Mr. Topaze

Mr. Topaze (aka I Like Money) was Peter Sellers's directorial debut in 1961. Starring Sellers and Leo McKern as well as Herbet Lom who quarreled with Seller's Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies. The film is an adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's Topaze and a remake of the 1931 film.

The film is considered one of Seller's lost films, and its distribution and screening today is virtually non-existent.

Plot

Mr. Topaze (Peter Sellers) is an unassuming school teacher in an unassuming small French town who is honest to a fault. He is fired when he refuses to give a passing grade to a bad student, the grandson of a wealthy Baroness (Martita Hunt). Castel Benac (Herbert Lom), a government official who runs a crooked financial business on the side, is persuaded by his mistress, Suzy (Nadia Gray), a musical comedy actress, to hire Mr. Topaze as the front man for his business. Gradually, Topaze becomes a rapacious financier who sacrifices his honesty for success and, in a final stroke of business bravado, fires Benac and acquires Suzy in the deal. An old friend and colleague, Tamise (Michael Gough) questions him and tells Topaze that what he now says and practices indicates there are no more honest men.