Mylène Demongeot, one of the blond sex symbols of French cinema during the 50s and 60s, who managed to overcome the typecast and survived a long hiatus before a stellar comeback in her 70s. She played in more than 70 films, including such classics as The Three Musketeers (1961) and the Fantomas trilogy. She was born Marie-Helene Demongeot on September 29, 1935, in Nice, France, into a family of actors. Her parents met in Shanghai, China, and moved to Nice, France. Her mother, Klaudia Trubnikova, was a Russian-Ukrainean émigré from Kharkiv who escaped from the horrors of the Russian Civil War. Her father, Alfred Demongeot, was of French-Italian heritage. The family was bilingual and young Demongeot was able to use Russian and French, but eventually switched to French. She grew up in Nice. As a young girl, Demongeot was an outcast: she suffered from ruthless kids making vicious comments about her eyes - she was cross-eyed until she had a surgery in her teens. She was fond of music and movies - a perfect escape from the horrors of WWII that devastated Europe during her childhood. After the war, at the age of 13 she came to Paris and continued her education. She studied piano under the tutelage of Marguerite Long and Yves Nat. Then she studied dramatic art with Marie Ventura at Le Cours Simon in Paris. At the age of 15 she became a model in the atelier of Pierre Cardin . At the age of 17 Demongeot made her film debut in the supporting role of Nicole in Les Enfants de l'amour (Children of Love 1953). Having appearances in three or four feature films every year, Demongeot rose to international fame in the late 1950s. She was together with Gary Cooper for the opening of the first escalator to be installed in a cinema, at the Rex Theatre in Paris, on June 7, 1957. She had a memorable seduction scene opposite Yves Montand in Les Sorcieres de Salem (The Crucible 1957). Her first notable leading role was in Be Beautiful But Shut Up (aka.. Blonde for Danger 1958), where she played a 17-year-old jewel smuggler. Demongeot further developed her screen image of a manipulative blond mistress in her brilliant performance opposite David Niven in Bonjour tristesse (1958), and became permanently locked in the cliché image of a humorous seductress after co-starring opposite Alain Delon in the 1959 comedy 'Le Donno sono deboli' (Three Murderesses 1959). Her chance to update her film image came in the period films. She played manipulative and coquettish Andromeda opposite Steve Reeves in La Bataille di Marathon (The Giant of Marathon. 1959) and the leading role of Rea opposite Roger Moore in L'Enlevement des sabines (Romulus and the Sabines. 1961). Among her best known film-works are the role of manipulative Milady de Winter in Les Trois mousquetaires (The Three Musketeers 1961) and the role of Helen in all three of the Fantomas films. Mylene Demongeot became one of the blond sex symbols in the 50s, 60s and 70s French cinema. She co-starred with the major French actors of the time, including Jean Marais and Louis de Funès in the Fantômas (1964) trilogy. Although she gradually fazed out of her stereotypical image of a beautiful French coquette, she still looked pretty convincing in the image of a mid-aged Madame, which she developed in the 80s and 90s. At that time her acting career came to a pause, as she has been aging gracefully in the South of France. There Demongeot was also a producer during the 80s and 90s. She has been the co-owner of the Kangarou Films production company, which she founded with her late husband Marc Simenon . After a lengthy hiatus, she made a comeback in 36 Quai des Orfevres (2004). Her latest film-works were supporting roles in 'Camping' (2006) and also in La Californie (2006) by director/writer Jacques Fieschi, based on a short story by Georges Simenon . Outside of her acting profession Demongeot wrote several books, the best known are 'Tiroirs Secrets' and 'Animalement vôtre'. In the 2000s Demongeot made a pilgrimage to the birthplace of her mother in Kharkiv, Ukraine. There she planted a commemorative tree and presented her autobiographical book, 'Les Lilas de Kharkov' (The Lilacs of Kharkiv). In 2006 she was named Commander in the Order of Arts and Letters for her achievements in acting. She is currently residing in Nice, South of France.
Le journaliste Fandor invente une interview avec le mystérieux Fantomas. Fantomas s'indigne et enlève le journaliste pour le contraindre à dire la vérité et comme Fandor ne fait pas cela, il se déguise en Fandor et avec son visage il réalise un sensationnel vol de bijoux. Le Commissaire Juve arrête Fandor, croyant qu'il est Fantomas, mais il est à son tour arrêté quand Fantomas fait un autre coup, cette fois-ci déguisé en Juve. Mais les deux sont libérés par Fantomas lui-même. Le célèbre voleur n'a-t-il pas une raison cachée pour son acte de générosité ?