and when the War of 1870 broke out the 6-year old was sent to Scotland for a year.  Leblanc was educated in France, Berlin, and Manchester, England.  He studied law before becoming a hack writer and police reporter for various French periodicals.  He was described by his wife as a dandy who, in 1900, invented the fashions of 1835.  His sister Georgette, a famous actress and singer, was the mistress of Maurice Maeterlinck the noted dramatist.  In 1905 publisher Pierre Laffitte approached Leblanc to write a story with a Holmes or Raffles type hero for the monthly journal Je sais tout.  Leblanc created the lovable rogue adventurer Arsene Lupin and his previously undistinguished career skyrocketed.  The first story "The Arrest of Arsene Lupin" was published on July 15, 1905.  Lupin was the opposite of Holmes and Raffles - there was no deductive reasoning, no menacing conspiracies or world-threatening criminals - just the raffish charm of Lupin.  Leblanc's subsequent success and worldwide fame culminated in his being made a member of the French Legion of Honor.  He died in 1941.

Reading the fictional adventures of Arsene Lupin today, one is generally impressed with the fast pace and diversified action, although the stories border on burlesque and the incredible situations and coincidences are difficult to accept.  (For example, Lupin disguises himself as the chief of the Surete and conducts official investigations into his own activities...for 4 years!!)  All total Leblanc wrote 17 novels and 39 novellas that were collected in 24 books.  Five authorized sequels were written in the 1970s by the celebrated mystery writing team of Boileau and Narcejac who famously wrote "Les Diaboliques" and "Vertigo" together in the 1950s.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1907 "Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Burglar" (s.s.); 1908 "Arsene Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmes" (s.s.) due to objections by the Conan Doyle family the name of the famous detective was changed; 1909 "The Hollow Needle"; 1910 "813"; 1912 "The Crystal Stopper"; 1913 "The Confessions of Arsene Lupin" (s.s.); 1914 "The Teeth of the Tiger"; 1916 "The Shell Shard"; 1918 "The Golden Triangle"; 1919 "The Island of 30 Coffins"; 1922 "The Eight Strokes of the Clock" (s.s.); 1923 "The Secret Tomb"; 1924 "The Countess of Cagliostro"; 1926 "The Overcoat of Arsene Lupin"; 1927 "The Damsel with Green Eyes"; 1927 "The Man with the Goatskin"; 1928 "The Barnett & Co. Agency" (s.s.); 1929 "The Mysterious Mansion"; 1930 "The Emerald Cabochon"; 1931 "The Mystery of the Green Ruby"; 1933 "The Woman with Two Smiles"; 1933 "Victor of the Vice Squad"; 1935 "The Revenge of the Countess of Cagliostro"; 1939/1941 "The Billions of Arsene Lupin" - The official last book of the series was serialized in 1939 and published posthumously in 1941; 2012 "The Last Love of Arsene Lupin" - written around 1936, found by chance in 2011 "on top of a cupboard in a beige shirt with rusty hooks" by Florence Boespflug-Leblanc.

PLAYS

In addition to the many books that he wrote Leblanc also crafted theatrical plays of his character.  The first, "Arsene Lupin", was co-written with Francis de Croisset in 1908 and it was later novelized by Edgar Jepson and published in 1909 by Doubleday.  The first play was a 4-act presentation that was first performed October 28, 1908 at the Athenee in Paris.  In 1909 the play enjoyed successful runs in New York and London.  London had 199 performances while New York had 144 before going on tour.  The New York cast had William Courtenay as Lupin with Doris Keane and Sidney Herbert costarring.  Leblanc wrote four more plays - "The Adventures of Arsene Lupin" (1911), "The Return of Arsene Lupin" (1920), "This Woman is Mine" (1930), and "A Quarter Hour with Arsene Lupin" (1932).

