Le Guignolo

Alexandre Dupré is a charming French swindler who has just been released from prison, in part because he promised to find honest work. Instead he returns to schemes, targeting wealthy people, and boards a ship full of millionaires in the guise of a sailor. There he sets his sights on a beautiful young widow, only to discover she runs the same kind of game he does, and the two join forces. A trip to Venice draws him into a web of industrial espionage: a stranger hands him a briefcase, and when that man is killed, Alexandre finds himself hunted by police, intelligence services and criminals who all want the case and its contents.

Georges Lautner directed this action comedy, released in March 1980, from a screenplay by Michel Audiard and Jean Herman. It came between Death of a Corrupt Man and The Professional among the director's features. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Alexandre, and does double duty as the character's invented nobleman, the Vicomte de Valombreuse. Mirella D'Angelo, Michel Galabru, Carla Romanelli, Paolo Bonacelli and Georges Géret fill the principal supporting roles, in a credited cast of twenty-nine. Alain Poiré produced, and the film was a French and Italian co-production.

Audience response on IMDb sits at 5.9 out of 10 across roughly 2,800 votes, while on TMDB it averages 6.1 from about 179 ratings, placing it as modestly regarded popular entertainment from its star's busy period rather than a standout of the Lautner-Belmondo run.