Review of The Devil Makes Three

The introduction is very promising with almost a documentary touch on post war Germany in the ruins of Munich. Pier Angeli makes a very moving character as an orphaned girl at the mercy of what is worse than just pimps. Gene Kelly's lack of dancing and singing in this picture is not made up by his acting. The round in the joints of Munich is priceless with insight in its cabarets and very local styles with genuine music and performers. The final one is the Silhouette, where the band is led by a singer/pianist who sings in both German and broken English (Claus Clausen) with darkly bittersweet irony reflecting the tragedy of Germany with a painted smile on it. If this mood would have been sustained the film would have been interesting indeed, like Carol Reed's "The Man Between". Instead it loses itself in a Nazi plot with gangsters and shootings, and the human factor is lost in action. The winter landscape adds to the dreariness and poverty of the concept, and the final settlement is far from convincing, although the ruins of Berchtesgaden are used in an effort to augment the drama. This must be Gene Kelly's worst film, and only Pier Angeli and the ruins of Germany save it.