Confessions of a Cheat
| Confessions of a Cheat | |
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| Directed by | Sacha Guitry |
| Produced by | Serge Sandberg |
| Written by | Sacha Guitry |
| Starring | Sacha Guitry |
| Narrated by | Sacha Guitry |
| Music by | Adolphe Borchard |
| Cinematography | Marcel Lucien |
| Edited by | Myriam Borsoutsky |
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Production
company |
Films Sonores Tobis; Cinéas
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| Distributed by | Gaumont (2007) |
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Release date
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Running time
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81 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Le Roman d'un tricheur (sometimes known in English as The Story of a Cheat, but also as Confessions of a Cheat, The Story of a Trickster, or The Cheat) is a 1936 film starring, written and directed by Sacha Guitry. It was adapted from Guitry's only novel, Les Mémoires d'un tricheur, published in 1935.
The 54-year-old Cheat writes his memoirs in a café. As the age of 12, he is caught stealing money from the family grocery shop. As punishment, he is not allowed to enjoy a treat with the rest of the family: mushrooms which turn out to be poisonous. His parents, siblings, uncle and grandparents all die. His mother's unscrupulous cousin takes charge of him, and uses his inheritance for his own benefit. Thus, it appears to the youngster that dishonesty pays.
He runs away and works at various jobs, such as doorman and hotel bellhop. In Paris, he is unwillingly drawn into a plot to assassinate the visiting Czar Nicholas II of Russia by fellow restaurant worker Serge Abramich. However, an anonymous letter (which the Cheat implies he wrote) leads to the arrest of Abramich and the other plotters.
As an elevator operator in the Hotel de Paris in Monaco, the Cheat catches the eye of the much older Countess. They have a brief fling. (By chance, they meet again in the present at the café, though the now elderly Countess does not recognize her former paramour, much to his relief.)
After a stint in the army, the Cheat decides to take up a profession that rewards honesty: croupier in a casino in Monaco. However, he is taken back into the French Army at the start of World War I. He is wounded almost immediately, but is rescued by Charbonnier, a fellow soldier who loses his right arm as a result. The army loses track of the Cheat, allowing him to spend the war reading books.
Once more a civilian, he is picked up by a beautiful woman in a restaurant. After spending the night together, she confesses that she is a professional thief. She enlists him in robbing a jeweler of a ring through trickery. Though they are successful, he slips away afterward and returns to work as a croupier.
An attractive regular at his roulette wheel believes he can control where the ball falls. Indeed, over the next few days, she wins consistently. They become partners; to ensure he will get his share of the winnings, he gets her to agree to a marriage of convenience. However, she loses all of the money she had won before; all of the other gamblers win so much, he is fired, ironically for being unable to cheat. The couple quickly obtain a divorce.
He then becomes a professional card cheat. One day, while in disguise, he spots two women from his past, his former wife and the Jewel Thief together at a gambling table, evidently friends. He gallantly invites them to share half his bet, but only if he wins. He does, and they accept his dinner invitation. Both indicate they are willing to go to bed with him, still unaware of his true identity; he chooses his ex-wife because he had not slept with her before.
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