The Lovable Cheat is a 1949 American historical comedy film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Charles Ruggles, Peggy Ann Garner and Richard Ney. It is based on the 1848 play Mercadet Le Faiseur by Honoré de Balzac. It was the final film of the veteran Austrian director Oswald, who had fled into exile following the Nazi rise to power. Buster Keaton played a small supporting role in the film, as his career had seriously declined by this stage.