36 Hours (1965)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

George Seaton

Writers:

George Seaton (screenplay)
Roald Dahl (story)

Release Date:

19 February 1965 (USA)

Genre:

War | Thriller

Plot:

Germans kidnap an American major and try to convince him that World War II is over, so that they can get details about the Allied invasion of Europe out of him.

Plot Keywords:

Interrogation | Normandy | Concentration Camp Survivor | Psychology | Gold Ring

Cast

James Garner	...	Major Jefferson Pike
Eva Marie Saint	...	Anna Hedler
Rod Taylor	...	Major Walter Gerber
Werner Peters	...	Otto Schack
John Banner	...	Ernst
Russell Thorson	...	General Allison
Alan Napier	...	Colonel Peter MacLean
Oscar Beregi Jr.	...	Lt. Colonel Ostermann (as Oscar Beregi)
Ed Gilbert	...	Captain Abbott
Sig Ruman	...	German Guard
Celia Lovsky	...	Elsa
Karl Held	...	Corporal Kenter
Martin Kosleck	...	Kraatz
Marjorie Bennett	...	Charwoman
Henry Rowland	...	German Soldier

Also Known As:

Thirty Six Hours (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German | Portuguese | French

Color:

Color | Black and White (archive footage)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | USA:Approved (Certificate #20743) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Portugal

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Goofs:

Factual errors: The postcard from Lisbon reads "Sudações de Lisboa". It should be "Saudações" instead.

Quotes:

Maj. Jefferson F. Pike: Are you really an army sergeant?
Sgt. Ernst: Regular army - no. I am too old, too fat! Home guard. We are patrolling the border so then the young, strong, and handsome men can go to Russia and freeze to death. Wonderful system, huh?
[Laughs]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Remington Steele: Forged Steele (#4.5)" (1985)

Give Me 36 Hours and I'll Give You a Traitor!

This is one of my favorite WW II movies. It's tag line was GIVE ME THIRTY SIX HOURS and I'll give you a traitor. D-Day is upon the Germans defending The Atlantic Wall. The US is about to launch a colossal invasion force on the European continent, but where will the blow strike? To be sure German agents kidnap American Major Pike (James Garner) from neutral Spain and send him deep into Germany where they've set up a Ptomekin village, a US post in an occupied Germany sometime five years hence. The psychologist an American born German serving in the Wehrmacht is to persuade captured Pike that Pike has been suffering from amnesia for five years and has now recovered his long term memory at the cost of losing his recent memory. The setting is idyllic and the gilted cage is cozy, replete with a faux-wife.

Will Pike see through the German plot? A must see unusually well done spy story.