The Devil's Keep

Having worked on this film back in the early nineties, I remember distinctly that I was witnessing one of the dopiest films ever being made in front of my eyes. The director, Don Gronquist, was so inept that he had us drive a huge water truck up the winding road of a mountain for a rain scene. All he filmed that night was some guys in the back of a covered truck (he could have done that in a parking lot). At the time everyone ooed and ahhed at the script (I guess it was good for Portland) but jeez louise, it was poorly written. If you can find this title anywhere, get it, because it is a great howler. Prepare your ears for one of the worst music scores ever written for a movie.

While the actual film was unsubtle, it was entertaining. Good editing keeps the story moving and the tension of the treasure hunters being hunted works in spite of the mediocre acting.

My interest really elevated when I watched two of the extra features on the DVD from Indiedvd. An interactive map traces and catalogs some of the loot the Nazis were trying to squirrel away at the end of WW II in Austria and other Central European caches. This list is probably as incomplete as the list of documented loot which has been recovered to date.

A very interesting and brief extra feature, titled "Nazi Conspiracies" focuses on the capitalization of Hitler's rise to power in Germany between the wars.

I.G. Farben, a consortium of German chemical industries, is identified as the economic engine which pulled the Nazi train onto the main line. The German industrialists did not do it alone. This was an international effort by German and sympathetic foreign industrialists and capitalists.

Significantly named, for the U.S. viewer are: Standard Oil of America, George Herbert Walker and Prescott Bush. They are cited as investors/partners in the rise of the Nazi Party who profited throughout the war from their investments and were forced to surrender portions of their wartime earnings after the war.

It is interesting that German corporations survived the war and several are doing quite nicely today. A slide within the feature portrayed labels and logos of several current chemical and pharmaceutical companies with their names partially censored, but still identifiable.

The names of the U.S. partners of the Nazis are clarified for modern viewers by naming prominent descendants: Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and George Walker Bush.

Another American name is Dulles, counsel to the Bush/Walker dynasties, rescuer of Nazi scientists and first Director of the C.I.A.

Ike must have known about all of this, and more, and been unable to directly expose it even as President. Hence his veiled warning of the "Military Industrial Complex."

The Devil's Keep certainly won't win any awards for anything, but it is somewhat enjoyable. Perhaps I am prejudice since I like stories concerning WW2 and Nazi-era Germany.

This was apparently only the 2nd film directed by Don Gronquist, who had done the low-budget "Unhinged" in 1982. He does a decent job, but nothing that really sets his work apart from the average.

The script of The Devil's Keep should have been developed further, the screen time of the movie is a little long. The plot of the movie is vaguely similar to the classic movie "Boys From Brazil", albeit on a much lower budget. The Devil's Keep concerns lost Nazi gold and modern day conspiracy, which has been done before. The problem with The Devil's Keep is that it goes a little over the edge on the entire conspiracy issue...sometimes it's simply difficult for the viewer to suspend their disbelief.

One last problem with the movie is the "Old Man Makeup" on a few actors throughout the film. It looks quite fake on the actors and I really don't understand why they just didn't use actors who were seniors. Maybe they wouldn't look exactly like the younger actors in the 1945 flashbacks, but it would have been much more convincing than the bad makeup.

This minor, Portland, Oregon-based, low-budget film could have been fun, but takes itself so seriously that it misses nearly every opportunity to be entertaining. The female lead (Miss Gathering Marbet, I kid you not) is so full of herself that you'd wish she got bumped off early in the picture (or at least experimented upon by the Nazi villains). Everyone seemed committed to the project, if nothing else, so too bad it all turned out so simpleminded and childish. I watched this picture on DVD which contained some secret Nazi tidbits that were fun, and a director's commentary that was virtually non-existent.

I caught this flick one rainy Sunday afternoon on cable not knowing what it was, and it was better than I would've thought. The story moves from Oregon to London to Austria, and nobody changes clothes once! The story is decent, the acting ok, but there's enough to keep you interested for 90 minutes or so. There was one scene that had me rolling though: The lead actor shoots a bad guy in the leg at one point (in Oregon), then several days pass and the climax takes place in a graveyard in Austria. The bad guy comes limping into the scene with a bleeding handkerchief around his leg! Slight continuity problem I think. Anyway, I'd give it 6/10. Plus I doubt you'll ever see an actress with first name "Gathering" ever again.