Product Description

Richard Basehart and Gary Merrill star in a film that?s ?as stirring a drama as any you'll want to see? (The New York Times). Adapted by Jack Rollens and Peter Viertel from George Howe?s novel Call It Treason, and directed by Anatole Litvak, this riveting World War II drama was nominated for the 1951 Best Picture Oscar®.

As the Third Reich declines in power, the Allies develop a radical new plan ? to employ German POWs as spies. Led by American Colonel Devlin (Merrill), and executed by Lieutenant Rennick (Baseheart), the plan is risky, and the tension builds as the Americans learn whether the former Nazis will help or betray the Allies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27556 in DVD
• Brand: BASEHART,RICHARD
• Released on: 2006-05-23
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, German
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 119 minutes

Amazon.com
Rooting for a German soldier was a daring choice for a movie made in 1951, but Decision Before Dawn justifies the risk; this is a crackling good war movie. In late 1944, the Allies are pushing through Europe but need intelligence behind German lines. Two Americans (Richard Basehart, Gary Merrill) recruit German POWs and enlist them to spy on their former Fatherland. We follow the adventures of one such agent, arrestingly played by the young Oskar Werner, who parachutes into Bavaria and gathers information. (Oddly, the film abandons Basehart and another recruit, marvelously played by Hans Christian Blech, who have also gone under cover.) The well-deployed suspense is accompanied by a constant examination of what it means to be German, and what loyalty to one's country really entails--dutiful devotion or skeptical rebellion? This question doesn't go deep (there's a sense that the movie is a make-nice effort toward a new economic ally), but the film is on solid ground whenever the clockwork suspense takes over. Hildegarde Knef (here billed under her Hollywood spelling, Neff) turns up as a conflicted fraulein. Director Anatole Litvak, shooting on location, gets some amazing shots of bombed-out buildings and ruined towns; in that sense, the film is almost like a documentary record of the postwar landscape. Decision Before Dawn was nominated for the best picture Oscar, but became a lesser-known film in the decades that followed. It deserves a higher profile. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

WWII film of the highest order...Knight's Cross
If you haven't seen this movie ( & I'm very sure most haven't ) you will be transported back to a space & time when realism meant business.
I saw this film about half a dozen times during the 60's on T.V., & as a kid I kept asking myself how could they make a movie that was so atmospheric, so vivid. Everybody & everything involved with this project clicks because they had Karma.
For the plot line, to the authenticity of the locals, all that is on the web. But if you know something about WWII in western Europe, specifically this stage of the war, the details the producers went to will astound you. From the cuff bands on uniforms, vehicle markings, to the single decal on the Waffen S.S. motorcyclist's helmet et al., these guys/women knew what they were doing.
It wasn't long after I first saw this film that I realized it was, in fact, Richard Basehart ( not a dashing figure, but the man could act ) who was the narrator for the great David L. Wolper WWII documentaries, also produced in the 60's.
Again, this is a tremendous humanistic/spy movie to experience, this is the benchmark.

Going home
Offbeat and emotionally involving tale of German turncoats spying for the Yanks in the closing days of WWII.

Largely forgotten, this intelligent thriller captured a best picture Oscar nomination in 1951. Unusual for war films of that period, it pulls no punches about the fears and miseries of that time in Europe. Oskar Werner is sensational as the German traitor motivated to help end the suffering caused by his country's continued resistance to the inevitable Allied victory. Similar in tone to "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold."

No extras on this Fox "Heroes of War" series title other than an odd news clip about the film getting an award.

Little known aspect of WW2 spys and intelligence gathering
Richard Basehart plays a US Army Intelligence Officer who recruits former German Army POW's (Oskar Werner)to go back into Germany to gather information to help the Allies near the end of the war. Tough, realistic view of spys and the intelligence business. A very good film and well worth watching. One of the best of this genre.