36 Hours

James Garner and Eva Marie Saint in a “Mission: Impossible” scenario. Garner is a Allied intelligence agent who knows all the plans for the D-Day invasion. He is captured in Portugal, drugged, and taken to an elaborate Big Con in Germany where an entire veterans hospital has been created, staffed by Germans who speak perfect English. His hair is dyed with gray highlights, drops are put in his eyes so he needs glasses, and they set out to convince him that it is 1950 and that he has been suffering from amnesia. They have paid great attention to detail, with radio broadcasts and phony newspapers. Rod Taylor is the Nazi doctor who runs the camp. He intends to get Garner to “reminisce” about Operation Overlord. And Garner spills the beans, that it’s Normandy and not Calais, where all the Germans think it will happen, names the beaches of Omaha, Utah, Juno, Sword, and Gold, and even troop deployments. Then he realizes what’s happening, and has to convince everyone he was on to them long before he actually was. Quite a good movie.