Friday Night Movie number 33 – Decision Before Dawn

Apologies for the two-week break in Friday Night Movies but I’ve been overwise engaged in visiting one of Labour’s more disagreeable Shariah Shitholes, and have not had much of a chance to put some movies up.

Tonight’s offering is Decision Before Dawn, made in 1951 and is about a US army intelligence unit in Europe in the dying days of World War II. This unit have been sending French or Alsatian agents into Germany to gather intelligence on Nazi troop movements, but they are being consistently caught and executed. The military realise that only a natural born German will pass effectively in the ruins of the crumbling Reich and ask for volunteers from German POW’s to go and spy for the Allies.

The military ask for volunteers from among the POW’s, and a couple of men step forward. One is only after cash for acting as an agent against the Nazis and the other is a war-weary man who has seen his friend killed in the POW camp by fanatical Nazis. These were by no means ideal candidates for intelligence work, they have their personal flaws, but they are all the Americans have. Athough the Nazis are almost beaten, there is still great danger from the Gestapo, who are on the lookout for spys and those wavering in their support for Hitler’s regime.

This tense thriller goes some way to capturing the fear of discovery that must have been felt by all Allied agents operating behind enemy lines. The situation is particularily difficult for one of the agents in this case, because he is facing his own people, some of whom are of ill-intent, and desperately trying to carry out his mission and avoid capture and certain torture and death. This film really does bring out the oppressive nature of a ruined and collapsing Nazi Germany.

I enjoyed this film and I hope you enjoy it too.