Topaze

Topaze, a scrupulously honest teacher, is fired from his job at a boys' school when he refuses to lie about a student's conduct in order to please the boy's mother, La Baronne Pitart-Vergnolles. That day he goes to the house of Suzy Courtois in order to tutor her son. There he meets Suzy's lover, Régis Castel-Bénac, a crooked businessman and politician, who is scheming with Suzy to sell trash-trucks to the city at inflated prices. Régis' ersatz company needs a director to sign the documents, and he decides to give the innocent and out-of-work Topaze the job. Topaze receives 5,200 frances for his signature and takes his new profession as a businessman very seriously. When Topaze learns that he has been duped, however, he confronts Suzy and accuses her of being dishonest. Suzy seductively convinces Topaze that being widowed she was forced to take up with Régis, and that he must stay by her side to protect her until they can decide what to do. She also instructs him to put on a contented face in front of Régis, something the honest Topaze has trouble promising. Topaze continues to sign the documents, and eventually, to his surprise, the streets are filled with trash-trucks emblazoned with the sign "Système Topaze." He enters Régis' office one day and sees his name on the door and finds three lazy, cigarette-smoking secretaries who ask him if they can move in a piano. Later, he overhears Suzy tell Régis that she thinks Topaze is a ninny. When Topaze confronts her, she tells him to be quiet as he is rich, but he confesses that he only stayed in the business because he loves her. Eventually, the crooked practices of Régis are exposed in the newspapers, and Topaze is implicated. Régis arrives at the office, however, and pays off the newspapers as well as the department of public conscience, to stop the investigation. Topaze's former boss, the school's director, arrives and offers Topaze the presidency of the school, which he refuses. Moments later, the director's daughter, who had earlier scorned Topaze's proposal of marriage, arrives to say that she misses him, but he informs her curtly that he is no longer interested. Régis now wants to get rid of Topaze, but the innocent school teacher has decided that perhaps the life of a rich and crooked businessman is not so bad after all. He has his old-fashioned beard cut and gets a chic new suit of clothes. When he arrives two hours late for a meeting with Suzy and Régis, he fires Régis and tells Suzy that they will set up a farm in Morocco with all their money. The business partners then seal the pact with a kiss.