36 Hours (1965 film)
36 Hours | |
---|---|
Movie poster | |
Directed by | George Seaton |
Produced by | William Perlberg |
Screenplay by | George Seaton |
Story by |
Carl K. Hittleman
|
Based on |
"Beware of the Dog" by Roald Dahl |
Starring |
James Garner Rod Taylor Eva Marie Saint |
Music by | Dimitri Tiomkin |
Cinematography | Philip H. Lathrop |
Edited by | Adrienne Fazan |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 115 min. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $2,200,000 (US/ Canada rentals)[1] |
36 Hours is a 1965 American suspense film, based on the short story "Beware of the Dog" by Roald Dahl.[2] The picture stars James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, and Rod Taylor and was directed by George Seaton. On June 2, 1944, a German army doctor tries to obtain vital information from an American military intelligence officer by convincing him that it is 1950 and World War II is long over.
Plot
Having attended General Eisenhower's final briefing on the Normandy landings, U.S. Army Major Jeff Pike is sent to Lisbon on June 1, 1944, to confirm with an informant that the Nazis still incorrectly expect the invasion at the Pas de Calais. Pike falls into a trap in Lisbon, where he is drugged into unconsciousness and transported to Germany.
Pike wakes up in a U.S. Army Hospital. His hair is graying, and he needs glasses to read. He is told it is May 1950 and the hospital is in post-war Occupied Germany. Major Walter Gerber, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, explains that Pike has been having episodes of memory loss for the past few years, ever since he was tortured in Lisbon. He advises Pike that his blocked memories have always resurfaced, helped along by a therapy of remembering events prior to Lisbon and then pushing forward into the blank period. Gerber is assisted by a nurse, the dispassionate Anna Hedler. Pike is provided with letters written by his father, and current photos of his parents. He is shown current newspapers and hears American Forces radio broadcasts, while the hospital grounds are full of American staff and patients.
Pike is completely taken in by the deception. As part of his "therapy", and after being lulled with summary details of the quick end to the war after the invasion, he recounts the details of the invasion plans, including the location, the code words, troop dispositions and the date, June 5, to his eager listeners. They plan to continue his therapy later that day, rushing off provide the initial information to the German leadership.
When Pike notices that a nearly invisible paper cut he got the day he left for Lisbon, he realizes that it is a hoax. He confirms it by tricking an "American" soldier into snapping to attention in a reflexively German manner. He confronts Anna, who admits that the date is June 2, 1944. Anna was recruited from the horrific physical, sexual and psychological abuse of a concentration camp (explaining her discomfort at being touched and her dispassionate way) because she was a nurse and spoke English.
Pike devises a way to salvage the secrecy of the invasion. He sends Anna to tell Gerber that he was on to the plot, while he makes a feeble attempt to escape. Quickly recaptured, he shows Gerber the paper cut ands states that he had been aware soon after waking up. When Gerber points out the intricate details that Pike had provided about Normandy, Pike rebuts that it was easy to recite his well-practiced "cover story" about Normandy.
Gerber points out that both he and Pike will be in trouble with the German military authorities. He has come to like Pike, having researched him for many months to prepare the plot. Gerber is a German-American psychiatrist who had moved to the Fatherland to provide medical care when the war started. He developed genuine techniques to treat amnesia in traumitized young soldiers returning from the Russian Front, but the military had perverted this purpose. He explains that Pike's vision had been impaired by an injection of atropine.
After two days of brutal interrogation, Pike and Anna convince SS Officer Schack, who had originally posed as a local restaurant owner, that Pike knew all along about the ruse. Schack now believes the invasion will be at Pas de Calais. Gerber does not, so he sets the clock forward in Pike and Anna's room so they think it is the morning of June 5, then states that the Germans had been surprised at Normandy. Pike lets his guard down and gloats about having distracted Schack from Normandy. Gerber sends an emergency dispatch to Wehrmacht authorities, which Schack reads and belittles, even suggesting Gerber may be a double agent. As it happens, the weather on June 5 is too rough and Eisenhower postpones the invasion by a day. By midday June 5, Gerber is discredited and Schack orders his arrest.
