Editing Decision Before Dawn

{{Short description|1951 film by Anatole Litvak}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Decision Before Dawn
| image          = Original movie poster for the film Decision Before Dawn.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[Anatole Litvak]]
| producer       = {{ubl|Anatole Litvak|[[Frank McCarthy (producer)|Frank McCarthy]]}}
| based_on       = {{based on|''Call It Treason''<br>1949 novel|[[George Howe (novelist)|George Howe]]}}
| screenplay     = [[Peter Viertel]]
| narrator       = Richard Basehart
| starring       = {{ubl|[[Richard Basehart]]|[[Gary Merrill]]|[[Oskar Werner]]|[[Hildegard Knef]]}}
| music          = [[Franz Waxman]]
| cinematography = [[Franz Planer]]
| editing        = [[Dorothy Spencer]]
| distributor    = [[20th Century-Fox]]
| released       = {{Film date|1951|12|21}}
| runtime        = 119 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| gross          = $1.55 million (US rentals)<ref>"Top Box-Office Hits of 1952", ''Variety'', January 7, 1953</ref>
}}
'''''Decision Before Dawn''''' is a 1951 American [[war film]] directed by [[Anatole Litvak]], starring [[Richard Basehart]], [[Oskar Werner]], and [[Hans Christian Blech]]. It tells the story of the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] using potentially unreliable German prisoners of war to gather intelligence as clandestine "line-crossers" in the closing days of [[World War II]]. The film was adapted by [[Peter Viertel]] and Jack Rollens (uncredited) from the novel ''Call It Treason'' by [[George L. Howe]]. The film was a critical success and was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]].

==Plot==
By late 1944, as the Allies march [[Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine|toward the Rhine]], it is obvious Germany will lose the war. American Colonel Devlin ([[Gary Merrill]]) leads a [[Military Intelligence Corps (United States Army)|military intelligence]] unit that enlists German [[Prisoner of war|POWs]] 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 former [[French Resistance|resistance]] operative, trains Happy and others in espionage techniques. Later, Devlin learns a [[Wehrmacht]] 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 as [[Waffen-SS|SS]] 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 the [[Gestapo]]. He makes his way to a [[safe house]] in the ruins of heavily-bombed [[Mannheim]], 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 the [[Rhine River|Rhine]], 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.

==Cast==
* [[Oskar Werner]] as [[Obergefreiter|Corporal]] Karl Maurer ("Happy")
* [[Richard Basehart]] as Lieutenant Dick Rennick
* [[Hans Christian Blech]] as [[Feldwebel|Sergeant]] Rudolf Barth ("Tiger")
* [[Gary Merrill]] as Colonel Devlin
* [[Hildegard Knef]] as Hilde
* [[Wilfried Seyferth]] as Heinz Scholtz
* [[Dominique Blanchar]] as Monique
* [[O.E. Hasse]] as Oberst (Colonel) von Ecker
* [[Helene Thimig]] as Paula Schneider

==Production==
The film was adapted from the novel ''Call it Treason'', which was based on the wartime experiences of the author George L. Howe, who served with the [[Office of Strategic Services]] unit attached to the [[Seventh United States Army|Seventh Army]] during World War II.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Driscoll Jr. |first1=Edgar J. |title=George L. Howe, 79, Was Architect, Author, OSS Officer in World War II |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-george-howe-obituary/142363944/ |access-date=29 February 2024 |work=The Boston Globe |date=21 June 1977 |pages=36|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>

The citizens of the cities of [[Würzburg]], [[Nürnberg]], and [[Mannheim]], 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 under [[Allied-occupied Germany|military occupation]] at the time the film was shot.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/72701/decision-before-dawn#articles-reviews |title=Decision Before Dawn (1951) - Articles |publisher=Turner Classic Movies |access-date=2018-01-21}}</ref>

==Reception==
At the [[24th Academy Awards]], ''Decision Before Dawn'' was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture Oscar]], with [[Dorothy Spencer]] nominated for [[Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing]].

[[Bob Thomas (reporter)|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."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SCS19511224.1.15&srpos=7&e=------195-en--20-SCS-1--txt-txIN-%22capsule+review%22----1951---1 |title=Hollywood |author=Bob Thomas |newspaper=[[Santa Cruz Sentinel]] |date=December 24, 1951}}</ref> 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."<ref name=LAT>''Los Angeles Times'', January 12, 1952, p. 12</ref>

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."<ref name=CR>{{cite news |url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/decision-before-dawn/Film?oid=1058603 |title=Decision Before Dawn |author=J.R. Jones |newspaper=Chicago Reader |date=May 26, 2006}}</ref> However, Jones applauded Werner's "magnetic performance" and thought that Knef "is devastating in her brief turn as a war-weary hooker."<ref name=CR/>

In 2008 [[Emanuel Levy]] called ''Decision 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."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://emanuellevy.com/review/decision-before-dawn-9/ |title=Decision Before Dawn (1951): Best Picture Oscar-Nominated War Film |author=Emanuel Levy |date=January 24, 2008}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|id=0043459}}
* [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/decision-before-dawn-am16818 ''Decision Before Dawn'' at AllMovie]
* {{TCMDb title|id=72701}}
* {{AFI film|id=50075|title=Decision Before Dawn}}
* {{rotten-tomatoes|decision_before_dawn/reviews|Decision Before Dawn}}

{{Anatole Litvak}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1951 films]]
[[Category:1951 war films]]
[[Category:American spy films]]
[[Category:American war films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films about the German Resistance]]
[[Category:Films based on military novels]]
[[Category:Films scored by Franz Waxman]]
[[Category:Films directed by Anatole Litvak]]
[[Category:20th Century Fox films]]
[[Category:Western Front of World War II films]]
[[Category:World War II spy films]]
[[Category:1950s English-language films]]
[[Category:1950s American films]]
[[Category:Films set in Germany]]
[[Category:Films set in 1944]]
[[Category:Films shot in Munich]]
[[Category:Films shot in Bavaria]]
[[Category:Films shot in Germany]]
[[Category:English-language war films]]