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Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Absolutely Fantastic

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The middle of this movie, when Werner returns to England, is almost perfect movie-making. He brought a lot of soul to his role, and so did all of the other German characters. I thought it made a very vivid statement about what it was like in Germany in the waning days of the war.On the other hand, I thought the Americans were fairly silly. Square-jawed, baritoned, striding purposefully from place to place, always knowing exactly what needs to be done, the War-Winning Heroes in every way. They speak to Happy in an annoyingly condescending way, as if they are going to explain to him what war is all about. It rang false to me. Going by the other reviews here, I'm in a minority in this view.So I can do without those parts of the movie. Also the very end, when an American swims away under a hail of short-range gunfire and is miraculously untouched.But the depiction of Happy in Germany, and the conflicts he faces as he spies on his own country, was memorable.

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.

And simply the best of its kind on the subject. All the more remarkable for "a Hollywood production," but for my money it might as well be "a foreign film." I agree with the user who thought it took courage to make this.If I had to focus on the screenful of superlatives, it would be on Litvak's direction, the acting by all and by a young Oskar Werner without question (Stateside viewers may also recognize Herren Blech and Hasse as well as Frau Knef), the photography, and of course the story. Note the film's at-first subtle transition that begins with Happy's re-insertion. Afterwards, view Bernhard Wicki's "Die Bruecke."A note to the user who gently griped over the perceived inaccuracy of shooters: Try that while standing in a wind tunnel and you'll have some small idea of the challenge posed by a contemporaneous bombing raid. At least they weren't standing beneath trees...(UPDATE: Seek, find and read "Call It Treason," a novel by George Howe dedicated "To Happy 1925--1945.")

"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.