With his faithful companion Bertrand, Robert Macaire prowls the highways of 1820s France, robbing rich landowners and gullible farmers alike, but also finding time to rescue and woo a damsel in distress who turns out to be the daughter of a marquis. Thus begins the first of five adventures that span several years in the life of Epstein’s roguish antihero. The film, Epstein’s longest, stands as a salute to the serials of French cinema in the 1910s, especially those by Feuillade. Henri Langlois, legendary founder of the Cinémathèque Française and a fervent champion of Epstein, regarded Robert Macaire as an overlooked masterpiece that captured the spirit of 19th-century romanticism.