Evening star., 1952-01-30

SpcCId1 QlSt. 1CtlUIl DIS UIdIIld 1lcS
look it takes at human beings.
George Howe, Washington arc
original story. the novel Call It
Treason" is a keen observer not
only of what men do but why they
do it. The Goth Century-Fox film
has the intelligence to go along
with him on both scores. The re-
suit is a screenplay you owe it to
yourself to see in compensation
for all the empty. noisily preten-
tious war films" by which you
have been deceived or bored.
+
Decision Before Dawn" shot
exclusively. against the haunted
background Of Germany is. the
true story of a German medical
corporal who became a spy for
the American forces as they ap-
preached the Rhine near the end
of World War II.
1t is, incidentally. the dramatic
accounts of a number of others,
types that call for sound actors
rather than name performers.
These happily were found in Oskar
Werner. Viennese who plays the
hero, Gary Merrill. Richard Base
hart and several others.
Il u 4
Decision Before Dawn" begins
with the capture of Werner's
youthful. slender, steel-willed Ger
man in Eastern France. Now,
poised for the final push across
the Rhine, American Intelligence
is in need Of a special type of
agent. This is a man familiar with
Germany as only a German can
be. but one so disillusioned with
Hitler that he can see Germany's
redemption only in the Nazis' des-
truction.
Is any German TO be trusted?
Is the whole project the height
of madness. betting the lives Of
thousands of American troops on
the honor of so despicable an
enemy?
After subjecting Werner to
every test they can devise in a
special indoctrination routine-a
highly dramatic process as Howe
wrote it and as Litvak has directed
1.-THE decision is in favor CT
the German boy who looks like a
poet. He becomes the key man of
an intelligence team whose other
two members are an amoral Ger
man who will work for any one
who pays him most, and an
American intelligence officer who
mistrusts the whole venture OF
using Germans as spies.
Decision Before Dawn" makes
exciting drama of this area of the
story but the film takes on its
highest quiver Of suspense once
the team has been dropped be-
hind the German lines to find the
exact location Of a key Panzer
unit.
From this point on to the end,
the cameras focus is concentrated
upon Werner. He is a young Ger
man back in his homeland, free
to return to the Nazis with intelli-
gence that might prove vital to
them. He is minded. sensi-
tive enough to be fully conscious
of the moral challenge of betray-
ing his country in its hour of dir
est stress.
Hazards and temptations dog
his every footstep over the famil-
lar landscape of home. A suspi-
cious Nazi dispatch carrier be-
comes his unwanted companion;
he picks up with a beautiful. saw
agely disillusioned girl his own
age; he meets an old servant of
his family's who makes it clear
his assignments success will des-
troy his fathers life; and he fin
ally is trapped into a job as aide
to a top Nazi General in an al
most indescribably dramatic situ-
alton.
There is an enormous riches of
exciting incident to divert Litvak
in his translation of Howe's story
to the screen. Like the original
author, however. he uses it all
with a remarkable economy to