James Garner (Maj. Jefferson Pike), Eva Marie Saint (Anna Hedler), Rod Taylor (Maj. Walter Gerber), Werner Paters (Otto Schick), Alan Napier (Col. Peter MacLean), John Banner (Ernst), Sig Ruman (German guard), Martin Kosleck (Kraatz)
"You came here wanting to remember. I wanted just as desperately to forget."
A motion picture viewer will often not want to see a movie that deals with historical aspects for one reason or another. Some feel they're watching a documentary, even though they're not. Others, feeling if it deals with an aspect of history they studied in school, refuse as "I know how it ends." (And most of the time they're wrong.) These individuals are missing out, as they've skipped some of the most intriguing and exciting films ever made.
A perfect example of this is 1964's 36 Hours, which deals which an intricate psychological plot of the Germans to get the secrets of the D-Day invasion. Taken from the short story 'Beware of the Dog' by Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach), additional story ideas were obtained from Carl K. Hillerman and Luis H. Howe.
Pike has been trusted with the most intricate secrets of the biggest military operation in history. The enemy's aware he's heading to Spain in order to obtain information and drug the man. When he awakens, it's 1950, and he doesn't know what's happened to him. And that's merely the beginning. Although bewildered at his turn of events, he never forgets who he is and his sense of duty remains.
While she is sympathetic to Pike's plight, Anna aids the Germans in order to stay out of the concentration camps. One can tell she doesn't care for her participation in the scheme, as the Nazis are everything she's against. The viewer despises what the woman's doing, yet totally comprehends why she is doing it. As the nurse begins to assist Pike, Anna truly begins to understand the importance of him, therefore his sense of duty. And it aiding him, she discovers her own.
Gerber is the most tragic figure of 36 Hours. A brilliant man raised by German-born parents who'd moved back to their homeland when he was a teenager, he's not an ardent Nazi. As a matter of fact, he despises the teachings of Adolf Hitler. The man considers himself loyal to Germany, not the party, and by the film's end, he's remembered to be loyal to himself. Like Pike, and like Anna, he has his own sense of duty.
Best known for Miracle On 34th Street, Seaton is one of filmdom's unheralded writer-directors. He collaborated with producer William Perlberg on more than thirty motion pictures, most of which Seaton helmed. 36 Hours was co-produced with Garner's Cherokee Productions. (This was the first movie for Garner's company to produce.)
Garner expressed his admiration for his director when he told of being mentally prepared for a challenging scene that took the entire day to film. On the way home, Garner thought about it, realizing he'd done it completely different from the way he'd originally intended due to Seaton's guidance. The actor wrote in his memoirs, "George had changed everything and I never knew it. That's a good director."
Garner confessed later he didn't think 36 Hours worked due to the fact history has let us know who was victorious at D-Day. In this aspect, the actor's incorrect, seeing how anything can happen in a motion picture. Throughout film history, we have seen children with naturally green hair, watched cars fly and viewed men on the moon before there were two-seater airplanes. We've even seen films were the Axis powers won World War II. Therefore, Garner should have recalled Alfred Hitchcock's saying in that, "It's only a movie." And it's one of the finest of the suspense genre.
The star trio's very enjoyable, and the camera work by Philip H. Lathrop is marvelous. But the true star of the movie is Seaton's script, with its clever deceit, multiple twists and sharp dialogue. A masterful and tragically forgotten presentation that shouldn't be missed. An excellent look at duty.
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