Belphégor (novel)

Belphégor (English title The Mystery of the Louvre) is a 1927 crime novel by French writer Arthur Bernède, about a "phantom" which haunts the Louvre Museum, in reality a masked villain trying to steal a hidden treasure.

It was simultaneously adapted for the silent screen by Bernède as a 220-minute movie serial, directed by Henri Desfontaines and starring René Navarre as Chantecoq, Bernède's fictional detective who captures the phantom with the aid of his daughter Collette, and Elmire Vautier as the villainous Belphégor. The film also featured Lucien Dalsace, Michèle Verly (as Colette) and Genica Messirio. Critic Troy Howarth writes that the plot of both the novel and the film was inspired by earlier French serials such as Fantomas (1913), Les Vampires (1915) and Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922).