Decision Before Dawn (1951)

Such a frustrating disappointment

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

best movie i've ever seen.

The top credits go to the two American stars. Gary Merrill is the colonel who organizes an espionage venture behind the German lines at the Rhine River. Richard Basehart is the lieutenant who leads the team, taking with him two converted German POWs -- the canny and untrustworthy Hans Christian Blech, and the innocent idealistic Oskar Werner.But the picture belongs to Oskar Werner. He's on screen most of the time and its his travails we track. He's given an assignment -- find out where a certain Panzer division is located -- and given a new identity, a corporal and a medic in the Luftwaffe with phony papers.He discovers the whereabouts of the Panzers but comes under suspicion for the slightest of reasons. Little by little, his fake identity is stripped away until he becomes a fugitive before finally joining the rest of the team in an attempt to reach the Allied lines on the other side of the Rhine. The experience is harrowing for Werner and for the viewer.But equally impressive is the tour of Germany's bare ruined choirs as the war's end approaches. There is a shortage of everything. The buildings are blackened skeletons. A theater has been turned into a vast crater filled with rubble.During his quest, Werner runs into various German "types". There are the usual fanatical Gestapo and SS troops, but only one of each. Then there is the long and beautiful face of Hildegard Knef, who is a prostitute through no weaknesses of her own and whose story is moving, partly due to the actress' skills. You may or may not recognize Klaus Kinski in his brief appearance. He looks about fourteen.But the man most impacted by this mission is Richard Basehart, as the team's leader. He's distant, contemptuous towards all Germans, but he expresses his distaste in subtle ways. He never gives a Big Speech about all the Krauts being the same. The expression "you and your kind" is never uttered.Blech may be on the team because he's a con man and thinks he's gotten a better deal by spying than by remaining in a POW camp, but Werner is an idealist. Actually his position is close to that of von Runstedt and Rommel. They've fought the good fight and lost. Now it's time to end the war. Werner is the most ungainly runner imaginable. When he hurries through the rubble his shoulders are hunched and his arms wave about like Fred Astaire on a binge. But he can be a superb actor. His face is perfect for the role -- handsome, babyish, innocent, pensive.The movie humanizes the Germans. It couldn't have been made much earlier than it was, 1951. Certain strictures were placed on the depiction of Germans during and immediately after the war. They couldn't be too good, although they could be thoroughly evil. In 1943, John Steinbeck's "The Moon Is Down" appeared on film and both Peter van Eyck, who played a fundamentally decent Nazi, and the author received boos from the public.In the same year as "Decision Before Dawn", a story of Erwin Rommel, James Mason, was released -- "The Desert Fox." Mason spoke perfect English and Rommel was painted as an idealistic soldier who only reluctantly joined in the attempt to assassinate Hitler. (Which he didn't do, in real life.) More boos from the critics. The world wasn't ready to forgive Germany yet, and the following year Mason again played Rommel in "The Desert Rats", but as a stereotype, with false bravado and an English mangled by the worst German accent you could conjure up. We still occasionally run into German villains in modern movies, although they're hard put to compete with the Russians and with swarthy terrorists.In some ways, "Decision Before Dawn" may be the best of the lot -- complex in the way that reality itself is complex. It's an adult movie and very suspenseful.

The middle of this movie, when Werner returns to England, is almost perfect movie-making. He brought a lot of soul to his role, and so did all of the other German characters. I thought it made a very vivid statement about what it was like in Germany in the waning days of the war.On the other hand, I thought the Americans were fairly silly. Square-jawed, baritoned, striding purposefully from place to place, always knowing exactly what needs to be done, the War-Winning Heroes in every way. They speak to Happy in an annoyingly condescending way, as if they are going to explain to him what war is all about. It rang false to me. Going by the other reviews here, I'm in a minority in this view.So I can do without those parts of the movie. Also the very end, when an American swims away under a hail of short-range gunfire and is miraculously untouched.But the depiction of Happy in Germany, and the conflicts he faces as he spies on his own country, was memorable.

Gary Merrill and Richard Basehart are the Americans who head the cast of Decision Before Dawn, an outstanding film about the final days of World War II and the Third Reich. The film shows the scene of both the Americans who want a quick way to the heart of Germany to end the war and the Germans trying to stay alive in a situation with not many options.This film was the first introduction for American audiences to Oskar Werner who plays a young German soldier who is now a POW. An option is offered to Werner along with some other selected prisoners to now spy for the Americans as the war even from their point of view after the Battle Of The Bulge is lost. Too bad the same option couldn't be offered by the Russians on the Eastern front. A little too much personal history there.Werner's mission is to find the 11th Panzer Division and assess their strength and he's got five days to do it. He proves adept, but not quite adept enough as he eventually gets the Nazis on his trail. How he makes out is for you to see Decision Before Dawn.Werner's performance might have been something that Marlon Brando saw and made mental notes of before taking on his German role in The Young Lions. In the Brando film we see the gradual deterioration of his beliefs until he's killed a little bit after the events of this film. Werner's character is like Brando's, except he lives long enough to redeem himself in his own eyes by the work he does now.20th Century Fox spent a little money on this one with location shooting and casting of various German players who like Werner were no doubt deemed to be non-Nazi in their beliefs. Check the credits of the cast and you'll see many had long careers post World War II careers in the German cinema. As for the location shooting, a lot of that area of the Rhine border on both sides was still showing the effects of the devastation of the war. In fact besides the performances, you'll also see some of the most realistic cinematography around of World War II battle sequences, not to mention the effects of bombing of civilians.Decision Before Dawn is an outstanding war film, receiving two Oscar nominations in technical categories. It's that third Oskar you should see this film for though.

Nice war movie from the old Hollywood school. Pretty modern style of filming, if movie wasn't black and white the one could say that it was from the last decades. Just a fast talking acting style of one or two actors that is typical for the beginning of the Sound film era in Hollywood makes you aware on how this movie really old is. Clever camera, fast and engaging rhythm, tense as a thriller at the times. Pretty convincing acting, very good casting and fantastic war recreation for that time, city in ruins and AA guns look like real. Film is ruined by German characters speaking English language with German accents, making the good actors look like clowns and the whole film like some History Channel show. Also, definition of the main character in the film is somehow lost until the end itself since there is no interaction between separate stories of the characters during the whole film, we are losing two of three main heroes for the whole hour. Worth to mention that movie is pushing strong American propaganda stereotype established by its father Franc Capra: There is no "Prelude to war" hear, but the reason "Why we fought" and black and white distinguishing of good and bad made by the winners. Or should I say one of the winners, since this film as many others made in that era ignores by all means the others (especially Soviet Union - country which really military defeated Nazi Germany) on the very careful and clever way. 7 out of 10, recommended.