La figlia del diavolo

I join the other reviewers that perfectly appreciated highly this forgotten gem, and there are so many in French cinema History foculazing on official masterpieces (by Carné, Clouzot, Duvivier, Renoir,...). Although there are two of the best actors from that period, Pierre Fresnay of course (he was everywhere) and the excellent tough Fernand Ledoux, having a no mercy psychological dual. With a mysterious very young woman played by intriguing Andrée Clément. Decoin is the famous director who gave us so many brilliant films noirs (my favorite being Non Coupable and les Amants du Pont Saint Jean, both with Michel Simon).

The action doesn't take place in province, as a reviewer wrote, but in a charming town not far from Versailles. The director of photography lived in that area and often shot around (les Diaboliques).

Please, French editors, when shall we see this title on digital disc? There are some excellent documents from the 40's relating the Shooting for some great bonus.

Saw this enjoyable French thriller on TV.Although the plot is nothing new, it is presented in the charming way that only French can do.Nice dialogs, very good acting.Director Decoin is famous for those B type French films which excitingly reveal the life in French province. The beginning with escape scenes and car crash are a bit naive, but after that film develops quickly. Camera work, in black and white, with interior scenes is a jewel. Reminds of other French master movie makers. The lighting, the contrasts are exquisite.Actor Perre Fresnay is convincing in the title role of bad guy.This film shows what can be done with simple story that still glues one to the screen without having special effects, car chases and the usual high noise effects that Hollywood is bombarding us nowadays.

Although his reputation is not as known as theirs , Henry Decoin was ,along Julien Duvivier and Henri- Georges Clouzot ,one of the most influential forces in the film noir field:"les inconnus dans la maison" ,"le bienfaiteur" "l'homme de Londres" "non coupable" "les amants du pont-saint-jean", "les amoureux sont seuls au monde " "la vérité sur bébé donge" are all unqualified musts for anyone interested in the old French thriller.

"La fille du diable" bears a distant resemblance to earlier "le bienfaiteur" ,but ,in my book , it surpasses the former work.

Fernand Ledoux 's and Pierre Fresnay's cat and mouse play is at once funny and tragic ;good guy and baddie nohow : because he knows that Saget is a gangster who did not make his fortune in America ,the doctor exerts a "moral" blackmail on him : the way he forces him to pay the invoice for the church bell, the radiotherapy center and the stadium (which will prevent the youth from going hoodlums) is absolutely stunning ,and both actors are at the top of their game ; the baffled gangster tries to strike back ,discovering that two women were some kind of guinea-pigs and that his purpose is more to be inducted in the Academy of Medecine than to help his fellow men .

In the village where the action takes place, hypocrisy , scheming and false generosity reign ; the former gangster has a grown up kid side to him, and his auntie( excellent Therese Dorny) still treats him like a child ; his fortune being used to help the public good, he's relegated to sell fishing rods in her store .

Gangster Saget has a chip on his shoulder ,he doesn't like to be liked and he likes nobody ;he will meet his female counterpart in the shape of an outcast girl ,Isabelle,whose father hung himself,after being (perhaps unfairly) accused of embezzlement .With a rebellious teenager in tow, armed up with a slingshot ,they shoot at everything on this village that denies them a place .Isabelle reigns over a bunch of underdogs ,fascinated by her noir personality, but who let her down as soon as she asks them to spoil the chatelaine's fete .An extremely ambiguous character ,she longs for tenderness in her dark room :because love and affection elude her ,she opts for evil and a bizarre relationship grows between the former gangster and a girl who stays in front of the church , feeling hate for those well-meaning people .Some kind of priestess of evil ,in love with a man she thinks she does not know ,but who represents rebellion against a rotten society.

Although she comes last in the cast and credits ,Andrée Clément almost stole the show from her highly talented male partners ;hadn't she died from TB (appalling coincidence ,she suffers from this disease in the film) ,and had she been given more important parts ,she could have become part of the elite of French actresses,along with Arletty ,Simone Signoret, Danielle Darrieux, Michele Morgan, Micheline Presles, Madeleine Robinson,et al.

Decoin's directing is faultless ; the first scenes are almost abstract ,and the man,driving at a dizzying speed on the road , lays the cards on the table: it will be a story of sound and fury ,although often muffled .The short panoramic of the welcome village will not delude the viewer for long ;later on, oblique shots of the streets and church will emphasize a rotten microcosm .

This somewhat unusual French movie derives its title from a very interesting character indeed. She is a bitter girl who is an outcast in the small town she lives on account of her father who was an embezzler who winded up committing suicide. His daughter was then categorised as one who was trouble to know and, in fairness, not entirely without good reason seeing as she actively despises everyone in the town and does all in her power to antagonise them at every given opportunity. She encounters a kindred spirit in a notorious gangster who moves to her town under a false identity after he escapes the police in the aftermath of a major shoot-out and winds up in a car accident when his drunken getaway driver crashes the car; it is this man whose identity he assumes and who had lived in the town as a boy but left many years previously. The girl and the gangster are essentially the black hearts of the movie, with a wily doctor operating as the third point in the dramatic triangle. He manipulates the criminal into investing his money into good causes for the town, knowing full well he is not who he says he is.

This is a very interesting bit of cinema which shows once more that the French certainly were not held back so much by the sorts of restrictions Hollywood was by the Hays Code back in the day. This is a wilfully dark tale where no one really acts in a truly good manner – the girl hates the world, the gangster is a killer and the doctor, while essentially good, is still a blackmailer. They are great immoral characters to base the story around and their actions are pretty hard to predict. The story begins with an excellent urban shoot out with the criminal having a last stand in a high-rise but the gears change once we reach the town where the psychological aspects of the drama are brought to the fore. Pierre Fresnay is great as Saget, the gangster whose story propels the story, Fernand Ledoux is a lot of fun as the doctor who manipulates him and best of all is Andrée Clément as Isabelle, 'the devils' daughter', in an extremely memorable performance of a character who is pretty unique and original; she's no femme fatale, she is an outright bad girl extraordinaire! Essentially, this quite obscure film is a great showcase of the types of bold movies the French were making back in this era.

Pierre Fresnay worked with director Henri Decoin on 'Je suis avec toi' in 1943. They teamed up three years later for this which could not afford a greater contrast. Fresnay's reputation had taken a battering in the intervening years because of supposed sympathies with the Vichy regime prompted by his appearances in films for the German controlled 'Continental', notably 'Le Corbeau'. This despite his gallant military service in the previous World War. How quickly people forget. On his release after a brief incarceration, he made two films in 1946, the other being 'Le Visiteur' otherwise known, somewhat ironically in his case, as 'Tainted'! The film under review is excellent, building up to a stupendous finale. Armand Thirard is behind the camera and there is a marvellous score by Henri Dutilleux who seldom alas wrote for film. The intermezzo from his first symphony was used to great effect by Pialat in 'Sous le Soleil de Satan' in 1987. The performances by Fresnay and Ledoux are as expected, magnificent but they certainly meet their match in Andree Clement playing the title role. An extraordinary actress of charisma and intensity who made her mark in whichever film she appeared including 'La Symphonie Pastorale' and 'Dieu a besoin des Hommes', the latter with Fresnay. She was,tragically, to succumb to tuberculosis in her mid-thirties. A talent such as hers comes very seldom but we can at least be grateful that she is captured on celluloid. Watching brilliant actors going about their business is always satisfying and this film is no exception.