"In Guitry's The Story of a Cheat (1936), the narrator provided a cynical and witty counterpoint to the action. This approach, to which Guitry returned in Lovers and Thieves, permitted him to treat the film medium with nonchalant intimacy-there are freakish interruptions, changes of subject and pace....The enchantingly stylish murder victim of Lovers and Thieves loathes her husband so much that she and her lover make love all over Paris, so that everyone will know the husband is a cuckold. The lover, who is also the narrator, inadvertently commits a murder for which an innocent thief is sent to prison; conscience-stricken, the lover takes over the occupation of the thief. But all this is only the loose framework; Guitry makes a sortie into a great loony bin, provides an exquisitely audacious painting theft, and stops everything while a mad beatnik addresses a courtroom. This comedy deserves a place in the great shaggy category, alongside Beat the Devil..."-Pauline Kael