The movie is often noted for its opening sequence: after showing the birthplace of Talleyrand as it became in then-contemporary 1948 Paris, it moves to a bookstore window showcasing his main biographies, including a copy of Guitry's own Le Diable boiteux that creates a mise en abyme.

He then leveraged the fact that his play had received success and caused no trouble to re-submit his script to the Board, who granted its license though "without any good grace".

It has since been released (dubbed or subtitled) into at least 5 other languages, being alphabetically: English (The Lame Devil), Finnish (Rampa paholainen), Greek (Pringips talleyrandos), Italian (Il diavolo zoppo), and Portuguese (Um Homem Diabólico).

[4] Because Guitry didn't stop writing and playing during the Nazi occupation of France, he had been accused of collaboration with the enemy and imprisoned two months in 1944 by a self-appointed militia; released by the new government and fully discharged in 1947, he had expressed regret at the absence of a formal trial.

Various later reviews have discussed that aspect of the movie, from TV listings magazine Télérama (1978)[4] to author Noël Simsolo [fr] in Cahiers du cinéma (1988),[4] long after the events.