Details

Release year: 1961

Storyline

A poor but proud French teacher gets fired after refusing to modify the grades of a rich student. As this could be the opportunity to exploit his honesty, Castel Benac hires Topaze as a managing director for a shady business.

Top credits

Directors

Peter Sellers

Writers

Cast

Peter Sellers — Auguste Topaze
Nadia Gray — Suzy Courtois
Herbert Lom — Castel Benac
Leo McKern — Muche

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Did you know

• Peter Sellers was believed to have had all copies of this film taken out of public domain and destroyed. This was untrue, fortunately, although it was, for many years, extremely difficult to find prints of the film, even very degraded ones in which the color had all but vanished. Well over half a century after it was made, a restored version of the film appeared on DVD.

• The British Film Institute has the only known copy of this film. It has been restored and digitized, and is now available online for viewing (for the first time in decades) through the bfi.org.uk website.

• Although it was made at the height of Peter Sellers's popularity, and had great publicity as a result of his also directing it, this was a considerable critical and financial failure - so much so that advertising took the extraordinary step of citing derogatory critical notices as well as favorable ones and suggesting that audiences might like to make up their own minds. A similar controversy attended the opening of the first London production of the original play, which took place in 1933 - Raymond Massey, who played Sellers's role of Topaze in it, reports in his autobiography that the first act was met with rapturous applause and even a standing ovation, the second act by markedly more reserved applause, and the end of the play with virtually no applause at all and audible audience hostility.