Baccara

Not really a film noir,but a pleasant comedy inspired by the Stavisky affair ,which Alain Resnais adapted for the screen in 1974.

A rich banker is actually a crook .His mistress,an alien ,wants to become French and the only way is to marry a French,a man of straw .One of her friends ,a lawyer ,finds the man in a million:A gambler ,short of the readies .When the con man runs away ,his lover is in big trouble and she 's arrested ,accused of being an accessory to theft ,by attracting men in the banker's desirable mansion .Her "husband" who has fallen in love with her ("I wish she were ugly!") comes to her rescue ,and when everybody turns his back on her ,he forces the cowardly lawyer to defend her .

Jules Berry is irresistible as the husband of a marriage of convenience and he gets good support for Marcelle Chantal ,Lucien Baroux and Marcel André.The trial is a good moment ,half farce half drama.