Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Wuchak Released in 1964 and shot in B&W, "36 Hours" takes place during WWII right before the Allied Normandy invasion. James Garner plays Major Pike, who has detailed info on the attack. He's drugged & kidnapped by the Germans and wakes up in a supposed US military hospital where he's told its six years after the war. Will he discover the ruse before inadvertently revealing details about D-Day? Eva Marie Saint plays his nurse, Rod Taylor his doctor and Werner Peters a Nazi. John Banner (aka Sgt. Schultz) is also on hand.The best thing about this movie is the ingenious con of the plot and the anticipation of how Pike will figure out what's really happening and how he'll escape. It's similar to 1958's "The Young Lions" and 1964's "The Americanization of Emily" in that it's a WWII drama/thriller shot in B&W. The plot's so intriguing that it's been borrowed for other movies and TV shows, like three episodes of the Star Trek franchise (The Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise). While not great like "The Young Lions" it's well done. The dated score detracts, however, as does the B&W photography.The movie runs 115 minutes and was shot in Lisbon, Portugal, and Wawona Hotel and grounds, Yosemite National Park, California.GRADE: B

dimplet What is most remarkable about "36 Hours" is the year it was made: 1965. With the third and best Bond movie having been released in 1964, Hollywood and England were in the midst of 1,001 iterations of the secret agent theme. To the modern viewer, this appears a knock off of "The Prisoner," but actually that was first broadcast in 1967. One poster says McGoohan outlined the concept in 1965, which still raises the possibility that "36 Hours" was a direct inspiration. However, there were hints of what was to come in his Danger Man/Secret Agent series. And some say "The Prisoner" was based on a real spy village. Some might say "36 Hours" is an homage to Hitchcock. The concept certainly is, and there is a reason: Roadl Dahl also wrote several of the best "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" television episodes. The early scenes, where there a so many gray, little people who are actually spies is true to the Hitchcock paranoia, as is the sense of atmosphere. However, the directorial style is not Hitchcock, and one must wonder what the movie would have looked like in his hands. I think the pace would have felt more taut, with more buildup of suspense. Another factor is the music. Look at the Portugal scenes - they look like Hitch, but the music by Dimitri Tiomkin is far too light for suspense. There was very little music later in the movie to set the mood. Bernard Herrmann would have given it more of a Hitch feel. So, I think they were trying not to imitate Hitch -- perhaps too hard. Some complain that it is too slow, and, indeed, at points the movie does feel like it is 36 hours. But I strongly feel we have become an ADHD nation of short attention span due to modern editing. The slower pace gives you time to absorb the details and atmosphere, which is as much of the story as the explanatory dialogue. And you don't feel like a limp rag when it is over. There are elements that echo Hitch's "North By Northwest," which co- starred Eva Marie Saint, a very pretty face with nothing to prove. Here, she gets to act a very different persona, and she creates a convincing younger version of Marlene Dietrich, with just a touch of German accent. They don't come more handsome than James Garner, but he, too, gets a chance to prove his acting chops. Rod Taylor also was in a Hitch classic: "The Birds," and gives a convincing performance here, one of his best. So there is some great acting to be seen."36 Hours" is about a Great Con, much like "The Sting" 1973, and the earlier "Went the Day Well?" 1942, which also entailed Germans speaking perfect English. Actually, there was much about D-Day that was a Great Con, much of which has only come out more recently. Lots of clues "accidentally" fell into German hands, including a corpse of a courier, the part-brainchild of Ian Fleming (who also hatched a scheme that sounds a bit like "U-571.") There were lots of real cons going on on the Allied side, so in that light, it is not so improbable that the Germans would try one of their own, if they had had the imagination. It takes a while for the plot to thicken, say, about half the movie. The details eventually come together nicely, the hallmark of Roald Dahl. The clicking heels was a nice touch as a giveaway. The Germans now face the problem of whom and which version to believe, and the fall back to believing the Pas de Calais option is executed believably. Here, we see hints of the tricks that were played, historically. The movie seems to stay true to the era.With all the attention to detail, there was one oddity: the coffee, which was served in a French press without any plunger. You cannot make coffee, then remove the plunger, or you will pour grounds into your cup. So this coffee was made, then put in the carafe. Was this a goof, or was it a clue something was wrong with the coffee?Spoiler alert:There was.

