JohnHowardReid Copyright 12 August 1952 by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Globe: 29 August 1952. U.S. release: September 1952. U.K. release: 15 December 1952. Australian release: 3 December 1952. Sydney opening at the St James. Approx. 90 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A memory brings Captain Eliot back to Munich - the memory of a girl who hid him from the Germans during the war. He finds her at the Cafe Silhouette. In the struggle for survival she has become part of a vicious underground pledged to new terror. How much a part, the American can can't know.COMMENT: Slow-moving spy melodrama with dull romantic interludes involving two of the wettest principals we have come across for some time. Mr Kelly doesn't sing a note or dance a step and is woefully miscast, while Miss Angeli with her innocent face and soulful eyes makes a thoroughly unconvincing B-girl. The American supporting cast is not much better, but the Germans are something else again. Claus Clausen, aided by skilful make-up (his features are made to seem wholly bland and cherubic in the former half of the film, but heavy shadow under his eyes, lines across his forehead and straggly-looking hair is used in the latter stages to give him a Dr Mabuse look), gives a most impressive portrayal and there are equally sinister vignettes by Heinrich Gretler and others while Miss Hielscher comes across effectively as a nightclub chantoose. Director Andrew Marton does nothing for the interior scenes but when the script moves out to the German countryside, he reveals his flair for action spots. There is a marvellously exciting, extended chase climax with the villain appropriately cornered in the ruins of Hitler's house. The location photography is nothing short of superlative. Other production credits, however, are merely adequate.OTHER VIEWS: Gripping mystery/romantic drama, skilfully acted by Kelly and Angeli, forcefully directed by Andrew Marton on actual locations, with fine photography, realistic sets, and plenty of hair's-breadth action.

MartinHafer 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.

synergydesign2003 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.

dkbs 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.