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36 Hours (1964)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
5/26
5/26:
The DVD cover serves 36 Hours well.
The premise is quite riveting: a U.S. Army major is captured by the Nazis to find out the exact plans for
D-Day. When he reveals them, it's as exactly, but they don't believe him which makes for a somewhat amusing film.
So, what's the issue? It's rather anticlimactic. We all know that D-Day happened in Normandy on June 6, 1944.
Hence, there's no suspense. Writer-director George Seaton should've thought about this more. As airtight as
the scenario was, I wondered for a while how the major could get out of it, and the "aha" solution, which
I had completely forgotten about, became quite simple: the paper cut.
Anyway, I picked up 36 Hours for James Garner, but surprisingly, it's Rod Taylor who steals the show.
He has one terrific scene by explaining the difference between retrograde and anterograde amnesia while using
the armoire as an example. When his character finally saw the writing on the wall, I thought
the movie was over. But nooo...it kept going on and on, dragging my intended rating of '7' down by a notch.
Another winner is Werner Peters. His dialogues with Rod Taylor are rich. As for James Garner, he's
merely average. I can understand why he didn't talk about this film much in The Garner Files: A Memoir.
All he mentioned is: "The movie doesn't work because there's no suspense;
everybody knew that in real life the D-Day invasion was a success and that we'd won the war."
Hands down, the worst performance award goes to Eva Marie Saint. She's never believable as a victim of the
Holocaust. It would've been easier to make her character an Aryan devotee. After James Garner instructed
Eva Marie Saint to "run out of here hysterically," she flunked the test. Bizarrely, when he looked through
the window for her, she's actually standing behind him inside. How can somebody be in two places at once?
All in all, 36 Hours simply needs more excitement.