Gerber knows that Schack will return to kill them, to cover his own blunder, when the Normandy information proves correct. Gerber helps Anna and Pike escape, asking Pike to take his groundbreaking research on amnesiacs to the West. When he hears the news that the Normandy landing has commenced the morning of June 6 he laughs at Schack, showing him that he has taken poison and pointing out that Schack will likely be killed for being failure. Schack pursues the escaped couple on his own.
The couple flee to a local minister, who Pike had revealed (before realizing the hoax) has helped downed RAF pilots escape to nearby Switzerland. The minister is away but his housekeeper, Elsa, connects them with a middle-aged German border guard, Sgt. Ernst, who never believed the Nazis would survive and accumulates wealth (and learns English) by helping escapees. Pike gives his watch and Anna the rings that formed part of her marriage story. Ernst gives Elsa one of the rings. Schack shows up at the minister's after Ernst and the couple have left for the border – he recognizes Anna's ring on Elsa’s finger and forces her to reveal the escape plan. Schack catches up with Pike and Anna at the border, but Ernst shoots him because he doesn't want Schack to mess up his human-smuggling business. Ernst and Pike arrange Schack’s body to make it look as if he had been killed while trying to escape.
Safely in Switzerland, Pike and Hedler are put in separate cars. Pike is told he will be taken to the U.S. Embassy, while Anna will be taken to a refugee camp. Anna is still uncomfortable when Pike moves to hug her goodbye, but she does cry as they both depart, her first display of emotion in years.
Cast
- James Garner as Major Jefferson F. Pike
- Eva Marie Saint as Anna Hedler
- Rod Taylor as Major Walter Gerber
- Werner Peters as Otto Schack
- John Banner as Sgt. Ernst
- Russell Thorson as General Allison
- Alan Napier as Colonel Peter MacLean
- Oscar Beregi, Jr. as Lt. Colonel Karl Ostermann (as Oscar Beregi)
- Ed Gilbert as Captain Abbott
- Sig Ruman as German Guard
- Celia Lovsky as Elsa
- Carl Held as Corporal Kenter (as Karl Held)
- Martin Kosleck as Kraatz
- Henry Rowland as German Soldier
- Otto Reichow as German Soldier
- Hilda Plowright as German Agent
- Walter Friedel as Denker
- Joseph Mell as Lemke
Production
Most of the film was shot in Yosemite National Park.[3] Exterior shots were filmed at the Wawona Hotel near the entrance of Yosemite National Park.
Reception
The New Yorker called the film an "ingenious thriller" and praised Garner, Saint, and Taylor for being "plausible in highly implausible roles."[4]
Background
- D-Day was actually delayed a day because of the inclement weather, which was also a major plot point of the film Garner had made just before this one, The Americanization of Emily (1964).
- Banner's part, which provided the comedy relief in this movie, was the model for his role as another easy-going German soldier, POW camp guard Sgt. Schultz, in the TV series Hogan's Heroes (1965–71). Coincidentally, Sig Ruman played POW camp guard Sgt. Schultz in the movie Stalag 17.
- The film was remade as a 1989 TV movie Breaking Point starring Corbin Bernsen.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ This figure consists of anticipated rentals accruing distributors in North America. See "Top Grossers of 1965", Variety, 5 January 1966 p 36 and Stephen Vagg, Rod Taylor: An Aussie in Hollywood, Bear Manor Media, 2010 p104
- ↑ http://www.roalddahlfans.com/shortstories/bewa.php "Beware of the Dog" by Roald Dahl
- ↑ Stephen Vagg, Rod Taylor: An Aussie in Hollywood (Bear Manor Media, 2010) p103
- ↑ http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1965-06-19
- ↑ Inman, David (8 November 2010). "'36 Hours' is World War II thriller". Indianapolis Star. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
External links
- 36 Hours at the Internet Movie Database
- 36 Hours at AllMovie
- 36 Hours at the TCM Movie Database
- 36 Hours at Rotten Tomatoes
- James Garner Interview on the Charlie Rose Show
- James Garner interview at Archive of American Television