secondtake 36 Hours (1965)There is a huge trick to this sparkling, powerful movie. And some might say the trick is too much. But think of the 1962 "Manchurian Candidate" and you have an idea what level of inventive storytelling is at work, and which indeed works. "36 Hours" is not as sensational as that film earlier, and for that reason not as memorable. But in some ways it's equal to it. The acting, especially by the four main leads, is first rate. It's convincing in a plot that takes some work to be convincing. There are hints here of the landmark television series "The Prisoner" at first, too (that series launched in 1967 but McGoohan, the central planner of "The Prisoner," outlined it in a 1965 interview!).At first you think this will be another war film, with James Garner playing a half-convincing top military adviser and courier (he's too young, too good looking, and far too casual). But then he gets kidnapped and the twists that follow are what make the movie. Garner gets better and better in his role, playing the game several ways as it unfolds. At his side is Eva Marie Saint, who is excellent even down to a fair middle-European accent. A charming and disarming German doctor played by Rod Taylor is key to this whole charade, as he, too, plays two sides to a coin. The more severely obvious SS officer (Werner Peters) is brilliant, and not a caricature, and he represents the whole German evil machine circa 1944. Or is it 1950? Keep a grip on reality as you watch. There are some small subtle cues as you go. For one thing, it's expected that most of the audience in 1965 still knew that D-Day was Jun 6, 1944. They will play with the date of that as if you know. And there was (famously) a delay due to rainy weather that shows up, too.You might even watch a D-Day classic like "The Longest Day" just to set the stage and get some broad facts, if you feel gung-ho. Or dive into this for the filming (gorgeous widescreen black and white) and acting, as well as the smart story. A great discovery.

Aldanoli The television series "Mission: Impossible" started out being a variation on two different caper films, "Topkapi" and "Rififi," involving heists against seemingly "impossible" targets. But it quickly evolved into a "con of the week" show thanks to the two writers, William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter, who wrote the majority of the scripts during its first three seasons.What does this have to do with "36 Hours"? Well, a year before "Mission" even premiered, "36 Hours" presented a story remarkably similar to what the producers of "Mission" did week after week: if someone was placed in an isolated situation and given only enough information to make the setting appear real -- here, to convince American Major Jefferson Pike, played by James Garner, that the war has been over for years -- then that person might genuinely believe the "false front," and might also come to believe that revealing military secrets (such as the date and location of the D-Day invasion) is harmless. Indeed, this movie closely resembles -- or is resembled by -- an early episode of "Mission" known as "Operation Rogosh," the first to use this same confidence trick known as the "time shift," to make the subject think, like Maj. Pike here, that with the (false) passage of time, once precious secrets are no longer important.Of course, unlike the folks on the television series, the people who are operating the "big store" that was created for Maj. Pike are the bad guys, and therefore the audience desperately wants him to see through the deception. It all sounds implausible, yet by coloring his hair as if had gone slightly gray, fuzzing his vision enough so that he seems to need reading glasses, and completing the background with just enough personal articles stolen from his London flat, the illusion is strong enough to make him believe the story, at least at the outset.A surprise is Australian Rod Taylor as an American-born German psychiatrist who is the primary confidante for Garner's character, as well as Eva Marie Saint as a nurse who is a different kind of confidante -- with a strong incentive to make the deception work. And for a time it does . . . so convincingly, in fact, that it seems perfectly natural for Garner's character to give them exactly what they want. Of course, with the then-major star that Taylor was in the role, it's foregone that he won't be as unsympathetic as some of the other Nazi characters.The movie is also spiced with a thoroughly-believable Celia Lovsky as a sympathetic local villager -- and John Banner, best known for playing Sgt. Schultz on "Hogan's Heroes" as a real hero here! Unfortunately, this movie is not as well-known as those that came along later, such as "Mission" and "The Sting," but perhaps now that it's out on DVD, that will change. A winning film from beginning to end.