Judex was released on December 4, 1963, in
France. A critic from ''
L'Express wrote that the film was "pure entertainment, pure charm, a total success", while another from Les Nouvelles littéraires'' called the film's pacing "lazy" and the film direction "nonchalant, not to say laborious".
Time also wrote a positive review stating that "
Judex has too much low-key charm and seriousness to be wildly funny, but director Franju seems content to woo a minority taste".
The New York Times wrote a negative review, stating that
Judex "suffers from several afflictions, one of which is ambiguity. It is hard to tell whether Georges Franju, who made it, wants us to laugh at it or take it seriously".
Retrospectives Modern reception has been generally positive.
Jonathan Rosenbaum of the
Chicago Reader wrote that
Judex was "one of the better features of [Franju's] middle period".
Time Out wrote that the film is "superbly elegant" and an "enjoyable tribute to the adventure fantasies of
Louis Feuillade". Contemporary reviewers have noted the lack of screen time for Judex, the film's titular figure. His character also comes into question: while he acts as the self-appointed judge, trying to bring justice to those who have been swindled, his initial plan to murder Favraux for stealing other people's money strongly suggests a violent vigilante inclination. Judex's only true talents appear to be a handsome appearance and assorted magic tricks. Even his attempt to subdue Diana ultimately fails as he is taken hostage by one of her henchmen, leaving the task of taking down the female villain to another woman. Franju's most directed dispensing of juvenilia comes in his treatment of Judex, whose screen time is considerably lesser than either Jacqueline or Diana. Even during the denouement, it's not Judex that battles Diana, but Daisy, whose good-versus-evil fisticuffs are literalized by their diverging black-and-white attire, though Franju suitably plays the confrontation muted—nearly silent—with only ambient noises and faint strings accompanying the fight. Franju repeatedly shirks any such reveling in violent confrontation, refusing to aestheticize revenge-as-pleasure. Franju, then, stands in contrast to Judex, whose proclivity for torturous lairs, odd technologies, obfuscating theatrics, and anonymous henchmen aligns his preoccupations more with the young boy (Benjamin Boda), whose fascinations and mimetic interests while accompanying Cocantin suggest innocence, but also impotence from adult life. Judex, whose only charms appear to be literal magic tricks and a strong jawline, is a child's eroticized fantasy of masculinity, posturing behind a disguise rather than cultivating a discernible, singular self. The boy, however, is capable of grief, as he mournfully stands over Diana's body, following her tangle with Daisy. Judex is afforded no such display of emotion, since his pleasures derive not from empathy, but self-aggrandizement—much like Favraux, ironically imprisoned for crimes that Judex, on a similarly ideological level, is likewise guilty. File:Roof_top_struggle_from_the_1963_film_Judex.jpg|thumb|250px|right|In the film's climatic fight scene, brunette Diana and blonde Daisy's, "good-versus-evil fisticuffs are literalized by their diverging black-and-white attire". Emphasizing the sexuality of the fight and highlighting Franchu's dark vs light, good vs evil theme that runs throughout the film, Daisy, like Diana, is also attired in a form fitting outfit but, in her case it is a skintight, white circus costume. If witnessing the woman vs woman fight-to-the-finish was not sufficiently enticing to the audience, Franju takes the opportunity to lower the camera and offer "...a gleefully sexy and exciting shot showing only their legs, clad in leotards of contrasting black and white, entwining and tangling in the dance of combat". While Franju attempted to stay close to the original Judex, the rooftop fight between Diana and Daisy, a stylized battle between good (blond and dressed in white) and evil (brunette, dressed in black), fought in near-silence, is not found in the original
Judex serial. ==Home media==