Who payed the critics

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

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.

Great subject matter that opened dialogs and minds about socio-political post war Europe (Germany.) Well cast, with honest and moving performances. I believe it was one of the first of its kind, and for that it should be commended. It should come as no surprise that Richard Egan carries this picture as the lead, with a group of capable and fine actors. The one exception is Gene Kelly. He's not an actor; he was a showman. I recently heard Kelly took issue with taller, masculine men (and at 5'7, it wasn't hard to out "stand" him) who actually sounded like the leading men they were. With Richard Egan leading the pack, there was no shortage of these men. As such, Kelly should have been more concerned with his performance, and matching up to the talents that were cast to surround and support his "performance."

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