Startime

A comedy about sophisticated international rogue Fred Cortin, who has devoted a lifetime to the study and practice of imaginative confidence games. When he encounters his divorced, wealthy daughter, Edith Brooks, on the French Riviera, he devises a plan to protect her from a rash of unwanted suitors by creating a husband for her who doesn't exist. As the moneyed international set in Monaco and along the Riviera--led by Emerald Dane--tends to its fun and games, Cortin sets about achieving his greatest deception. He manages to dupe all the Riviera's social elite--including Edith's leading suitor Robert--into believing that his daughter is a countess, married to the ""very jealous, international explorer and adventurer"" Count Arthur de Ghuye. Cortin becomes obsessed with his creation, however, with disastrous results.