| Decision Before Dawn | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Anatole Litvak |
| Screenplay by | Peter Viertel |
| Based on | Call It Treason byGeorge Howe |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Richard Basehart |
| Cinematography | Franz Planer |
| Edited by | Dorothy Spencer |
| Music by | Franz Waxman |
| Distributed by | 20th Century-Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 119 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1.55 million (US rentals)[1] |
Decision Before Dawn is a 1951 Americanwar film directed byAnatole Litvak, starringRichard Basehart,Oskar Werner, andHans Christian Blech. It tells the story of theU.S. Army using potentially unreliable German prisoners of war to gather intelligence as clandestine "line-crossers" in the closing days ofWorld War II. The film was adapted byPeter Viertel and Jack Rollens (uncredited) from the novelCall It Treason byGeorge L. Howe. The film was a critical success and was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Picture.
By late 1944, as the Allies marchtoward the Rhine, it is obvious Germany will lose the war. American Colonel Devlin (Gary Merrill) leads amilitary intelligence unit that enlists GermanPOWs to cross back over and spy on their former comrades. "Tiger" (Hans Christian Blech), a cynical mercenary, is one such recruit. There is also "Happy" (Oskar Werner), a young, idealistic medical student. Monique (Dominique Blanchar), a formerresistance operative, trains Happy and others in espionage techniques. Later, Devlin learns aWehrmacht general wants to negotiate surrender of his entire command. Thus, a mission is organized. Devlin selects Lieutenant Rennick (Richard Basehart) to lead. He is a man who hates turncoats on both sides of the war. Tiger is chosen; he knows the area well. Happy is given a related task of locating the 11th Panzer Corps, which might oppose the mass surrender. All three parachute into Germany, then split up.
During his search for the 11th Panzer unit, Happy encounters Germans with differing attitudes towards the war. On buses and trains, in guest houses and taverns, he meets those who are still defiant, such asSS courier Scholtz (Wilfried Seyferth), and those who are now resigned to defeat, like Hilde (Hildegard Knef), a war widow turned hooker. Eventually, Happy locates the 11th Panzer, posing as a medic. He is selected to treat its commander, Oberst von Ecker (O.E. Hasse), at his castle headquarters. Afterwards, Happy narrowly escapes capture by theGestapo. He makes his way to asafe house in the ruins of heavily-bombedMannheim, where Rennick and Tiger hide out. They have learned that the German commander they were to contact has supposedly been injured and in a hospital under SS guard; without him, the other German officers cannot and will not surrender to the Allies.
After their radio is knocked out, Happy, Tiger, and Rennick make their way to the banks of theRhine, where they plan to swim across to American lines. At the last moment, however, Tiger loses his nerve and runs away, forcing Rennick to kill him, lest their mission be revealed. As Rennick and Happy are about to swim for the opposite shore, they are spotted. Facing torture and execution, Happy nonetheless bravely draws the Germans' attention away from Rennick by surrendering. His sacrifice enables the lieutenant to make it to safety. Thus Rennick survives, with his previous ideas on "treason" now challenged.
The film was adapted from the novelCall it Treason, which was based on the wartime experiences of the author George L. Howe, who served with theOffice of Strategic Services unit attached to theSeventh Army during World War II.[2]
The citizens of the cities ofWürzburg,Nürnberg, andMannheim, where some of the picture's battle scenes were shot, were forewarned of their filming by newspaper and radio announcements. Some were overseen by the U.S. military, as Germany was still undermilitary occupation at the time the film was shot.[3]
At the24th Academy Awards,Decision Before Dawn was nominated for theBest Picture Oscar, withDorothy Spencer nominated forBest Film Editing.
Bob Thomas praised the film in his 1951 newspaper column, describing it as "movie-making at its best. ... By using the real German cities and people, this film has created a stirring and realistic picture of a dying nation."[4] He also praised the performances of Basehart, Merrill and Werner.
Upon seeing the film,General Douglas MacArthur said "This is the finest picture I have seen this year, and I nominate it for an Academy Award."[5]
In a 2006 review,Chicago Reader film critic J.R. Jones was less enthused, writing "By the time Fox released this 1952 feature, the patriotic orthodoxy of Hollywood war movies had softened enough to allow for a German hero, but not a very engaging one; the inherent drama of his divided loyalty is mostly bypassed in favor of a slack espionage plot."[6] However, Jones applauded Werner's "magnetic performance" and thought that Knef "is devastating in her brief turn as a war-weary hooker."[6]
In 2008Emanuel Levy calledDecision Before Dawn a "stirring drama ... And while not made as an explicitly agit-prop, it does convey its humanist anti-war message, without the usual sentimentality."[7]
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