Decision Before Dawn
“A woman's kiss . . . A lighted cigarette - Each had Its meaning! An exciting and realistic story of war . . . of German Prisoners Sent Back Behind Their Own Lines as Agents of the Allies!”
Synopsis
WWII is entering its last phase: Germany is in ruins, but does not yield. The US army lacks crucial knowledge about the German units operating on the opposite side of the Rhine, and decides to send two German prisoners to gather information. The scheme is risky: the Gestapo retains a terribly efficient network to identify and capture spies and deserters. Moreover, it is not clear that "Tiger", who does not mind any dirty work as long as the price is right, and war-weary "Happy", who might be easily betrayed by his feelings, are dependable agents. After Tiger and another American agent are successfully infiltrated, Happy is parachuted in Bavaria. His duty: find out the whereabouts of a powerful German armored unit moving towards the western front.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 17
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Dorothy SpencerShot by Franz PlanerScored by Franz Waxman
Also known as
- Entscheidung vor Morgengrauende
- Le Traîtrefr
- I dannatiit
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Cast & Crew
17 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Richard Basehart
as Lt. Dick Rennick
Gary Merrill
as Col. Devlin
Oskar Werner
as Cpl. Karl Maurer - aka Happy
Hildegard Knef
as Hilde
Dominique Blanchar
as Monique
O E Hasse
as Col. Oberst von Ecker
Wilfried Seyferth
as Heinz Scholtz - SS Man
Hans Christian Blech
as Sgt. Rudolf Barth - aka Tiger
Helene Thimig
as Fräulein Paula Schneider
Robert Freitag
as Sgt. Paul Richter
Directors
1Writers
2Producers
2Other crew
3Parents Guide
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