Alan Napier, Celia Lovsky, Ed Gilbert

Germans kidnap an American major and try to convince him that World War II is over, so that they can get details about the Allied invasion of Europe out of him.

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304 ratings

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Directed by: George Seaton

Release Date: January 28, 1965

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DVD Release Date: June 5, 2007

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Flixster Reviews (28)


  • December 22, 2008
    This is a largely forgotten World War 2 thriller about a man with vital intelligence who is kidnapped by the Nazis 36 hours before the D-Day Invasion. The Nazi?s decided to employ outlandish measures in order to get the information out of him. They build an entire army base, po...( read more)pulate it with English speaking actors, and when he wakes up they tell him it is 1950, the war is over and he has amnesia, and they start asking him questions about the last thing he remembers. What?s interesting about all this, is that they do not try to hide the Nazi scheme from the audience, in fact they spend a good twenty minutes going over the elaborate plan in case we don?t get it. This poses a problem; we barely know this guy they kidnapped and instead the main opening exposition is with these Nazis who are outlining an elaborate plan. You start to relate more with these outlandish captors and oddly start to want to see the whole thing work. I do not think this is the effect that the filmmakers had in mind. The whole thing could have had more power if they had instead opened right after he wakes up and have the audience slowly catch on to this crazy scheme, that would have put you more in the shoes of the real protagonist then his captors. Still, it?s a neat piece of high concept cinema, kind of like an above average episode of The Twilight Zone. Unfortunately, they couldn?t really keep the act up for the whole movie, eventually the concept wears off and the film increasingly veers toward less interesting paths. It?s a worthwhile piece of workmanlike cinema, worth a watch if it comes on TV or something.
  • August 8, 2008
    way to go James. I saw this one during the TMC salute to James Garner. You don't get much more manly than James Garner.
  • March 16, 2008
    one of the best war movies i've ever seen, and to know that this all happened really just left my jaw dropping
  • December 18, 2007
    A gripping, unique, personality-driven piece that does some very interesting and unique ideas. Definitely not what I was expecting (though I didn't know anything of the film until my dad rented it), but indeed in the best possible way. Garner, Marie Saint, and Rod Taylor give gre...( read more)at performances throughout, although every single side actor seems perfectly cast. And the atmosphere is strangely reminescent of Soderbergh's The Good German (there's even a couple of direct lines that Soderbergh's film has from this script). For those who're fans of WW2 movies, must not miss. Very enjoyable stuff!
  • July 19, 2007
    All CLASSICS are GOOD

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