Des Teufels Erbe

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.

I don't have much to add besides what others have commented, except to support what was said previously, that the filming locations in post-WWII Germany and Austria are the most interesting features in this film. Views of Munich and Saltzburg give a clear picture of the extent of the devastation that resulted from bombing raids at the end of the war. But for me, what I found the most interesting was the last scenes filmed at Berchesgarten in the ruins of Hitler's Eagle's Lair where the head of the Neo-Nazi organization seeks refuge after being chased by Gene Kelly et-al. This is the only movie I recall that showed this location before it was eradicated.

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 movie grabs your attention immediately and doesn't let go until the end. Post WII Germany is one of the main characters here and it's fascinating to see the bombed out buildings and how people had to live after the war. The fact that it was filmed on location in winter only adds to the mystery.

As for Gene Kelly not being an actor but only a showman, watch him in Inherit the Wind, and you may change your mind. His non-dancing roles were not really all that rare, even during his heyday as a dancer.

Pier Angeli, who was Italian, is cast as a German girl. That doesn't quite work for me, as her German isn't good enough for her to have been a native, yet her appealing nature, her huge eyes and her inherent sweetness help her performance as woman whose innocence has been lost.

The corruption and struggle to rebuild in Germany and Austria after the war is something that most people do not really know much about. Other recommended movies that deal with this subject are A Foreign Affair and The Third Man.

The same year (1952) that Gene Kelly would become immortal with his "Singing in the rain"-film he also made another movie that is one of his more obscure ones and probably one of the lost classics. Directed by Andrew Marton, a very dubious director who worked on "The longest day" but who also gave us the vehicle "Clarence, the cross-eyed lion" shows us a part of history that is mainly forgot. We are in Munich, 1947 and while the American troop^s seem to handle the new German way of living in a rather good way there are also those left who think the Third Reich can live on without their fuhrer. This costs money and they smuggled the gold to neighbourcountries (in this case Salzburg) for getting financied their new evil plans. Captain Jeff Elliot (Gene Kelly) who knows nothing about it wants to visit a German family Lehrt as they saved his life at the end of the war. Packed with Christmasgifts he stands before a bombed house and learns later that the family has been killed by American bombs, except the little girl Willie (Pier Angeli) but she is nowhere to be found. All pretty German girls seem to work in cabarets and that's where Kelly finds the girl. The meeting between the two is rather based on hated feelings (after all it were American bombs who killed Willie's parents) but Kelly is Kelly and they soon fall in love. By the question of Kelly what could the girl happy she answers that she'd like to visit Salzburg again. The captain thinks it's a small effort but knows nothing that he's driving a car that is full of smuggled gold, and of course as you can imagine the girl is innocent but she has the choice of being beaten by some German gestapopigs or obey them... This little classic (that seems to be forgotten by everyone) is a very nice film that has both its adventuredose, good acting (Kelly doesn't dance for once but proves he is a big actor anyway and Pier Angeli is gorgeous) and its historical worth (tons of locations are filmed in postwar Germany). A quite whole mystery why this film isn't more known as it's a brilliant movie that stands out from tons of mediocre films from that time