Le Roman d’un tricheur (aka The Story of a Cheat, and Confessions of a Cheat, The Story of a Trickster, or The Cheat) is Sacha Guitry’s masterpiece, one which he wrote, directed and acted in. Witty, impudent, morally subversive, it was adapted from his only novel, Les Mémoires d’un tricheur, published in 1935.
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Cheat, a man of 54, writes his memoirs in a café. At 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 then abuses him by taking his inheritance for his own benefit.
The Cheat 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 Russian Czar by fellow restaurant worker Serge Abramich. However, an anonymous letter (which the Cheat implies he wrote) leads to the arrest of Abramich.
As an elevator operator in a Monaco hotel, 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 becomes a croupier in a Monaco casino. However, he is taken back into the French Army at the start of World War I. Wounded almost immediately, he 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 to be a professional thief. She enlists him in robbing a jeweler of a ring through trickery. They succeed, and he 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, he agrees to a marriage of convenience. However, she loses all the money. Meanwhile, the other gamblers win so much that he is fired, ironically for being unable to cheat.
After a divorce, he becomes a professional card cheat. While in disguise, he spots two women from his past, his former wife and the Jewel Thief at gambling table. He gallantly invites them to share half his bet, but only if he wins. Both are willing to go to bed with him, unaware of his identity; he chooses his ex-wife because he had not slept with her before.
Later, he cheats Charbonnier at baccarat before he recognizes his benefactor. Fortunately, they tie, but he is filled with shame and quits cheating. Charbonnier, having unwittingly cured the Cheat, infects him with another vice, gambling. The Cheat loses all of the ill-gotten gains of years in several months.
Returning to the present, the Countess recognizes her former lover and tries to recruit him to rob the house across the street. The Cheat declines, explaining first that it was his former home and that he has taken an honest as a security officer.
Most of the film takes place in flashback, with a voiceover narration by Guitry (in his role as the Cheat); he also speaks the other actors’ dialogue.
Guitry also used the spoken word to present the actors and technicians as they are introduced on-camera at the start of the film, instead of the conventional printed credits.
Upon its release in France, the film met with a mixed reception, but it maintained a positive reputation among critics. In 2008, it was included in Cahiers du Cinéma‘s list of the 100 most important films.
The film enjoyed significant success when released in the UK and USA, with critics agreeing that only a man of Guitry’s impudence could have succeeded in making The Story of a Cheat such a clever picture,
Cast
Sacha Guitry as The Cheat (as an old man)
Marguerite Moreno as The Countess (as an old woman)
Jacqueline Delubac as Henriette, the Cheat’s wife
Roger Duchesne as Serge Abramich
Rosine Deréan as The Jewel Thief
Elmire Vautier as The Countess (as a younger woman)
Serge Grave as The Cheat (as a boy)
Pauline Carton as Madame Moriot, the cousin’s wife
Fréhel as The Singer
Pierre Labry as Cousin Moriot
Pierre Assy as The Cheat (as a young man)
Henri Pfeifer as Monsieur Charbonnier
Gaston Dupray as Waiter
Credits:
Directed, written by Sacha Guitry
Produced by Serge Sandberg
Narrated by Sacha Guitry
Cinematography Marcel Lucien
Edited by Myriam Borsoutsky
Music by Adolphe Borchard
Production companies: Films Sonores Tobis; Cinéas
Release date: September 19, 1936
Running time: 81 minutes
