Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

36 Hours Blu-ray Movie Review

Countdown to D-Day

Reviewed by Michael Reuben April 17, 2017

36 Hours is a war film, a spy thriller and a prison escape movie all rolled into one. Its central device has been repeatedly borrowed in subsequent tales of espionage ranging from Mission: Impossible (film and TV series) to Telefon and Salt. The project was star James Garner's followup to another picture set during World War II, The Americanization of Emily, and Garner was invested in the film both professionally as an actor and financially as a co-producer through his company, Cherokee Productions. Written and directed by George Seaton—a multiple Oscar winner for his screenplays of The Country Girl and Miracle on 34th Street—the film was well received both critically and at the box office when it was released in January 1965, but it has since been largely forgotten. That should change with this crisp Blu-ray rendition from the Warner Archive Collection.

The time is 1944, and the Allies are preparing the historic assault that will ultimately liberate Europe from its Nazi occupiers. The date and, most importantly, the exact location of the Allied landing are closely guarded secrets known to a select handful of senior officers. One such officer is Maj. Jefferson Pike (Garner), who, on an information-gathering trip to Lisbon, is drugged and kidnapped by agents of the Third Reich eager to learn the invasion plans. When Pike awakens in what appears to be an American military hospital, his hair has grayed and his skin has aged. He needs glasses to read. An affable Army psychiatrist, Dr. Gerber (Rod Taylor), and a solicitous nurse named Anna (Eva Marie Saint) explain that it's currently 1950, and that Pike is suffering from amnesia caused by his Lisbon abduction. But don't worry, the doctor assures the confused officer. Thanks to Gerber's treatment, the major has already recovered his pre-abduction memories; now they just have to work on everything from the last six years. By the way, D-Day was successful, Hitler was defeated and Germany is now under Allied occupation—which explains why there's an American medical encampment on German soil peopled by U.S. soldiers and staff. In fact, all of them are Germans specially trained to play their assigned parts.

The first half of 36 Hours details Gerber's efforts to elicit strategic intel from Pike under the guise of "treatment" aided by this sophisticated illusion. The film's title refers to the time limit on Gerber's efforts imposed by the Gestapo, which has dispatched the detestable Otto Schack (Werner Peters) to pursue more traditional methods of extracting information if Gerber should fail. The film's second half chronicles Pike's efforts at escape, after he catches onto the scheme. Before he leaves, however, Pike has to find a way to undo the damage from critical revelations he's made to Gerber that could potentially sabotage the entire D-Day operation. Since we know that the Allies succeeded, there's never any doubt that Gerber's project will be undermined, but Seaton's script works out the details with ingenious precision and a healthy appreciation for the vagaries of chance. Pike's efforts to break out of his prison are supported by several unlikely accomplices, including Nurse Anna, who turns out to be as much a prisoner as Pike.

Garner's square-jawed major is a suitably intrepid hero, and Werner Peters' Gestapo officer is a stereotypical villain, threatening everyone with such relish that he could have stepped out of an Indiana Jones film. But the most interesting characters in 36 Hours are those caught in an ambivalent zone between good and evil. Chief among them is Rod Taylor's Dr. Gerber, who initially appears to be a soulless technocrat playing evil mind games but is gradually revealed to be far more conflicted and complex. Eva Marie Saint's tremulous Anna is a remarkable creation, a survivor of unspeakable horrors whose only remaining emotion is self-loathing but who cannot help sympathizing with the American major she is being forced to deceive (and, if necessary, seduce). The relationship that gradually emerges between Anna and Pike isn't so much a romance as a fragile alliance of necessity, and the film's last shot confirms that their futures lie along different paths. But the flickers of emotion between them make for a memorable pairing.

The final act of 36 Hours receives an unexpected jolt of energy from a late arrival, a German soldier named Ernst played with mercenary gusto by John Banner, who was not yet typecast by his portrayal of Sergeant Schultz on TV's Hogan's Heroes. (If you know that show, it's hard to look at Banner without hearing Schultz's famous catchphrase, "I know nothing! I see nothing!") Here, Banner reveals himself to be a skilled character actor, portraying a cheerful pragmatist whose loyalty can be bought—but not cheaply. Ernst extorts every valuable that Pike and Anna have, since he knows they don't have a choice, but he does it with such infectious bonhomie that you can't help liking him. Ernst, too, is a survivor, and it's apparent that he'll not only make it through the war, but will probably thrive in its aftermath.

36 Hours Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

36 Hours' expressive black-and-white images were shot by cinematographer Philip C. Lathrop, who had recently worked with James Garner on The Americanization of Emily and would go on to lens such diverse fare as Point Blank and Earthquake. For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, the Warner Archive Collection commissioned a new scan, which was performed by Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility at 2K using a recently manufactured fine-grain master positive. The result is an image of impressive clarity and sharpness, rendering everything in exceptional detail, from the fine herringbone in Maj. Pike's jacket to the manicured grounds of the fake military hospital. The Blu-ray effectively reproduces Lathrop's "deep focus" photography, which situates Pike in the phony surroundings constructed to deceive him and, later, isolates Pike and Anna in the landscape through which they are fleeing. Blacks are deep and solid, and contrast is excellent. The sole negative is fleeting video noise that crops up now and again (and should not be confused with the film's natural grain pattern, which is finely rendered). WAC and MPI do not use noise reduction software, but in this instance, some minor massaging of the video image in select shots might have been appropriate. As usual, WAC has authored the disc with a high average bitrate, here 34.65 Mbps.

Note that the opening titles feature archival newsreel footage in Academy ratio at the center of the widescreen frame. The newsreel image is then pushed to one side, becoming half of a split screen, with a second panel devoted to credits. This treatment accurately reflects the source.

36 Hours Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

36 Hours' original mono soundtrack has been taken from the magnetic master and encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. Despite its wartime environment, the film is set far from combat, and the key component of the soundtrack is dialogue, which is clearly and naturally rendered. The other major audio element is the energetic score by four-time Oscar-winning composer Dmitri Tiomkin (High Noon), which plays with fidelity and dynamic range that are as good as the source will allow.

(Note that German dialogue is translated by white English subtitles, which are "burned in".)

36 Hours Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The sole extra is the film's trailer, which has been remastered in 1080p. Warner's 2007 DVD of 36 Hours contained additional trailers for James Garner's war-themed films.

36 Hours Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The writer/director of 36 Hours, George Seaton, enjoyed a long and successful career that included writing comedy scripts for the Marx Bros., winning multiple Academy Awards and directing such box office hits as the original Airport, but today he isn't nearly as well known as many of his contemporaries. He should be. 36 Hours reveals Seaton to be an artful dramatist, crafting a tense and suspenseful narrative out of dialogue and character, without resort to extreme violence, death-defying stunts or arbitrary "twists". Seaton was also skilled at directing actors, guiding two performers to Oscar wins (Grace Kelly in The Country Girl and Edmund Gwenn in Miracle on 34th Street) and, in 36 Hours, expertly modulating the performances of his talented leads. WAC's Blu-ray is a timely opportunity to rediscover the work of a gifted cinematic craftsman. Highly recommended.