Last week, I watched "36 Hours," a WWII flick I had recorded months ago off TCM. Star James Garner is always worth watching, but the premise also intrigued me: Garner is a U.S. Major captured by the Germans. In an effort to trick him into revealing the plans for D-Day, a dedicated American-born Nazi psychologist spearheads an elaborate hoax to convince the soldier the war has ended and hat he's in a U.S. hospital facility instead of a German prison camp.?
Sounds pretty cool, no? Well, it is, and I think it works fairly well if you can accept the bad guys going to all the trouble they do to deceive one man. Actually, the ringleader (played by Rod Taylor) does get a lot of hassle from the S.S. while he's trying to execute his scheme, which sort of gets across the idea that it wouldn't be so easy, but still...
When "36 Hours" sticks to that concept and depicts the physical and psychological tricks the Nazis use to deceive Garner (including Eva Marie Saint as a fetching, friendly nurse), it's an interesting film, if never quite as tense as maybe it should be. However...
[SPOILER AHEAD]
When Garner discovers the ruse, things just fall apart a bit, and while there could have been some interesting directions for the screenplay to take at that point--like maybe a tortured Garner beating himself up for revealing too much--it doesn't really go there, instead becoming a conventional escape flick.
While the latter part of the movie has virtues, such as John Banner as a mercenary refugee smuggler of sorts, it doesn't live up to the promise of that intriguing setup. Still, if you're into WWII movies or James Garner, it's worth a look.
Speaking of being into James Garner (and who isn't?), Encore Westerns is running the classic western "Maverick" in chronological order (including the Jack Kelly episodes) weekdays. Setting aside its aversion to showing letterboxed versions, this is really an underrated network that has not yet abandoned everything pre-1970. Together with "Rifleman" and "Bat Masterson," "Maverick" makes a durned fine rootin'-tootin' lineup.
Sounds pretty cool, no? Well, it is, and I think it works fairly well if you can accept the bad guys going to all the trouble they do to deceive one man. Actually, the ringleader (played by Rod Taylor) does get a lot of hassle from the S.S. while he's trying to execute his scheme, which sort of gets across the idea that it wouldn't be so easy, but still...
When "36 Hours" sticks to that concept and depicts the physical and psychological tricks the Nazis use to deceive Garner (including Eva Marie Saint as a fetching, friendly nurse), it's an interesting film, if never quite as tense as maybe it should be. However...
[SPOILER AHEAD]
When Garner discovers the ruse, things just fall apart a bit, and while there could have been some interesting directions for the screenplay to take at that point--like maybe a tortured Garner beating himself up for revealing too much--it doesn't really go there, instead becoming a conventional escape flick.
While the latter part of the movie has virtues, such as John Banner as a mercenary refugee smuggler of sorts, it doesn't live up to the promise of that intriguing setup. Still, if you're into WWII movies or James Garner, it's worth a look.
Speaking of being into James Garner (and who isn't?), Encore Westerns is running the classic western "Maverick" in chronological order (including the Jack Kelly episodes) weekdays. Setting aside its aversion to showing letterboxed versions, this is really an underrated network that has not yet abandoned everything pre-1970. Together with "Rifleman" and "Bat Masterson," "Maverick" makes a durned fine rootin'-tootin' lineup.
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