The Devil Makes Three (film)

The Devil Makes Three
Directed by	Andrew Marton
Written by	Lawrence P. Bachmann Jerry Davis
Produced by	Richard Goldstone
Starring	Gene Kelly Pier Angeli Richard Egan
Cinematography	Václav Vích
Edited by	Ben Lewis
Music by	Rudolph G. Kopp
Production company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by	Loew's Inc.
Release date	September 19, 1952 (1952-09-19)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,005,000
Box office	$1,485,000

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.

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 composed 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.”

External links

• The Devil Makes Three at IMDb
• The Devil Makes Three at the TCM Movie Database
• The Devil Makes Three at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films