''A Fake Diamond Swindler'' (french: L'Habit ne fait pas Lemoine ou Fabricant de diamants) was a 1908 French silent comedy film directed by Georges Méliès.

Plot

fraudster In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compensa ...

is at work in his laboratory, where he pretends to make

synthetic diamond Lab-grown diamond (LGD; also called laboratory-grown, laboratory-created, man-made, artisan-created, artificial, synthetic, or cultured diamond) is diamond that is produced in a controlled technological process (in contrast to naturally formed ...

s. He is visited by numerous angry customers who have discovered the deception, as well as by the president of a South African diamond mining company, who watches the fraudster at work and is presented with a diamond

tie pin A tie pin (or tiepin, also known as a stick pin/stickpin) is a neckwear-controlling device, originally worn by wealthy English gentlemen to secure the folds of their cravats. History 19th century Tie pins were first popularized at the begi ...

for his cravat. Policemen carry the fraudster off to

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal ...

, but during the mayhem of the court case, he upends his opponents and escapes through a window. A chase ensues before the fake diamond swindler is finally caught and imprisoned..

Production and release

As the film historian

Georges Sadoul Georges Sadoul (4 February 1904 – 13 October 1967) was a French film critic, journalist and cinema writer. He is known for writing encyclopedias of film and filmmakers, many of which have been translated into English. Biography Sadoul was ...

noted, the film parodies the career of Henri Lemoine, an engineer who had conned the diamond merchant De Beers into believing he had invented a process for making synthetic diamonds. ''A Fake Diamond Swindler'' was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 1116–1123 in its catalogues, where it was advertised as a ''vue d'actualité satirique''. The film is currently presumed

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

References

External links

* Films directed by Georges Méliès French silent short films 1908 films Lost French films 1908 comedy films French comedy short films French black-and-white films 1908 lost films Lost comedy films 1908 short films Silent comedy films 1900s French films {{1900s-France-film-stub