36 Hours

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36 Hours
Directed by George Seaton
Produced by William Perlberg
Written by George Seaton (screenplay)
Starring James Garner
Rod Taylor
Eva Marie Saint
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography Philip H. Lathrop
Editing by Adrienne Fazan
Distributed by MGM
Running time 115 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

36 Hours is a 1965 suspense film, based on a short story by Roald Dahl, starring James Garner, Eva Marie Saint and Rod Taylor, and directed by George Seaton.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Having attended General Eisenhower’s final briefing concerning D-Day, US Army Major Jefferson Pike (James Garner) is sent from London to confirm with a German official he has recruited in Lisbon that the Nazis still expect the invasion in the wrong place. However, Pike falls into a trap; he is drugged into unconsciousness.

Pike wakes up in a US Army hospital in postwar, occupied Germany five years later, with no memory of the intervening period. The psychiatrist handling his case, Major Walter Gerber (Rod Taylor), explains that he has been having episodes of memory loss for the past few years, ever since he sustained physical trauma in Portugal in June, 1944. He advises Pike not to worry, as his blocked memories have always resurfaced within a few weeks, helped along by a treatment that mostly consists of remembering events before Lisbon, and then pushing on into the blank period. Gerber is assisted by nurse Anna Hedler (Eva Marie Saint).

Pike is gratified that his pre-Lisbon memories, at least, are intact and clear. For instance, he remembers the D-Day briefing as if it happened only yesterday. As part of the therapy, he recounts the details of the D-Day invasion, particularly the all-important location of Normandy (rather than Pas de Calais, as believed by the German high command) as well as the date, June 5, to Gerber and Otto Schack (Werner Peters).

Pike finally realizes that it is all a trick when he notices that a nearly-invisible paper cut he got in 1944 hasn’t healed yet. Gerber, as it turns out, is an American of German origin who had returned to the Fatherland to serve the Nazi cause. With the assistance of Anna, who is actually a concentration camp inmate, Pike manages to convince intelligence agent Schack that he knew all along that it was a ruse. Gerber is skeptical though and plays one last trick, setting the clock in Pike’s room ahead several hours. When Pike thinks the invasion has begun, he lets his guard down and confirms Gerber's suspicions. Fortunately for Pike and the Allies, the weather is too rough and Eisenhower postpones the invasion a day, discrediting Gerber.

When the Allies do land on the 6th, Gerber knows that Schack will soon return, looking for a scapegoat to save his own life, so the doctor lets Anna and Pike go, asking Pike to take his psychological research papers with him. He then takes poison. When Schack shows up, Gerber tries to shoot him, but dies too soon. Schack pursues the couple alone, ordering his men to follow when they are assembled.

Anna and Pike find a frankly corrupt, middle-aged German border guard, Sgt. Ernst (John Banner), who is willing to help them cross the border in return for Pike’s watch and Hedler’s gold ring. Ernst gives his girlfriend Elsa (Celia Lovsky) the ring.

After the couple and Ernst head for the border, Schack shows up at Ernst’s house. When he sees Hedler’s gold ring on Elsa’s finger, he forces her to tell him where to find the escapees. Schack catches up with Pike and Hedler as they approach the barbed wire, but Ernst shoots him. Ernst and Pike arrange Schack’s body to make it look as if he was 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 Hedler's fate is not as certain. In the final scene, the cars come to a fork in the road, with one turning left to the American embassy and the other veering to the right, to a refugee camp.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Background

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