Then There Were Three (1961) User Reviews

Spy's R' Us

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 6 October 2009]

***SPOILERS*** With the retreating Germans desperately trying to recapture Italian guerrilla leader El Palagrino who had been recently liberated from a Nazi prison camp they come up with this intriguing idea to plant one of their top infiltration experts Capt. Spogle into a US Army unit and both track and then gun El Palagrino down. That's to be done in the the small Italian town of San Corrado where El Palagrino is now being held in protective by the US Military.

Having no trouble at all linking up with a number of US Army stragglers who survived a bloody confrontation with the Germans Capt. Spogle is now in the perfect position to find his way back to San Corrado and complete his mission in knocking off the dangerous, to the German military, El Palagrino before he can organize his Italian guerrilla army. The only thing that Capt. Spogle, now using the identity of a fictitious US Army GI, has to worry about is if he's discovered by the GIs he's with! This would have Spogle end up being shot on the spot as an, in wearing a US Military uniform, Nazi spy! Having a secret radio transmitter on him Capt. Spogle can be traced by his fellow Germans and thus have those GI's with him saved from being killed by them! Not because the Germans have any good feelings about the GI's in Spogle's unit but because their needed to get back, together with Capt. Spogle, to San Carrado for Capt. Spogle to finish off Italian guerrilla leader El Palagrino!

Despite its very meager budget the film "Then There Were Three" holds up pretty well compared to many like-wise war movies that cost a lot more to make with well known actors in them. Capt. Spogle in his attempt cover-up what he's really up to blows his cover by killing most of the GI's in his unit making it look like the Germans did it!

***SPOILER*** It's when Spogle murders TL Ellis that his US Army unit commander Lt. Wilotsky starts to smell a rat , or Nazi, in that his outfit was somehow infiltrated by the Germans. Making it back to San Carrado with the help of a number friendly Italian villagers including the hot and sexy, who in fact unknowingly tipped off the GI's to Capt. Spogle's identity, Glovannia Lt. Wilotsky and the remainder of his men-two of them-prevented Spogle from murdering El Palagrino. Spogle now expose as the no good Nazi spy that he is tries to make it back to the German lines only to be gunned down by his own men mistaking him for an American soldier! In what turned out to be a fitting tribute for this low life murdering Nazi rat!

The worst moments of war are the quiet ones.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 12 January 2016]

Even when they knew that they were losing the war, the Nazi's would not stop until they killed as many allies as they could. Even those once on their side and in danger of exposing their plans could become a target. Thus war drama, set on Italian after the death of Mussolini, has them determined to either capture or kill am Italian general in the hands of American soldiers, and their efforts to infiltrate the troop with a spy who appears to be American. The eyes of the Nazi's follow this troop as they choose from village to village, knowing that sudden attack after hours or even days of silence could throw the Yanks into total panic.

Headlined by obscure names like Barry Cahill, Frank Latimore and Alex Nicol, this is interesting but often straggling as the story strives to develop some human interest beyond the quiet marching and infrequent attacks. Stops in Italian villages introduces the audience to those trying to get beyond their status in the war, the most memorable a very earthy Italian girl a la Loren, Magnani or Lollibrigida.

Switching to the directives of the German officer leading the assassination plot shows them as crafty, calm but desperate. This humanizes the soldiers who are as tired of war as the Americans yet desperate to end it with dignity. It makes you feel sorry for them even though the German agenda was as evil as any war could get. The film seems to be made I'm a new wave technique which stylizes it to make the film seem more realistic and gritty.

Pretty good mystery.

[jt_3d · 6/10 · 17 May 2010]

A war time whodunit. Germans want to kill off a partisan prisoner who is about to be released by the Americans after they take the town he's being held in. Naturally the Germans concoct a complicated plan to get one of their guys, dressed as a GI, into the town where he's supposed to knock off the partisan once he's released from prison. Of course the Americans announce when that will be, though I can't imagine why. I'd think they'd just turn him lose but oh well.

This one had me guessing right up until the end, though it was due partly a couple of cheap tricks used to point the finger at the wrong guy. I confess to not guessing who was the spy before it was revealed. That makes it a good whodunit in my book.

As a war movie, it was not very good. The combat scenes were weak. There wasn't much excitement or grit at all. But it wasn't really a war movie. It was a mystery and in that respect I thought it was pretty good. And they didn't tell you who the bad guy was right at the start like so many so-called mystery movies do these days. I found it pretty entertaining.

6/10 I guess there weren't really any spoilers in this review.

Wartime mystery

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 8 June 2018]

THEN THERE WERE THREE is a straightforward, low budget American/Italian WW2 flick that has a small-scale, mystery plot of sorts. A small squad of US soldiers are traipsing through the countryside and fighting the Nazis and Italians, but after a time it transpires that one of their number might well be a German agent with murder in mind. Given the low budget this is a talky character piece throughout, but the black and white photography is nice and it has its moments towards the end.

Watching This Movie Was No Walk In The Sun

[boblipton · 4/10 · 1 May 2020]

A US Army unit patrols in Italy during the war. Little do they know that one of them is a German spy, trying to assassinate an Italian partisan. But which one of them is it?

