The devil's inheritance
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The devil's inheritance |
| Original title | The Devil Makes Three |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language |
English German |
| Publishing year | 1952 |
| length | 106 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Andrew Marton |
| script |
Lawrence P. Bachmann Jerry Davis |
| production | Richard Goldstone for MGM |
| music | Max Steiner |
| camera | Václav Vich |
| cut | Ben Lewis |
| occupation | |
| |
Des Teufels Erbe is an American thriller from 1952 that was filmed and set in southern Germany. Gene Kelly plays there a GI returning to Germany who tracks down a secret organization and gang of smugglers made up of old Nazis. Kelly's film partner was Pier Angeli and directed by Andrew Marton .
action
The American pilot Capt. Jeff Eliot had struggled to survive the Second World War , thanks to the help of the Bavarian family Lehrt. At that time he was shot down with his machine over Munich, rescued and nursed back to health by the Lehrts. Now, two years after the end of the war, he has returned to southern Germany to say thank you and see if he can help the family. The shock is great when he learns that only his daughter Wilhelmina, in short: Willie, is still alive. Shortly before the end of the war, her parents were killed in an air raid carried out by American bombers. When Willie sees Eliot again, she is anything but pleased. She has harbored a deep grudge against all Americans since her parents died.
Eliot is not deterred by Wilhelmina's reserve and nevertheless tries to help her. Because Willie has to get by with a job as a waitress in a shabby bar. The GI persistently solicits Willie's favor. The entertainer and comedian Heisemann, who befriends Eliot, also performs in the same nightclub. But the man looks opaque and mysterious. In truth, he works as an unscrupulous smuggler and smuggler and makes a fortune with gold deals. After intensive research, Eliot, in collaboration with Willie, who is getting closer and closer to him, comes across Heisemann's true identity: He is the head of a gang of yesterday's old Nazis who want to restore the old structures. These men also walk over corpses.
Eliot informs his superiors in the US military, and he is ordered to stay close to Wilhelmina in order to track down the people behind the smugglers' gang. Finally there is a wild chase, and Eliot turns Heisemann into the great salon of Hitler's destroyed Berghof . Heisemann, realizing his hopeless situation, jumps from the place where the large panorama window once stood, into the abyss, into death.
Production notes
Des Teufels Erbe was filmed at the beginning of 1952 in and around Munich, around Berchtesgaden , on the Munich-Salzburg autobahn and in Salzburg . The final shots actually took place on the destroyed and bombed-out area of Hitler's Berghof.
The entire cast is quite unusual. The dancer and music film star Gene Kelly, who had just shot his greatest success You shall be my lucky star , appeared here in one of his few thrillers. His partner Pier Angeli was cast here completely against her type as a German.
The Devil's Legacy premiered in the United States on September 19, 1952. In Germany it was never shown in the cinema, probably because of the sensitive issue for the still young Federal Republic. The film only got its German premiere on April 5, 1991 on RTL .
Director Marton relied on Munich-based, working (and mostly employed by Bavaria Film ) staff for the casting of the supporting roles as well as for technical matters . For the theater actor and director Claus Clausen , who has barely filmed since the end of the war , Des Teufels Erbe was just one of two films he made after 1945. “His role ... - he played an incorrigible, fanatical old Nazi who tried to build up a new fascist organization in the American-occupied zone and, put by Gene Kelly, jumped to his death - had to be like an allied caricature of the 'ugly German 'appear sui generis, which Clausen had portrayed so often in his perverted and glorified version before 1945 ”, as Kay Less writes in The film's large personal dictionary.
The film structures were designed by Fritz Maurischat and implemented by Paul Markwitz . Walter Rühland provided the sound . The costume designer Charlotte Flemming had a tiny supporting role in this film.
Reviews
The Lexicon of International Films wrote: "A film that strives for authenticity with delightful recordings, which after a convincing start develops into a conventional gangster story full of unbelievable beliefs."
Halliwell's Film Guide reads: "A curious break from dancing for Gene Kelly, this obscurely titled thriller has little to commend it but authentic locations".
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 2: C - F. John Paddy Carstairs - Peter Fritz. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 85.
- ^ Lexicon of International Films. The complete offer in cinema, television and on video 1991/92. S. 144. Reinbek near Hamburg 1993.
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 270