RondoHatton "Decision Before Dawn" is a great flick, starring Richard Basehart & Oskar Werner. It was one of the first movies shown on NBC's Saturday Night At The Movies in 1961. Basehart & Gary Merrill give their usual solid performances, and Oskar Werner as the doomed Allied agent is excellent. I was 9 or 10 when I first saw it, & rented the VHS tape almost 30 years later, and was overjoyed to see how well it had stood the test of time. I was also able to rent at this video store in Eureka, California a couple more of the "Saturday Night At The Movies" offerings from back then were "The Day The Earth Stood Still"(total classic, of course) , and "Destination Gobi".......it was fare like this that spoiled me when Saturday nights on NBC got polluted with "Movies Of The Week" garbage like McCloud & others.

MartinHafer I have seen 147239423 war films, so it takes a very unusual one to merit an 8. Heck, I almost gave this one a 9--it's that good and that unique.The film is set in the latter portion of WWII. A group of German prisoners are recruited to become spies for the Americans. They want the men to sneak back into Germany and pinpoint targets for them. However, most of the Germans are still very loyal to Hitler and the only ones willing are selfish jerks. An exception is a young man played by Oskar Werner. Unlike his countrymen, he really sees the war as an evil thing and agrees to go back into his homeland on an espionage mission. Can he discover what the Allies want AND make it out alive? I liked this film--even though Werner's performance was a bit too muted. In other words, he was generally very quiet and somewhat expressionless--an acting style he carried into other film such as "Fahrenheit 451" and "Jules and Jim". But, as I said, I still liked the film. Perhaps the biggest reason was that it was actually filmed in Germany and I was surprised that I recognized so many locales (I've visited the country a couple times). Würzburg in the movie really WAS Würzburg! And, one portion was clearly filmed in Rothenburg. Additionally, the story was unique and quite tense. Well worth your time--though it is odd how in old films the Germans almost always seem to speak English!! I wish they'd just used German with subtitles.

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.