Pierre Rouve

British author John Mortimer is best known to television audiences as the creator of Rumpole of the Bailey, the British comedy-drama popular with PBS viewers and starring Leo McKern as an aging barrister fighting the good fight in court but henpecked at home. This 1962 film, Trial and Error, is also based on a Mortimer story and also deals with the decidedly unglamorous lives of people shackled to an imperfect legal system. (Amazon.com)

John Sawyer, once an eminent barrister, has slid into a life of cynicism and drunkenness since his wife left him. When his daughter's boyfriend is accused of murder, Sawyer decides to try to pull himself together and defend him in court. (imdb)

Mr. Topaze ('Peter Sellers' ) is an unassuming school teacher in an unassuming small French town who is honest to a fault. He is fired when he refuses to give a passing grade to a bad student, the grandson of a wealthy baroness. Castel Benac (Herbert Lom), a government official who runs a crooked financial business on the side, is persuaded by his mistress, Suzy (Nadia Gray), a musical comedy actress, to hire Mr. Topaze as the front man for his business. (imdb)