Hi Keith, Todd and all. Sorry I had not had time to post much here with the operation and moving house and all but, here goes my review for: Decision Before Dawn.
Decision Before Dawn starts out where an American Signals Officer by the name of Rennick ( played by my most favorite actor apart from Duke: Richard Basehart) afte being wounded during the Normandy landings-his Infantry carrerr is cut short and he is transferred to an Intelligence unit.
On the way to his new post, his Jeep drive gets lost and they soon run across a knocked out German Halftrack (which BTW, is the REAL deal) and they see movement which turns out to be two German soldiers one whom will be known by the code name: "Happy."
These two Prisoners are taken to a camp where after making a defeatist comment, the 2nd man is killed witnessed by "Happy." Happy in turn, decides to volunteer to work for the AMericans as he is disgusted with the Nazi mentality. Happy undergoes special traiing and soon is headed on a mission which also includes Lt. Rennick and another former German soldier/allied operative known as "Tiger."
Happy is dropped near a own in Bavaria, and his mission is to find out where the 11th Panzer Korps is located. Along the way, he meets with various characters-one whom knew him from civilian life and whom almost blows his cover.
Along the way, he also meets up with SS Special Courier (Wilfrid Seyffarth) and travels with him not knowing that he is also a Gestapo Agent. They travel to another city where they take a room at a "Soldatenheim" (Soldiers Home) or the German version of a USO shelter.
While at this Soldatenheim, one of the entertainers (Hildegard Knef) ""knows"" that Happy is not legit and that she sympathizes with him and later tells him that the Gestaop is watching him. Both then hop a ride on a transport truck where (Knef) points out that the soldier wearing the eyeglasses, is also a Gestapo agent and who was told (by the SS Special Courier) to watch Corporal Maurer-who is supposed to be named Steiner.
They near a bridge that leads to Heidelberg and all have to leave the vehicle as the bridges in the area all have been destroyed. This is when the man w/ the glasses actually meets (Steiner) and while they are walking together, several American fighter planes appear and bome and strafe the German column. During this time, the man w/ the eyeglasses, decides to try to kill (Steiner) but who is instead killed by Steiner. Steiner then goes over and finds a sheet of paper that is printed weekly that has the names of soldiers who can no longer be trusted for some reason and are to be arrested and questioned. Steiner also finds the dead mans Gestapo Warrent Disc and throws it away. He also takes the sheet of names and keeps it.
Later he makes his way over another bomb-damaged bridge, and sees that there is an Wehrmacht Checkpoint ahead checking I.D's and also notices that one of the men has the new sheet with his name on it. He decides to throw away his Soldbuch (I.D./Pay Book) which was fake and also had (Steiners) false info on it. However, as he gets to the front of the line, the SS men start questioniing (Steiner) at who he is, and he tells them he is Corporal Maurer-but they find that he is wearing (Steiners) Dog Tags and tell him to step over to be with a group o soldiers to be questioned.
Maurer does so and then uses this as a chance to make an escape. As he does so, several Feldgendarmerie--the German version of the Military Police) aka "Chained Dogs," go after him. He makes his way through the rubble of bombed out buildinigs and makes huis way to what used to be an Opera House-and sucessfully hides from the German Military Police. BTW, all of those Military Policemen are carrying my all-time most favorite weapon ever made-which is a Sturmgewehr 44 or also known as an MP-43.
During the cover of darkness, (Maurer-ex-Steiner) makes his way to Nekkerstrasse18-which is located in the highly bombed out City of Mannheim. All the rubble, uniforms, vehicles etc and extras you see who played soldiers from both sides-are the real deal. Maurer finds his way to the building and gets brought in by "Tiger" who takes him to Lt. Rennick. Rennick questions him and is told (to Tigers chagrin) where the location of the 11th Panzer Korps is. While there, they get visited by a German Officer-who was supposed to have info about his unit possibly surrendering but it's all for naught.
After the officer leaves, Rennick decides to leave as well and has the men come w/ him. Tiger takes them to a relative apartment where a young teenager who is in the Hitler Youth-is home. The boy questions why they are not at the front figlting like his father was, but is told to go into another room. This boy does so, then spies on Rennick, Tiger and Happy and hears them speaking English. The boy is noticed by them running away, and he is let go by Rennick and the boy runs to some soldiers to report these men.
The soldiers start searching for these men who have since hidden. This is a classic Film Noir scene where Richard Basehart (Lt. Rennick) is hiding in the shadows of a damaged wall, and the boy comes in and notices Rennick hiding-rennick then partly moves his face out of the shadows which then "Puts-a-face" to a man the boy knows will be killed if captured. The boy cries after he realizes what has happened and tells the soldiers that he was mistaken about anyone trying to escape.
Rennick and his detachment have no choice now, than to try to make it back to allied lines. They start off and soon have to evade many German Soldiers while trying to get to the river to swim across. They succeed in evading the soldiers and "Tiger" has his 2nd thoughts about returning with them and runs away only to be shot down by Rennick. Happy and Rennick make it part way across the wide river to an island but Happt develops a cramp and becomes a hinderance.
Rennick goes on as Happy is spotted and turns himself in. Rennick finally reaches the opposite shore where he is challenged by some G.I's and shot at. In the end, at his debriefing, he finds out from his CO that though his mission was successful, the info is by then-invalid. Rennick (thinking) decides that "Happy" should be remembered because he gave up his life in order to help out the Allies.
My opinion about this movie basically is that it's the best war movie I have ever seen. All of the actors did a great job in performing. You cannot get any more real, than this movie. Everything you see, blown up buildings, down to the buttons on a mans tunic-is the real deal.
