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.
