36 Hours

Psychological warfare gets a twist in this 1965 World War II-espionage mind-game drama starring James Garner as Maj. Jefferson Pike, an Allied intelligence officer with top secret D-Day plans, who is kidnapped by the Nazis and dropped into an elaborate scheme. Rod Taylor costars as Maj. Walter Gerber, an American-born German patriot who masterminds the psy-ops ploy to convince Pike that the war is over and that he's in a mental hospital in U.S.-occupied Germany with amnesia. Gerber plays his "best friend" and therapist in an elaborate piece of living theater, trying to extract the D-Day plans as a mental exercise in Pike's rehabilitation. Eva Marie Saint is a concentration camp prisoner who is offered freedom in exchange for playing a role in the ploy. Director George Seaton adapts the script from Roald Dahl's 1944 short story "Beware of the Dog," although the premise is better than the dramatic execution. Still, Garner gets the opportunity to shift from his familiar affable, easygoing persona to play a desperate hero who risks his life to protect the invasion plans. Fans of 1960s TV will recognize John Banner (who was the bumbling Sgt. Schultz in Hogan's Heroes) and Alan Napier (Alfred in the 1960s Batman TV series). An entertaining thriller, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)