Des Teufels Erbe

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.

There are many reasons to watch this movie:

1. Pier Angeli- this compelling beauty stirs a certain something in our hearts - at once familiar and then somehow mysterious.

2. Gene Kelly- in one of his rare turns in a serious, non-singing, non-dancing part...I agree with another reviewer who says he was a showman not really an actor - - but he does a fair turn here.

3. Historical- few people know that the Nazi movement did not die immediately after Hitler died. The besieged German people had not forgotten the horrors and were still susceptible to somber outlooks.

4. Geo-Architectural- those pictures in the Eagle's Nest were spine-tinglingly eerie, if not thrilling to see since it has been apparently taken down. Other scenes in the German towns and countryside are vastly more interesting than so many other canned backdrops to which we are normally subjected.

All in all, this film occupies its time well - it's not world-shaking, but to me, it will be unforgettable because of the former reasons - especially the historical and geo-architectural...but also, one of our few looks at the beauty of the co-star, the stunningly beautiful Pier Angeli.

This is a Gene Kelly film which I had never viewed and only associated Kelly as a song and dance actor in many musicals. Kelly plays the role as Capt. Jeff Eliot who visits the Lehrt family in Germany who protected him and his plane during WW II. However, he finds out that the family was killed and the only member in the family remaining was Wilhelmina Lehrt,(Pier Angeli). Jeff Eliot finds Willie working in a nightclub and they seem to fall in love with each other, until Jeff finds out some very dark secrets Wilhelmina had been keeping from him and they have a fight between the two of them. Claus Clausen,(Heisemann) plays the role of a Nazi Commander during the Neo-Nazism Post WW II and has complete control over an underground movement that wants to continue the Hitler movement in Germany. There are really outstanding photography inside Adolph Hitler's Berchtesgard Eagles Nest, which is all bombed out and you see Heisemann standing in front of the large window in Berchtesgard. There is plenty of suspense and good supporting actors like Richard Egan, (Lt. Parker) and even some romance. Enjoy

The film's plot is solid yarn but not much above average. What makes the film interesting are two things: First Pier Angeli as the girl. And more than that, that the film gives a strong impression of how Germany looked like during the first years after WW II. There is a very atmospheric photography which shows some original locations in Munich and Bavaria: the Bavarian landscape, some villages, the post war Munich. Beyond it the film focuses on the everyday life of the German people more than other films with a similar topic, and it does it in an interesting way: you see some clothes, cars or flats of that time for example and some of the cabarets, clubs ore Night Shows, which obviously where quite typical for the post war era in Germany (and can be found in some other films about post war Germany ). And by this "The Devil Makes Three" manages to be  a nice contemporary document along the way.

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.