The Devil Makes Three (1952)

Simply Perfect

A Masterpiece!

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The introduction is very promising with almost a documentary touch on post war Germany in the ruins of Munich. Pier Angeli makes a very moving character as an orphaned girl at the mercy of what is worse than just pimps. Gene Kelly's lack of dancing and singing in this picture is not made up by his acting. The round in the joints of Munich is priceless with insight in its cabarets and very local styles with genuine music and performers. The final one is the Silhouette, where the band is led by a singer/pianist who sings in both German and broken English (Claus Clausen) with darkly bittersweet irony reflecting the tragedy of Germany with a painted smile on it. If this mood would have been sustained the film would have been interesting indeed, like Carol Reed's "The Man Between". Instead it loses itself in a Nazi plot with gangsters and shootings, and the human factor is lost in action. The winter landscape adds to the dreariness and poverty of the concept, and the final settlement is far from convincing, although the ruins of Berchtesgaden are used in an effort to augment the drama. This must be Gene Kelly's worst film, and only Pier Angeli and the ruins of Germany save it.

During WWII, American pilot Jeff Eliot (Gene Kelly) was shot down over Germany and hidden by a German family. Since then, he's been sending packages regularly to them. After all, post-war Germany is a mess, food is severely rationed and poverty is everywhere. Now, several years later Captain Eliot is returning to Germany during his Christmas break to renew old times with the family. However, he soon learns the family was burned out in a bombing raid and another family has been pilfering the packages and saying nothing.A bit later, he recognizes the daughter, Willie (Pier Angeli) in a cheap cantina and they renew old times. However, oddly, he never mentions these care packages when she treats him like an ungrateful American. I have no idea why this was done this way. Regardless, they eventually decide to spend the holiday, in part, in Salzburg and he doesn't realize that she works for scum-bags from 'Silhouette'...a group of ex-Nazis working evil in post-war Germany. When the American military bring this to his attention, Eliot is a bit dippy and doesn't believe his sweet fraulein could be in league with these people...and does she even know who they are? This is a decent espionage film shot on location in Germany and Austria. The scenes are quite nice and add a lot to the authenticity of the movie. My only quibble is that it seemed very odd that they cast Ms. Angeli in the lead, as she's Italian, not German.

The Devil Makes Three was made as part of a deal that Gene Kelly made with MGM whereby he would work abroad to take advantage of tax rulings and would also get the go ahead from the studio to do his Invitation To The Dance, a project he longed cherished. All studios liked to keep their contract players even though during the age of television studios were reducing their payrolls. You didn't have a musical on tap, then MGM would slot you into a non-musical. Kelly had made a few of them for his studio before. A later film done in Great Britain, Crest Of A Wave, was part of this package as well.Nothing terribly special about The Devil Makes Three. Kelly is a serviceman and he's on leave in Germany and looking for a family that had sheltered him when he was shot down. He finds the daughter grown up to be Pier Angeli and she's pretty disillusioned with life singing in a cabaret now.But Army Intelligence has its eye on her and Kelly is contacted by Richard Rober and Richard Egan to pursue a love affair as if he needed any encouraging and keep an eye for her associates. Her associates turn out to be neo-Nazis. The best thing about The Devil Makes Three is the location cinematography in Munich, Salzburg, and most especially the winter scenes at Hitler's home away from home Berchtesgarden. Looking at those mountains had he not wanted a Gotterdaemerung ending to his Reich he could have made one nasty fight in those mountains that might have prolonged the European war for a year or two.It's a routine action adventure, Kelly was always a good actor and most people cite his role in Inherit The Wind as proof of that. And Pier Angeli has thought aura of tragedy that her real life was.

The closing scenes of this film were shot at the ruins of the Berghoff, which was Hitler's actual residence in Berchtesgaden, most famous for the huge picture window that framed a picture-perfect view of the mountains of Germany and Austria. Since the actual building was torn down by the post-war German government during the 1950's (they were afraid of it becoming a Nazi shrine), this film represents a rare, motion picture view of what the site actually looked like during that period.The location is now the site of the luxury Hotel- InterContinental Berchtesgaden and visitors can still see the same view of the mountains that Hitler built for himself."The Eagle's Nest", located nearby, was the informal name given to the Kehlsteinhaus, or the Fuhrer's Tea house, custom built for Hitler at the top of Kehlstein Mountain during the 1930's. The site survived the war and is now a tourist attraction owned by the local government and features a road carved into the shear rock face of the mountain and a deep tunnel with a brass elevator that takes visitors to the top. It was said that Hitler didn't like heights and only visited the Kehlsteinhaus a few times during his lifetime. Contrary to popular belief, the "Eagle's Nest" is not believed to be featured in this movie.Until recent NATO reductions-in-force, the Americans had many military recreational facilities in Berchtesgaden which have since been turned over to the German government.