The Story of a Cheat (1936) Le roman d'un tricheur (original title)

Director:

Sacha Guitry

Writer:

Sacha Guitry (written by)

Release Date:

26 September 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Life story of a charming scoundrel, with little dialogue other than the star/director's witty narration...

Plot Keywords:

Dishonesty | Poisonous Mushroom | Honesty | Title Appears In Writing | Credits Spoken

Cast

Sacha Guitry	...	Le tricheur / The Cheat (mature)
Marguerite Moreno	...	L'aventurière / The Countess
Jacqueline Delubac	...	Henriette
Roger Duchesne	...	Serge Abramovich
Rosine Deréan	...	La voleuse / The Jewel Thief
Elmire Vautier	...	L'aventuriere, jeune fille / The Countess (younger)
Serge Grave	...	Le tricheur, petit garçon / The Cheat, as a boy
Pauline Carton	...	Mme Morlot - la tante
Fréhel	...	La chanteuse / Redhead (singer)
Pierre Labry	...	M. Morlot
Pierre Assy	...	Le trichur, jeune homme / The Cheat (young man)
Henri Pfeifer	...	M. Charbonnier
Gaston Dupray	...	Le garçon de café / Waiter

Directed by
Sacha Guitry

Writing credits
Sacha Guitry		(written by)

Produced by
Serge Sandberg	....	producer

Original Music by
Adolphe Borchard

Cinematography by
Marcel Lucien

Film Editing by
Myriam Borsoutsky		(as Myriam)

Art Direction by
Henri Ménessier

Set Decoration by
Mailleray

Sound Department
Paul Duvergé	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Raymond Clunie	....	assistant camera

Music Department
Georges Derveaux	....	conductor (as M.G. Derveaux)
Ginette Martenot	....	musician: ondes martenot (as Martenot)
Orchestre Pasdeloup	....	orchestra

Production Companies

• Cinéas

Distributors

• Films Sonores Tobis (1936) (France) (theatrical)
• Gaumont (2007) (France) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Gaumont DVD (2007) (France) (DVD) (remastered)
• Gallic Films (1938) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Orbis-Filmverleih (1937) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (2010) (USA) (DVD) (box-set)
• Kinokuniya (2008) (Japan) (DVD)

Other Companies

• La Victorine  studio (uncredited)

Also Known As:

"Le roman d'un tricheur" - France (original title)
"Confessions of a Cheat" - International (English title)

Runtime:

France:81 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Filming Locations:

Monte Carlo, Monaco

Company:

Cinéas

Soundtrack:

Et v'là pourquoi

This felt like a light comedy...without much comedy.

This is not my Sacha Guitry film and I know that back in the 1930s he was a sort of auteur--directing, writing and starring in a bunch of light comedies. So, I can compare this film to several of his others and see it comes up very short. The bottom line is that the film starts off with great promise but never really pays off--and at the end it just sort of fizzles.

"The Story of a Cheat" begins with Guitry sitting at an outdoor café and writing his memoirs. This ruse is used to enable him to narrate his life story for the audience. It starts off exceptionally well--with Guitry learning a lesson when very young that being bad pays off very well! This sort of tongue-in-cheek look at evil would have been great but the film never sustained this. Instead of being a true cheat, the leading man vacillated back and forth and there was never any sort of payoff for the audience. And, instead of the ending making sense of all this, it left me very cold. A clear misfire--mostly because the script needed work. Making the leading man a complete scoundrel would have improved it immensely--such as the way Terry-Thomas behaved in a few of his films such as "School for Scoundrels" or "Too Many Crooks".