It's a dreadfully cheap movie, directed by Alex Nicoll, who also has a leading role. It was one of the movies he made in Europe before returning to America to direct the Tarzan TV show. The print I saw looked awful, which did the camerawork of first-time cinematographer Gastone Di Giovanni no favors. There's a narration at the beginning for the English-speaking audience who was unaware of the army being in Italy during the Second World War. It's credited to Paul Frees, who seems to be doing an imitation of William Conrad narrating the Rocky the Flying Squirrel cartoons.

Although it's an interesting idea for a movie, the execution is poor.

Good acting - sloppy writing

[nagolyar · 7/10 · 24 July 2021]

SPOILER: While this movie has some good action and acting it has some definitely illogical writing of the script.

The Germans have sent an agent who speaks flawless English into the American lines in order to get him close to an Italian Resistance leader who is being processed out of a jail in a town that they lost to the Americans.

The first point is: Why does it take the Americans in the town so long to release him? The makeshift squad the German infiltrates is at least two days on the road to the town. Was the town captured by Bureaucrats or Soldiers?

Going back to the makeshift squad the German Agent is supposedly a Captain and a highly trained agent. Yet he makes some of the most illogical decisions that a spy could make.

First, when the squad captures a German sniper and takes him prisoner, the spy waits until night and then kills the American soldier guarding the prisoner and releases the German after giving him instructions in German.

Why? He is assuming that the German sniper will NOT be re-captured by ANOTHER group of Americans and spill his guts that there is a fellow German posing as an American in another squad. This serves NO purpose.

If he was concerned that the prisoner would slow the squad down, the logical course of action would be to kill BOTH the guard and the prisoner and make it look like the prisoner got the guard and he got the prisoner OR really clever but tricky would have been to to make some kind of noise to distract the guard and knock him out when his head was turned THEN untie the prisoner while briefing him and while the German is relaxed Kill HIM. He could then say that he couldn't sleep/heard something, found the prisoner loose and trying to kill the American and so he had to kill the German to save his "buddy". This would have not only got rid of the prisoner complication but would have made him a hero in the eyes of the squad.

Next, he is spotted by another American near a water trough and when that American wanders over he finds the German batteries the infiltrator dumped.

Why would he dump the batteries in the open instead of dropping them in some corner of the house or out of sight on the grounds? It has already been established that the Germans have occupied the house previously.

While policing up after yourself is a good idea it would rarely be followed in the combat zone especially since everyone in the area KNEW the Germans had been in the house. Finding ANYTHING with German markings would have been a non-issue for everyone. NOT finding anything would have been the surprise. There was NO reason for this killing and it IMMEDIATELY raised suspicions. Either that there was a psychopath in the squad or a german agent - traitor or spy. No logic to it.

Between the 1st killing and the 2nd, the infiltrator made his stupidest blunder and one the Germans would have executed him for if they knew. He goes to the (maybe) pro-german italian woman at night, and speaking German, apparently sleeps with or maybe rapes her. He then compounds this uncontorollable urge to get laid by letting the woman live!!! She was a FAR greater danger to him than the American as she would have KNOWN at the very least he spoke impeccable German!!!

He risked the mission for his self-gratification and if his superiors had known they would have killed him on the spot.

So now what is left of the squad is suspicious of one another and they proceed cautiously to the town that the German was ordered to. Here the Italian Resistance leader is JUST being released. The infiltrator follows him out of town towards what he figures is German lines. He does not notice that the rest of the squad is following HIM. The Lt. Sees him with a gun on the Italian and rather than let anybody shoot the guy, he makes some idiotic pronouncement about fair trial and nobody makes a move until the Italian is in hand-to-hand combat with the German. They arrive in time to keep either from being killed but then the German makes a break for it and AGAIN the Lt orders the men to hold their fire. His reason? The German is heading towards what somehow they all know are German lines in an American uniform. The Lt apparently discounts the possibility that the Germans may take an unarmed American soldier prisoner to gain intelligence about the town's defenses. Luckily for the rather dim-witted Lt, the Germans are just as dim-witted and kill him before he can surrender to them.

Like I say, the acting wasn't bad...but whoever wrote the script left holes in it you could have driven an Armor..or Panzer..Division through.

A war mystery, easily the best one

[drystyx · 10/10 · 24 June 2011]

It's not often you get a "war mystery" film, and of course when you do, you are usually dealing with spies.

In this case, the mystery is about a German spy dressed up as an American soldier during World War II. He has forged papers, and his goal is to make it to a town where a resistance member is kept. This resistance member is a liaison between all the groups, and obviously knows connections to each. He would be a great prize.

We see the command given to the spy, but not his face, and we are then taken to a site where American soldiers have been whittled away from their individual units, and eight join up, including the by the book lieutenant and the veteran sergeant.

This is a top mystery and a top war film. It combines both elements, and it's difficult to say why without spoilers. Suffice to say that the characters are very believable, the action very credible, and the spy is exactly the type of person who would be seen as most successful.

There is incredible eye candy with a couple of Italian women, one of which is guaranteed to make any young man fall in love/lust. This woman wears boots and possibly inspired the Nancy Sinatra song.

The title lets you know that when they are whittled down to four, they will find the spy (or he will succeed and exit). I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the ones who die before this are given high drama to their deaths, although the first is a wounded man who never lasts long enough for the high drama. With each casualty, our director succeeds in making you feel more and more empathy for them. The last American who dies is given the most tragedy, as we see him to be the possible hero.

This is a lost gem, and easily the best of the war mysteries. Tons better than the blockbuster big budget bits of propaganda that are more famous.