“A Good Little Devil” starring Paul Courtios
“Un Bon Petit Diable” (A Good Little Devil) stars Paul Courtois as the effervescent Charles, a boy who grew up in mid-19th-century France. His life is anything but pleasant. Hunger, beatings, teasing and endless work are the norm. Charles, like most children, is able to weather the storm of life and can always see the light at the end of the tunnel.
His parents are dead and he has gone to live with his elderly cousin. The old matron seems to hate not only children, but Charles in particular. Every little infraction is solved with a beating or a stay in the basement. One night in particular, after he has angered the old woman, she grabs him by the throat and drags him outside of her, where she makes him spend the night in the pigsty. Charles’s only ray of hope at home is Betty, the similarly abused maid.
The two hatch a plan to get the vulnerable Charles out of the clutches of his evil aunt. Fortunately, for the two of them, the older cousin is extremely superstitious, which makes his plans easier to carry out. Since Charles always seems to get hit on the bare bottom, Betty decides that would be the best place to put the devil’s marks on him. So, using a mixture of walnut oil, cobwebs, and duck droppings, she makes a black oily substance with which she places two black handprints on her butt. When her cousin goes to spank him again, the black handprints are a sure sign that the devil has afflicted his younger cousin, and therefore she must go.
She feels it, together with Betty, in a boarding school where she will learn to behave and be out of his reach. It turns out that the school is not much more than a prison, and even here Charles is repeatedly flogged. Charles has his trusty Betty with him, and they have proven time and time again that they can get through anything.
Although this is a light-hearted comedy that tackles a touchy subject, it by no means takes child abuse lightly. Rather, it focuses on a child’s resilience and resourcefulness in times of conflict. There are a couple of subplots that appear to be nothing more than filler, but otherwise this is a great coming of age movie that is fun to watch.