France, immediately after the French Revolution. To win the
respect of others, an Italian nobleman, Marmant, adopts an English
hermit, Horace Walop, to the delight of his wife
Tolérance. As Horace acquires a taste for high living and
good food in Marmant's luxurious château, his benefactress is
easily seduced by the spiritual sustenance that he offers her.
Never one to do things by halves, Marmant sets about transforming his
protégé into a full-blown dandy.
American film comedy had its heyday in the 1920s and '30s, but it remains an important genre and has given American cinema some of its enduring classics.