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.

nomoons11 As I fell asleep the night I watched this film I was in a pretty good mood. I couldn't believe I missed this film all these years. I'm glad I finally caught up with it.The first half of the film sees 2 GI's on their way to a base in France stumble onto 2 German soldiers who are lost from their outfit. One of these prisoners is the Oskar Werner character. The 2 GI's take them prisoner and take them to the very base they end up at. This base is for intelligence and it also holds POW's from the German army. This is where he decides to spy for the Americans.The second half of the film is just superb. Oskar Werner is then inserted behind enemy lines in his old uniform where he proceeds to gather the intelligence that the Allies want. This part of the film keeps you on the edge of your seat for the next hour. You get to see this character weave his way through German troop movements and trying to keep an SS intelligence officer off his tale.Part of the drama is getting to see the German side of the equation and what it was really like. To me the whole film is the Oskar Werner character and his facial expressions. He does speak but most of the film is the looks on his face. They are just sad and depressing and priceless. He was the star of this film. Oskar Werner was this film.

RanchoTuVu Close to the end of WW2, the US military recruits Nazi defectors from the ranks of German POW's to return to Germany as spies. Klaus Kinski makes a brief appearance during the interview process, but his character is rejected. Who is accepted to participate in this mission is incomparable Oskar Werner as Corporal Karl Maurer who is given the code name Happy. It's an ironic name for such a serious actor. He's perfect for the part in this heavy film set largely in the destruction of bombed out cities. Such a setting makes it difficult for the Germans to actually capture him, as when they are on to his trail, the aerial Allied bombings begin again. There are lots of places to hide amidst the treacherous ruins of the near collapsing buildings.Yet the Germans try to maintain discipline to the very end, as a deserter is hanged and his body is left for all to see. The film uses the destruction in which it is set and reminds us of how things change when the peace time environment becomes lost amidst the destruction. Werner goes through several meetings with Germans, the best being the Colonel who orders the deserter to be hanged, and another with the tragic character played by Hildegard Knef, whom he meets in a bar. Amidst the desperation still lurks a couple of true Nazi believers, one played quite well by Wilfred Seyferth as Heinz Scholtz, a dangerous SS man who befriends the traitor Werner. The film is overwhelmingly stark and lacks any sense of humor whatsoever, but in my book that just adds to the overall effect, much like some of the Cold War era spy films, such as The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

jacksflicks To me there's nothing, nothing that can compare with the locations of postwar Europe for drama and pathos -- The Third Man, The Search, and Decision Before Dawn. Actually, Decision Before Dawn was set during the war, towards the end, but all the locations, including interiors, are the postwar ruins of Germany. Producer/director Anatole Litvak used these locations brilliantly. Within them he staged crowd scenes, battle scenes and pursuits, wide-angle and closeup, that boggle the mind. Though Litvak didn't get a deserved a Best Director Oscar nomination, Decision Before Dawn did get a Best Picture nomination, for 1951.The cast credits are a bit deceptive. Although billed third, Oskar Werner is the undoubted star. From five minutes after the start to five minutes before the end, he is in virtually every scene. As an actor Werner is like another brilliant Austrian, Klaus Maria Brandauer. Both are mesmerizing -- each has a mannered hesitance that gives a move, a line a kind of italics. Even their eyes are captivating, Werner's limpid, Brandauer's penetrating. As much as I love to watch Werner and Brandauer, they both seem to gravitate towards tragic characters, like Brandauer's Mephisto and Colonel Redl and Werner's Ship of Fools and this movie. I never like to see these two meet bad ends, but I guess bad ends are what their personas call for.Decision Before Dawn (nice title but not much to do with the story) is also distinguished by a great supporting cast, including Richard Basehart and Gary Merrill and the incomparable Hildegaard Neff. See her also in post-war and Cold War suspense like Diplomatic Courier, opposite Tyrone Power, and The Man Between, opposite James Mason.Decision Before Dawn has a downbeat ending, which seemed to me a bit arbitrary, given some promising relationships. But we are also left with an intriguing question: Can a traitor be a hero? It's a question addressed by one of the best movies to come out of the postwar era.