is a 1924 short French silent comedy horror film, directed by Abel Gance[2] and starring Max Linder.
[3] Max Linder, depressed since his service in World War I, had earlier entered into a suicide pact with his younger wife in 1924, the year after they were married, but the attempt failed and the event was hushed up.
Their second attempt succeeded however in 1925, and the pair succumbed to an overdose of poison and blood loss from slitting their wrists, leaving behind a very young daughter Maud.
Finally, just as he is about to win the bet, the phone rings and Max is told that his wife back home is being threatened by an intruder.
Critic Christopher Workman writes the film's "horrific incidents.....none of it particularly funny or scary, employ props, techniques and effects that were already old hat in 1924 --- fast motion, slow motion, wire work, superimpositions, stunt doubles on trampolines, men in ghost and skeleton costumes, a man on stilts, etc....".