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6.8/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.8/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. The Cheeky Devil remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have seventy minutes to spare and love watching wealthy Europeans panic in silk robes, The Cheeky Devil is absolutely worth your time tonight.
People who enjoy fast, physical comedies where nobody acts like a normal human will have a blast. If you need logic or characters who don't lie constantly, this will probably make you want to throw your shoe at the screen. 😅
The whole plot is basically about this incredibly smug guy trying to seduce a married woman while her husband is busy doing... well, honestly, I am not even sure what the husband was doing. He just keeps disappearing into other rooms with a worried look on his face.
Willy Fritsch is here, looking incredibly charming as usual, though he seems slightly tired of all the running around. There is this one scene where a character drops a teacup, and the camera just stares at the broken pieces on the rug for a weirdly long time. I kept waiting for it to mean something, but it didn't.
The movie is adapted from a French play, and boy, does it show. Almost every single scene takes place in a room with at least three doors, and someone is always about to walk through one of them.
It has that frantic, breathless energy you get in old silent shorts like All Wet, but with a lot more shouting. Sometimes two characters will just scream at each other for a minute straight because they forgot their own lies.
I did love Camilla Horn's outfits though. She wears this ridiculous feathered hat in the second act that looks like it is actively trying to escape her head.
The writing gets a bit lazy near the end. The plot just sort of evaporates instead of actually resolving, which I guess is fine because these characters are exhausting to hang out with anyway.
But hey, if you want something light that doesn't ask you to think at all, it's a fun little relic. Just don't expect anything deep.