Entscheidung vor Morgengrauen

Surprisingly good war film unknown to me before I saw it on American Movie Classics. Cast is excellent. Characters are well-drawn. The film is the best portrayal I have yet seen on celluloid of Germany in its stages of final collapse as the end of WWII nears. Some very impressive interiors are beautifully shot - the cathedral that serves as intelligence hq, and the castle or chateau that is the German command hq. Engrossing story of conflicted loyalties, and good action and suspense as well. I can only add my agreement with the positive comments already entered.

A taut story, first-rate acting, and a compelling subject make this film worth seeing.

Espionage/spying is a tricky subject, but "Decision Before Dawn" handles it brilliantly. No flash, no Mata Haris, no absurd coincidences. Weaving human drama and the grim realism of war, this film is that rare gem that manages to teach without preaching.

Among the superb performances is our hero Happy, played with just the right blend of suspense and humanity by Oskar Werner. Happy (an ironic name given to him by his American overseers) is torn between love of his native land and his duty to what is right. Werner walks this tightrope better than most I've seen.

In the end, however, it's the script that is the true gem of the film. Peter Viertel is a master story teller, with such great screenplays as "Saboteur" and "The Hard Way" to his credit. Viertel, with a story by author George Howe, weaves an intricate, but not confusing, narrative of war and devotion and duty. He's one of the few _writers_ I look for when I check out "On TV This Week" on IMDB.

Those were the outcasts of WW2.German war prisoners who decided to rebel against their country.

Karl-aka "Happy" - agrees to become a spy in the "pay" of Americans at the end of WW2 in his country .A country in ruins.The "Third Reich " which should have lasted one thousand years was collapsing.Oskar Werner gives a restrained moving performance.If "underacting" has a meaning (not meant pejoratively) ,that's exactly what it is.He watches his country fall as if he does not belong there anymore.He meets people he used to know ,a girl (Knef) he could love (but he won't),but he knows from the start that wherever he goes,he is an outcast.His new "Friends" use him as a pawn in their game,and " his motherland will not cradle him anymore" .

Anatole Litvak,an European who used to work in France -where the first scenes take place- in the thirties (and later would in the fifties/sixties)knows what he is talking about.He joined the army during WW2;and "decision before dawn" was one of his finest achievements .

Like this? try this...

Vent d' Est Robert Enrico 1993

I have seen this film on cable several times. Some of the scenes that are supposed to be in Wurzburg are actually in Munich. The chase scene in the rubble towards the end of the film was near the old Bavarian "Rezidence" or Royal palace that the Wittelsbach family lived in near the old town area of Munich. I recognized the Kriegsmuseum building which is now the seat of the Bavarian state government. Other than that I really enjoyed the film. Having read countless stories about the demise of the once mighty Wehrmacht this film was, to me, accurate in its portrayal of soldiers beaten down and waiting for the inevitable end. Werner has been one of my favorite actors. His performances in "The Spy who came in from the Cold", "Fahrenheit 451" are very good.

The movie puts you in WWII's closing days as you watch an idealistic young German Army medic become a traitor to his country by working as a spy in order to let the war end quickly and let peace return. The movie extras are former German soldiers, and you can tell by how they wear their "rag tag" uniforms and bark out commands in German. The scenes are superb. Bombed out areas of Germany were used, and one scene in a bombed out theater is especially great. You hear the falling glass and metal structures as the Gestopo search for the soldier. It is simply a very entertaining movie that lets one ponder: What would I have done if I were in his place?