This is a wonderful, complicated, extremely intelligent movie. I cannot even begin to understand why it is not much more highly rated by IMDb voters. It depicts the true story of an embezzler named Alexandre Stavisky, a charming but mostly unscrupulous swindler who was able to get away with his financial fraud for a long time because he had bribed and corrupted high French government officials. Law enforcement agents from different branches of the government eventually go after him, but the agenda of some of these branches and their agents is sinister. The main characters are shown in all their complexity, virtues as well as vices. The acting and dialogue and cinematography are all first-rate.