"Arsene Lupin contre Sherlock Holmes" was a 4-act play that premiered October 10, 1910 at the Theatre du Chatelat in Paris.  "Le Retour d'Arsene Lupin", a one-act play, was staged September 16, 1911 at the Theatre de la Cigale in Paris.  "Arsene Lupin, Banquier", a 3-act operetta, debuted May 7, 1930 at the Theatre des Bouffes Parisiennes in Paris.

FILMS

The first film identified as a Lupin adaptation is "The Gentleman Burglar" (1908) by Edwin S. Porter and starring William Ranows.  However the eponymous gentleman bears no resemblance to Lupin's character.  In Porter's film he abandons his thieving, marries and settles down before succumbing to blackmail from an old accomplice, landing in prison for murder and losing his family.  The story has a "crime does not pay" moral, wholly unlike Leblanc's works.  Porter remade the film in 1911 as "Fate".  Paul Otto played Lupin in five German short films, a serial of sorts, in 1910 that were released as "Arsene Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes".  The director Viggo Larsen played the role of Holmes hot on the trail of Lupin.  In 1914 Georges Treville played Lupin in a French film, and William Stowell played Lupin in the 1915 film "The Gentleman Burglar".  The first feature-length film was made in England in 1916 with Gerald Ames as Lupin.  Several US films followed.  The first in 1917 starred Earle Williams.  "The Teeth of the Tiger" (1919) with David Powell was made by Paramount and was basically an old-dark-house murder melodrama with sliding panels, secret passageways, and serial-like thrills.  "813" released in 1920 by Robertson-Cole had Wedgewood Nowell as Lupin who impersonates a police officer to clear himself of a murder charge.  Wallace Beery costarred.  A superior European silent offering was Paul Fejos' "Arsene Lupin's Utolso Kalandja" in 1921.

"Arsene Lupin" MGM, 1932.  John Barrymore (Lupin), Lionel Barrymore, Karen Morley, John Miljan.  Directed by Jack Conway.  Based on the play by Leblanc and de Croisset.  When the silk-hatted Lupin announces that he will steal a famous painting from the Louvre under the noses of the police, and does so, an attractive female thief is used by the chief of detectives to lure Lupin into a trap.

"Arsene Lupin Returns" MGM, 1938.  Melvyn Douglas (Lupin), Warren William, Virginia Bruce, Monty Woolley, E. E. Clive.  Directed by George Fitzmaurice.  The signature of Arsene Lupin, long thought dead, is scrawled on the safe from which a necklace has been stolen.  The real Lupin, innocent and now living as a country gentleman, is as perplexed as the police.

"Enter Arsene Lupin" Universal, 1944.  Charles Korvin (Lupin), Ella Raines, J. Carrol Naish, Gale Sondergaard, Miles Mander.  Directed by Ford Beebe.  International thief Lupin on a train from Istanbul to Paris, steals an emerald from a young heiress, but returns it when he begins to suspect the woman's aunt and uncle plan to murder her.

In 1937 there was a French film "Arsene Lupin, Detective" with Jules Berry, and Ramon Perado appeared in the Mexican "Arsene Lupin" film of 1945.  There were several French offerings including Jacques Becker's "Les Aventures d"Arsene Lupin" in 1956 with Robert Lamoureux and "Arsene Lupin contre Arsene Lupin" in 1962 with Jean-Claude Brialy.

COMICS

A daily comic strip "Arsene Lupin" written by Georges Cheyland and drawn by Bourdin ran 1948-1949 in France-Soir.  Another strip by Jacques Blondeau ran in Le Parisien Libere 1956-1958 producing a total of 575 strips.  Most notably in contemporary time is Arsene Lupin's appearance in Alan Moore's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier".

TELEVISION

In a 1970-1971 French-Swedish series the gentleman thief matches wits with his nemesis Sherlock Holmes.  A 2021 Netflix series "Lupin" stars Omar Sy as Assane Diop, a professional thief inspired by Arsene Lupin who seeks revenge on a wealthy family who framed his father for a crime he did not commit.