Line #40 Film/ThirtySixHours1965


1	[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/poster219251.jpg]]
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3	''36 Hours'' is a 1965 UsefulNotes/WorldWarII thriller film directed by George Seaton and starring Creator/JamesGarner, Creator/RodTaylor, and Creator/EvaMarieSaint. It was loosely adapted from "Beware of the Dog", a short story by Creator/RoaldDahl.
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5	Just prior to D-Day, the Germans drug and capture Major Jefferson Pike (Garner), a U.S. intelligence officer sent on a mission to Lisbon. They know that he's been briefed on the planned time and place of the invasion. How to make him talk freely?
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7	When Pike awakens, he is told that he has lost all memory of the last six years. That's right, Major, it's 1950. Yes, of ''course'' the Allies won the war back in 1944. You are in a U.S. military hospital in Occupied Germany where we're treating your most recent bout of amnesia. Now, as part of your therapy, tell us the last thing you remember...
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9	No relation to Film/FortyEightHours.
10	----
11	!!"Give me any American for 36 hours and I'll give you back a troper":
12	* AffablyEvil: Gerber. Even after his scheme is revealed, he continues to be cordial towards Pike.
13	* AllGermansAreNazis: {{Averted\|Trope}}. Gerber expresses distaste for the SS, was forced to help trick foreign agents into giving information with the amnesia ploy, then helps Pike and Hedler escape near the end. He tries to stop Schack when he's after them, but fails. Then there is the German smuggling ring who help people escape into UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}}, one of whom roundly mocks UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. Hedler, naturally, is also no Nazi, having been sent to a concentration camp. The SS officer Schack is especially suspicious when Gerber's story of how the Allies won involves the German generals overthrowing Hitler with a coup, killing him, and the SS (along with its leader Himmler) then being purged, wondering acidly if it's "wish fulfillment".[[note]]The July 20th plotters actually tried this, as dramatized in ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}'', but sadly it didn't work. This might suggest Gerber is one of them.[[/note]]
14	* AmnesiaDanger: {{Inverted\|Trope}}. Pike doesn't have amnesia. He just is being made to think he does.
15	* AmnesiacLover: Inverted. Pike is led to believe that he fell in love with and married Anna Hedler during the period he cannot remember.
16	* AntiVillain: Gerber.
17	* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: This is apparently what Gerber felt, having given himself some lethal medication before Schack came.
18	* BigBadEnsemble: SS Colonel Schack and Heer Major Gerber, [[spoiler:until his HeelFaceTurn]].
19	* BigFun: Sergeant Ernst.
20	* BittersweetEnding: If you were expecting wedding bells, think again. The winds of war take the lead characters in different directions. But there is a hint that Anna Hedler has regained the ability to feel.
21	* {{Chessmaster}}: Gerber.
22	* TheCon: Just before D-Day in 1944, the Germans try to get an American intelligence officer to reveal the time and location of the landings by setting up an entire fake American military hospital and convincing him that it is 1950 and that he has had amnesia and forgotten the last six years.
23	* CyanidePill: Anna Hedler has one that she tries to slip Pike, though she fails.
24	* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Upon beginning to suspect the ruse, Pike barks an order at a supposed American guard, who promptly clicks his heels in classic German fashion.
25	* FakedRipVanWinkle: Done twice. First as the whole premise of the film, and again when Gerber [[spoiler: sets the clock in Pike's room ahead several hours so that Pike will think the invasion has begun.]]
26	* TheFilmOfTheBook: As noted, the film was based on Roald Dahl's short story "Beware of the Dog". The movie keeps the basic premise of an Allied soldier being held in a hospital by deceptive Germans, but changes [[InNameOnly pretty much everything else]].[[note]]For example, the protagonist of "Beware of the Dog" is an RAF pilot who's lost a leg, and the Germans tell him he's back in England (specifically Brighton) when he's actually in Vichy France.[[/note]]
27	* ForegoneConclusion: We all know that the D-Day landings will achieve surprise. The tension-arousing question is how Pike will penetrate the ruse, and whether he will survive.
28	* GoodShepherd: The (unseen) German minister who helps people get out of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany.
29	* HeelFaceDoorSlam: [[spoiler:Gerber tries to stop Schack from going after Pike and Anna whom he helped escape, but fails when he finally succumbs to his lethal injection he gave himself at the absolute wrong moment.]]
30	%% * HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Gerber.]]
31	* IdiotBall: [[spoiler: Pike, when he falls for the ruse about the clock when he already knows that Gerber has ''huge'' form when it comes to messing about with his perceptions of time.]]
32	* IGaveMyWord: Pike and Hedler go back for the case notes [[spoiler: that Gerber had made about real amnesia patients before his scientific idealism was corrupted, in order to fulfill their promise to him]].
33	* JustOneLittleMistake: Pike notices that [[spoiler: the paper cut he got in England - supposedly six years ago - still has not healed.]]
34	* LockedOutOfTheLoop: An entire cast of English-speaking German agents work together to deceive Pike.
35	* OnlyInItForTheMoney: The amiably corrupt Sergeant Ernst who helps them escape [[spoiler: and shoots the evil SS officer, Schack, rather than have Schack spoil his profitable people-smuggling business]].
36	* PunchClockHero: Sergeant Ernst, who help escaped prisoners to Switzerland in exchange for gold.
37	* PunchClockVillain: Gerber, he and Pike even lampshades this as Pike has his job, and Gerber has his.
38	* RapeAsBackstory: Anna Helder was "used" by German soldiers and officers while in the concentration camps, which apparently traumatized her to the point that she's largely unable to feel. There is a hint at the end that she's regaining this ability at last though.
39	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Gerber, who gave himself a lethal injection following his [[spoiler:HeelFaceTurn]].
40	* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Ernst [[InvokedTrope invokes]] this to justify shooting Schack to another border guard, who gives the dead Schack a SpitefulSpit, saying he tried to desert into Switzerland.
41	* SmugSnake: Schack.
42	* TrappedInVillainy: [[spoiler: Anna Hedler, a concentration camp prisoner forced to help deceive foreign agents. Possibly Gerber also, since he first used his technique to help traumatized soldiers, but then was ordered into this instead.]]
43	%% * WorthyOpponent: Pike is this for Gerber.

Context Film / ThirtySixHours1965