The Devil Makes Three (film)

1952 film by Andrew Marton

September 19, 1952 (1952-09-19)

Running time

96 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$1,005,000^[1]Box office$1,485,000^[1]

The Devil Makes Three is a 1952 American film noir thriller film directed by Andrew Marton and starring Gene Kelly, Pier Angeli and Richard Egan. Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was set and filmed in post-World War II Germany.

Plot

Former Eighth Air Force bomber crewman Captain Jeff Eliot returns to Germany in 1947 to visit the family who rescued and hid him from the Nazis after his plane was shot down over Munich in World War II.

He learns that most of the family was killed by an American air raid. The only survivor is the daughter, Wilhelmina Lehrt, who is working as a hostess in a nightclub and hates Americans. Eliot nonetheless manages to romance "Willie" and in his time at the nightclub, he develops a friendship with Heisemann, a comic.

Heisemann, it turns out, has secret ties to an underground Nazi revivalist movement. When Eliot discovers this, he tells his superiors, who order him to continue his relationship with Willie to learn more about Heisemann's operation.

The climax of the picture takes place in Berchtesgaden, and the scenes of Heisemann being chased through the rubble were filmed inside the ruins of Hitler's house just before its final demolition by the German government. Heisemann in the scene's final frame stands facing his captors in the notorious huge picture window of the house.

Cast

Gene Kelly as Captain Jeff Eliot
Pier Angeli as Wilhelmina "Willie" Lehrt
Richard Rober as Colonel James Terry
Richard Egan as Captain Parker
Claus Clausen as Heisemann
Wilfried Seyferth as Hansig
Margot Hielscher as Bar Singer
Annie Rosar as Mrs. Keigler
Harold Benedict as Sgt. at Airport
Otto Gebühr as Mr. Nolder
Gertrud Wolle as Mrs. Nolder
Heinrich Gretler as Keigler
Charlotte Flemming as Girl in Telephone Booth
Charles Gordon Howard as Lt. Farris
Bum Krüger as Oberlitz
Claus Lombard as Waiter
Iván Petrovich as Sigmund Neffs
Sepp Rist as Customs Official - German
Michael Tellering as Ernst Haltmann
Ruth Megary as Waitress

Reception

According to MGM records the film made $743,000 in the US and Canada and $742,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $57,000.^[1]

In his August 30, 1952 review in The New York Times, Howard Thompson wrote: “ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has gone to a great deal of trouble to authenticate "The Devil Makes Three," a curiously disappointing melodrama of Occupied Germany and Austria … Producer Richard Goldstone filmed the offering entirely on location, using a supporting cast comprised almost entirely of native talent…this latest safari, bucking the wintry ruggedness of some truly striking natural settings, has returned with as graphic a contemporary canvas as we have had in some time.Scenery or no scenery, however, the film remains, on the whole,…little more than a Continental Western… the director has staged a frenzied but routine climax atop Berchtesgaden, no less, with Mr. Kelly and the M. P.'s (or the Cavalry) snaring the chief culprit. …The performances somehow emerge unscathed. …Mr. Kelly … (gives) a fine, restrained characterization. And while it is hard to believe that Miss Angeli would ever set foot in a questionable bistro, much less serve as a "hostess," this frail doe-eyed girl manages to convey a smoldering innocence that comes close to justifying the whole misguided excursion.”^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
^ T, H. H. (1952-08-30). "' Devil Makes Three,' Melodrama Filmed on Location in Europe, Is Globe's New Feature". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-29.