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Mort en Fraude (aka Fraudulent Death and Fugitive in Saigon) was co-adapted by Jean Hougron from his own novel. The inward-looking plotline deals with France's Indochina debacle of 1950. Agreeing to smuggle a package into Saigon, apolitical Frenchman Horcier (Daniel Gelin) is waylaid and robbed by smugglers. Only when he is left broke and vulnerable in the middle of this Southeast Asian French colony does Horcier realize to what extent the Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians have been victimized by the West. Forgetting his own problems, he casts his lots with the insurrectionists. Mort en Fraude was the directorial debut of Marcel Camus, who was elevated to international fame with his next venture, Black Orpheus.