The Lovable Cheat

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Movie
Original title The Lovable Cheat
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1949
length 75 minutes
Rod
Director Richard Oswald
script Edward Lewis
production Richard Oswald
Edward Lewis
music Karl Hajos
camera Paul Ivano
cut Wolfgang Loë-Bagier
occupation

The Lovable Cheat is an American feature film and Richard Oswald's last theatrical production. The film was shot one hundred years after the original Honoré de Balzac's Mercadet le faiseur (1840) appeared (1948) . Charles Ruggles plays the main role of a rascal and deceitful family man.

action

Paris, around the year 1860. The upper-class Claude Mercadet resides with his wife Pauline and their daughter Julie in a noble house on the Bois de Boulogne . He was once one of the richest men in town, but a series of scams has left him in a financial vortex. Even the noble house is much more apparent than it is, and the bailiff and his creditors have long been sitting on his neck. Their names are Pierquin, Goulard and Violette, and they threaten, if he does not pay his debts to the nearest penny, that they will see to it that he will wear striped clothes soon. Claude is a master at belittling and calming down. He reassures his wife by saying that he is hoping for a great gift from Count de la Brive, who is very interested in marrying Julie. By the way, the Comte, not exactly a stately figure, is at least one of the richest men in Paris ...

Claude instructs his servant Justin to not only invite the Count to an upcoming reception, but also all his believers. Existing money should meet monetary claims, since it must be entirely in the interests of the creditors that Julie's marriage to Count de la Brive should also be carried out. Claude therefore even hopes that the creditors will share in the costs of the receipt. When the party is about to start, the maid Thérèse is asked to ensnare the bailiff who has also been invited. Claude uses the opportunity to make it clear to the unsuspecting Julie that the Mercadet family is more than just broke and that he hopes that she will marry the little count so that everyone will find themselves financially healthy. Julie definitely wants to get married, but in view of the count's puny appearance, she quickly loses her interest in it. De la Brive brings one of the creditors, Monsieur Goulard, to the reception. He wants to see money immediately. Claude puts Goulard off for another time and can even steal another 500 francs from him, with the promise of a generous repayment after the marriage. With this money, Mercadet first reassures those creditors who wait with him in the kitchen and do not let themselves be wrapped around their fingers.

But now Julie shoots across. She makes it clear to her father that she does not want to attend the reception. Because she fell in love with someone else, and he looks a lot better. The young man is a certain Jacques Minard who is employed by a bank. Claude promptly believes that this man must be a greyhound who could only target Julie for a non-existent fortune. In order to dissuade him from such thoughts, old Mercadet makes it clear to the young man that there is absolutely nothing to be had in this family. To Monsieur Mercadet's astonishment, the young Minard doesn't care at all about this; he wants to marry Julie one way or another. Claude goes up to the thesis that Julie will age prematurely in the expected, poverty-ridden marriage to him, Jacques. This silly argument catches on with Minard, and he is ready to let the unloved but wealthy Count go first with Julie. When Julie learns of Jacques change of heart, she also believes that the only reason he doesn't want to marry her is because she is poor.

Enter Comte de la Brive. He brags about his fortune to Julie and pretends to have feelings for her. Claude puts the count to the test and asks if he has any debts. He replies that there is only a small amount. De la Brive does his own research at the reception and has to discover that there is a “cuckoo” stuck to just about every piece of furniture Mercadets. Now the bailiff appears and says that he would also stop by the count tomorrow. The Graf and Mercadet are perplexed: Obviously, both of them believed the other was rich and wanted to cheat the other with one and the same trick. In order not to lose face, the farce of an upcoming marriage in the house of Mercadet with de la Brive is maintained in front of the creditors present. To make matters worse, the count and his upper-class counterpart also have to discover that both of them even have a common believer in Pierquin. Under no circumstances is he allowed to attend the reception, and so servant Justin is instructed not to let him in.

When Pierquin and his wife drives up, Justin pretends to both of them that she was wrong in the house number in the hope of getting rid of the Pierquins. Then the servant slams the front door in their face. But the main believer is not that easy to get rid of. Pierquin climbs into the luxurious property through an open window. Above all, Pierquin explains that the allegedly rich count is an outright swindler, whereupon all other creditors want their loaned money back immediately. Since the Comte and Mercadet are not able to pay, a prison car is immediately called for the two bankrupts. Before having to wander behind the Swedish curtains, de la Brive and Mercadet devise a new plan to appease the creditors. The Comte disguises himself as his former business partner Godeau and, "just arrived from America", knocks on the front door, allegedly with a lot of money in his pockets. Before de la Brive alias Godeau can pull off his smear comedy, Monsieur Mercadet has already landed in the prison car. Meanwhile, Minard reconciles with Julie and explains why he wanted to refrain from marrying. Then he makes it clear to the creditors that he wants to pay for the debts of his future father-in-law.

The wrong Godeau now drives up and is announced by servant Justin. The believers who fail to see through the ruse are delighted. But plagued by a guilty conscience, Mercadet screwed up the count's greasy comedy and explained to the others that Godeau was only the bankrupt Count de la Brive. Claude's wife Pauline, Jacques and Julie intervene and claim that Godeau is really who he claims to be. Claude now finally causes confusion and confesses that he invented the game in the game and that his family is right with their claim. Then finally Monsieur Mercadet received a message from the real Godeau and he promised every believer that everyone would get his full sum back by tomorrow. In gratitude that de la Brive played in this charade, Mercadet gave him some money. Now, for the first time, Mercadet himself has become a believer, and nothing stands in the way of his daughter's happiness with the young bank clerk.

Production notes

The Lovable Cheat was implemented by a very small production company in January 1949, presented at a preview on March 18, 1949, and premiered on May 11, 1949. In Germany, the film was only shown as part of a retrospective dedicated to German film emigrants during the 1983 Berlinale . There has never been a public performance or a broadcast of a dubbed version on German television.

Boris Leven designed the buildings, Gerd Oswald assisted his 68-year-old father Richard during the shooting.

Reviews

Oswald's cinematic swan song met with little approval from the critics. Below are two examples:

The journal Variety found the film "a boring, old-fashioned piece, crammed with a lot of talk and little entertainment" and judged that even Charles Ruggles could make it "no more than just passable". In addition, the actors would "give the story no boost". After all, the film has a "slow pace" and makes even the short 76 minutes seem very long.

The Movie & Video Guide said that the elegant film was "more interesting because of the interesting cast", otherwise "quite strange".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Variety , March 23, 1949 issue
  2. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 783