Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

yonahred Spoiler alert. While searching youtube for flix, I came across Richard basehart's voice, narrating an execution. And the camera was extremely mobile. Basehart, riding in a jeep comes across two Germans, one is Oscar werner, who I recognize, but his name eludes me. I thought of tin drum but did not do Oskar oskar. So Merrill the tough no nonsense commander lets Basehart know that recruiting German spies from the pow's is the game plan and werner volunteers. Seems to be a propaganda film asserting that the Germans are just scared and some good some bad, in 51 the alliance with west Germany needed to be sold and the earnest youngster Oskar werner was the salesman. Most poignant moments when he is recognized by a lady on a tram, who calls him by his real name and tells him where his father is now working. He calls his father, but only hears his voice like a crank caller and then he hangs up. His heart is pure and his disloyalty to his father troubles him. Basehart and the other traitor who is in it for the money are very believable, yet certainly unplumbed. It is Oskar and his comfort and discomfort with Germans- a soldier on a train, a dance hall girl, a gestapo agent, a general who needs a syringe of medicine to survive, a little boy who gets too scared to finger Basehart in a bombed out building at a fateful moment. Movie gave impression that Germany in 1950 was still in ruins.

JohnHowardReid This is one of Fox's semi-documentaries, complete with the usual Foreword informing us about real people (only their names have been changed) caught up in real events. Aside from the German players – Hans Christian Blech is excellent as usual and so is O.E. Hasse – speaking English to each other, the movie is grimly realistic. Although no expense has been spared, tension does tend to be dissipated by the movie's long running time and thus lose some of its initial promise and impetus. The movie is more a picaresque study of Oskar Werner's adventures through war-torn Germany in 1944 than the suspenseful spy yarn initially promised, although it still carries plenty of excitement. Perhaps Werner's hero is too youthfully deferential to excite full audience identification. We usually like our main character to be made of stronger stuff like Richard Basehart and Gary Merrill. In fact, although first-billed, Basehart disappears from the action for far too long, It's too lengthy a hiatus before he finally reappears in time for the chase climax. Nevertheless, there are scenes that jolt the eye and ear along the way, along with thousands of extras. And it's all brought to life unobtrusively yet masterfully by director by Anatole Litvak, and superbly photographed by Franz Planer.

edwagreen This film was nominated for best picture in 1951 and along with "A Place in the Sun," should have received more careful attention from Academy voters. Their choice of "An American in Paris" as best picture left a bitter taste in the mouths of movie people."Decision Before Dawn" chronicles the U.S. army's attempt to recruit German soldiers to spy on their own countries. These recruits are tested at a prisoner of war camp.A very young Oskar Werner steals the show as one who is chosen. The picture becomes even more exciting as Werner eludes the German army as the gestapo is on to him. This film deals with those Germans who realized that the war was lost and what Germany had done, they want to redeem themselves even if it means that their countrymen would denounce them after the war. Then, there are those who would use this as an attempt to get back home and inform the army of the traitors among them.Werner gets terrific support from Gary Merrill and Richard Basehart, the latter a fantastically under-rated actor.

blanche-2 "Decision before Dawn," a 1951 20th Century Fox film, is one that possibly baby-boomers will remember from its TV premiere on "Saturday Night at the Movies." "Saturday Night at the Movies" was a Fox '60s television show that debuted many of the studio's films on the air. "The Desert Fox," "Diplomatic Courier," "There's No Business Like Show Business," "Halls of Montezuma" and dozens of others all were shown in prime time. The show had guest hosts, but the only one I can remember at the moment is Linda Darnell. It was the kind of show that got young people like myself interested in film. Today, with dedicated channels, it's a little harder for young kids to get exposure to old movies. I'm glad I was young when I was.Oskar Werner, Richard Basehart, Gary Merrill and Hildegarde Neff star in this fact-based World War II drama about the recruitment of German POWs to gather information on the German army toward the end of the war. One such volunteer is the solemn-faced "Happy" who believes that the war needs to end and peace restored. Though he and the others are viewed as traitors who have their own agendas, Happy proves that he's not "just another kraut" - which is one of the last phrases spoken in the film. As he attempts to perform his mission, he meets different people and has some experiences that demonstrate what the war was like for the common man who experienced it on their own soil. And he demonstrates his own humanity in the process.Filmed on location in the rubble of German cities and using Germans as extras, "Decision before Dawn" is one of the most realistic, atmospheric and accurate movies about World War II, with many suspenseful scenes that will have your nails bitten down to the quick. The casting is perfection. This was Werner's star-making role (though it didn't lead to anything in Hollywood right away), and he gives a very internalized, restrained performance, his solemn baby face giving very little away. The rest of the performances are excellent, with two ruggedly handsome men, Basehart and Merrill, very effective in their roles. Hans Christian Blech is a standout as another German prisoner who becomes a spy.As someone on IMDb pointed out, the anti-German sentiment was certainly still prevalent in America at the time of this film, and to show a German in a positive light, as well as what the Germans went through, was a brave decision. The fact is, Hitler didn't care a hoot about the people of Germany. He took their pots and pans, their food, and when they ran out of men, he took their 14-year-old sons. In the end, he blamed them for the war being lost. "Decision Before Dawn" is a great film that shows that not all Germans were Nazis. Some of them were just human beings.