Main Cast: James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Taylor, Werner Peters, John Banner, Russell Thorson
Release Year: 1964
Country: US
Run Time: 115 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
In 1950, Maj. Jefferson Pike (James Garner), an Army intelligence agent who served with distinction in World War II, awakens in a hospital with severe amnesia. He isn't sure where he is, how he got there, or even who the woman at his side is, even though the doctor tells him that her name is Anna (Eva Marie Saint) and that she is his wife. The doctor instructs Pike to recall, in as much detail as possible, what he was doing before the accident that caused his traumatic memory loss. But the doctor isn't a doctor, Anna isn't Pike's wife, it isn't 1950, and he isn't in an American hospital. World War II is still very much in progress, and Pike is being duped in an elaborate scheme prepared by Maj. Walter Gerber (Rod Taylor), a German intelligence agent. Gerber is trying to trick a drugged and suggestible Pike into telling him everything he knows, as the injured soldier lies in a Bavarian military hospital after being taken prisoner. Will Pike be able to see through the cracks in Gerber's facade before he spills the beans that could mean death and defeat for American soldiers? 36 Hours was later remade for TV under the title Breaking Point. TV fans will want to keep an eye peeled for bit parts by James Doohan from Star Trek and John Banner from Hogan's Heroes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
36 Hours has a premise that's intriguing but which also stretches credulity past what many viewers will consider the breaking point: would Nazi officials in desperate need of extracting vital information about the planned Allied landing really resort to an elaborate hoax to coax it out of an American officer, rather than simply devise a more direct method of interrogation? And even if they did opt to, would they really be able to set up such a complicated ruse in the time allotted? As a theatrical gimmick, however, it has a great deal of potential; unfortunately, writer/director George Seaton seriously undercuts its effectiveness by letting the audience in on the charade early on, rather than letting them discover it as the American officer himself does. The lengthy escape near the end also mutes the film's impact, coming off as too derivative and obligatory. Despite its flaws, however, Hours is an enjoyable espionage thriller, thanks in large part to James Garner and Rod Taylor. Garner is well cast as an honorable, dedicated Army man put into a situation in which he has to determine what is reality and what is fantasy. Taylor does even better as the psychiatrist out to trap him, despite the fact that he has genuine admiration for her adversary's sterling qualities. Eva Marie Saint seems a bit miscast as the supposed wife, but Warner Peters is effective as the venomous Nazi. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Alan Napier - Col. Peter MacLean; Oscar Beregi - Lt. Col. Ostermann; Sig Rumann - German Guard; Celia Lovsky - Elsa; Karl Held - Cpl. Kenter; Martin Kosleck - Kraatz; Marjorie Bennett - Charwoman; Henry Rowland - German Soldier; Otto Reichow - German Soldier; Hilda Plowright - German Agent; Walter Friedel - Denker; Joseph Mell - Lemke; Rudolph Anders - Dr. Winterstein; Leslie E. Bradley - British Announcer; Howard Curtis - Dutton; George Dee - French Informer; John Dennis - M.P. Guard; Joe di Reda; James Doohan - Bishop; Horst Ebersberg - Swiss Officer; Ed Gilbert - Capt. Abbott; Walter Janowitz - Dr. Metzler; Roy Jenson - Soldier; Barry Macollum - Bartender; Owen McGiveney - Elderly Man; Jeff Morris - GI; Richard Peel - Dudley; Norbert Schiller - Dr. Wittelbach; Rolfe Sedan - Frenchman; Michael Stroka; John Hart - Perkins; Eric Micklewood - British Officer; Chris Anders - German Officer; Kort Falkenberg - Radio Voice; John Gilgreen - Lt. Busch; Paul Busch - German; Harold Dyrenforth - Maj. Gen. Ungerland; Luis Delgado - Lieutenant; Henry Dar Boggia
Having attended General Eisenhower’s final briefing concerning D-Day, US ArmyMajor Jefferson Pike (James Garner) is sent from London to confirm with a German double agent 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 prior to Lisbon, and then pushing on into the blank period. Gerber is assisted by Pike's "wife", 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 a German-American 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 the next day, 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 had been 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.
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 would find more lasting fame as another easygoing, German, World War II guard, Sgt. Schultz in the TV series Hogan's Heroes.
