Le Roman d’un tricheur (1936) - film review

The story of the cheat begins and ends with personal misfortune.  When he was a young boy, our hero was caught stealing money from the family shop.  As a punishment, he was not allowed to join his family on their picnic.  They ate mushrooms and died of food poisoning, he survived and was placed in the care of his unscrupulous aunt and uncle, who intended to rob him of his inheritance.  Years later, our hero ends up as a croupier in a casino at Morocco.  There, he is about to embark at what looks like being a very lucrative career – as a professional cheat.

Regarded as one of Sacha Guitry’s best films, Le Roman d’un tricheur is a hugely entertaining comedy, featuring some unforgettable visual comic gags.  Having no dialogue, the film is perhaps best described a silent film with voice-over commentary, in which the film’s central character (the cheat, played by Guitry himself) narrates the story of his life.

One of the director’s lighter works, Guitry made the film as a welcome diversion from his more traditional (and very demanding) theatrical pieces.  The film has an auto-biographical element, with Guitry painting himself in the role of the cheat, whose up and down fortunes in the film reflect the successes and failures in his own life.

© James Travers 2002

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