The Longest Day(1962)
20th Century Fox Oct 4, 1962
The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view.
Release Details
Original Release | Oct 4, 1962 | Limited
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Technical Specifications
Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English,German,French
Summaries
Plot Summary
- Shot in a docudrama style (with captions identifying the different participants), the film opens in the days leading up to D-Day, concentrating on events on both sides of the English Channel. The Allies wait for a break in the poor weather while anticipating the reaction of the Axis forces defending northern France.Lieutenant Col. Benjamin H. Vandervoort (John Wayne) leads the parachute infantry division. Benjamin reports to Brigadier Gen. James M. Gavin (Robert Ryan), CO of the airborne division. Benjamin has been tasked with taking Sainte-Mere-Eglise, which straddles the only road Germans can take to attack the allied Northern flank. Ben only has a 4 mile drop between the Sainte-Mere-Eglise and a swamp that the Germans have flooded. Benjamin issues clicking toys to his troops so they can use it for identification in the dark.Brigadier Gen. Norman Cota (Robert Mitchum) is assistant commander 29th Infantry Division. Norman is worried that the assault forces have been loaded on the ships for 3 days (waiting for a break in the weather) and Eisenhower needs to make a decision about the invasion. Flying Officer David Campbell (Richard Burton) is a fighter pilot with the RAF. Group Capt. J. M. Stagg (Patrick Barr) is the Meteorologist and has a key input into the go-no go decision. Brig. Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat (Peter Lawford), Commander, 1st Special Service Brigade (the commandos). Major Gen. Raymond O. Barton (Edmond O'Brien) Commander, 4th Infantry Division.As Supreme Commander of SHAEF, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower (Henry Grace) makes the decision to go after reviewing the initial bad weather reports (Stagg promises a brief window of fair conditions when the invasion begins) and the reports about the divisions within the German High Command as to where an invasion might happen and what should be their response. Gen. Sir Bernard Montgomery (Trevor Reid), Commander-in-Chief, Allied Armies is in favor of launching the invasion.Generalfeldmarschall Gerd Von Rundstedt (Paul Hartmann) is the CO of OB West in France. General Der Infanterie Günther Blumentritt (Curd Jurgens) is the CoS for OB west. Oberstleutnant Helmuth Meyer (Heinz Spitzner) is the Chief of Intelligence, 15th Army. Meyer thinks an attack is coming within 24 hours, but Rundstedt is not clear about where. He refuses to issue an alert based on some random inputs from Intelligence.Major Werner Pluskat (Hans Christian Blech) is in charge of the coastal batteries. Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel (Werner Hinz) orders all beaches to be laden with mines. 4 million are laid and he orders 2 million more. Bad weather reports convince Rommel that the invasion could not possibly be launched in 5-foot waves. He leaves for Berlin to meet Hitler. Generalleutnant Wolfgang Hager (Karl John) is the CO, Luftwaffen Kommando West. he has scattered his planes further inland to protect them from allied bombing as he also believes allies will never attack in this weather.General Der Artillerie Erich Marcks (Richard Münch) CO, LXXXIV Army Corps. He is in charge of predicting where the allies might invade and how the invasion will proceed. He already says that allies wont attack Calais, but will land in Normandy, in bad weather.French resistance includes Jeanine Boitard (Irina Demick), Marcel (Yves Barsacq), Jean (Maurice Poli) & Edouard (Jean Champion). Alexandre Renaud (Georges Wilson) is the Mayor of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Father Louis Roulland (Jean-Louis Barrault) is the Parish priest of Sainte-Mere-Eglise. Alphonse Lenaux (André Bourvil) is the Mayor of Colleville-Sur-Orne. He decodes the first radio message on BBC indicating that the invasion is on. Similarly, BBC issues different coded messages to each resistance group to indicate that the invasion is on.Generaloberst Hans Von Salmuth (Ernst Schroder), CO, 15th Army. Meyer shows the coded messages to Salmuth and re-iterates that the invasion is coming in 24 hrs. Salmuth puts his army on full alert.Multiple scenes document the early hours of June 6: Allied airborne troops being sent in to take key locations inland, away from the beaches, and the French resistance reaction to the news that the invasion has started. Also chronicled are important events surrounding D-Day: British troops' glider missions to secure Pegasus Bridge (at the Orne River near Normandy. Maj. John Howard (Richard Todd) is tasked to protect the bridge as the enemy as prepared it for demolition. If the bridge goes, there is no way out of Normandy). Howard secures the bridge and expects a counterattack. He is supposed to be reinforced by Lovat's commandos.the counterattacks launched by American paratroopers scattered around Sainte-Mere-Eglise (half land in the swamp and half in the city (who get massacred by Germans)), the infiltration and sabotage work conducted by the French resistance (to destroy telecommunication lines and railway lines (so troops cannot be moved swiftly and in large numbers)) and SOE agents, and the response by the Wehrmacht to the invasion. Marcks gets the reports of rubber dummies being dropped by allies that explode on impact and paratroops dropping all over France. but he is not able to reach Rundstedt (who is in charge of the entire OB West), as the lines are cut.There are reports (from Major Werner Pluskat (Hans Christian Blech), CO of the infantry division at Normandy) of hundreds of planes flying towards Caen and Cherbourgh, but since the beaches are clean, the German don't believe that the invasion has started yet. Benajmin finds his troops scattered all over the place and regroups the squads and heads towards Sainte-Mere-Eglise.Also shown is the uncertainty of German commanders regarding whether this is a feint in preparation for Allied crossings at the Strait of Dover (see Operation Fortitude), where the senior German staff had always assumed that the invasion would begin. Rundstedt finally agrees that the invasion may be on and orders the reserve Panzers to be moved to Normandy, but this requires Hitler's permission. Hitler is asleep and won't be awoken for silly reports. Rundstedt rues that in this moment of history, it will be judged that the fate of the world was at stake and Hitler was sleeping.Brigadier Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (Henry Fonda) Assistant Commander, 4th Infantry Division, is on a ship headed to Normandy. But he is being held back from the first wave since he is the son of a US president. He insists that he joins the troops.At Dawn Pluskat sees the invasion force off the coast of Normandy. The invasion is led by Lieutenant Gen. Omar N. Bradley (Nicholas Stuart), CO of 1st Army. The fleet opens fire. Set-piece scenes include the parachute drop into Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the advance inshore from the Normandy beaches (The army was pinned down on the beach, but Norman leads the assault on a weak position to get behind the German lines and break through from the beaches. He commands the engineers core to blast a hole through a wall on the beach and create a way off it), the U.S. Provisional Ranger Group's assault on the Pointe Du Hoc (It had a large cliff on the beach, which hid large guns overlooking the beaches.The Ranger group took heavy casualties climbing the cliff and shutting the guns down. but when they get to the top, they eventually find that no guns had ever been installed. The Germans were not expecting an invasion), the attack on Ouistreham by Free French Forces (The Germans have an artillery gun that massacres the advancing French forces. Nuns from the local convent arrive to take care of the wounded, right in the middle of the battle. The French commander ventures out to destroy the German artillery. finally, an allied tank arrives and blows away the casino inside which the Germans had all their defensive positions), and the strafing of the beaches by two lone Luftwaffe pilots.By late morning Rommel reaches home and finds out that the invasion is underway. The Panzer reserves have still not been moved. The German high commands finally realizes that the invasion is at Normandy. Hitler wakes up and has a tantrum and nobody asks him to move the Panzers, which are still in reserve. Howard finally receives the reinforcements at Orne River bridge. Benjamin gathers his scattered troops outside of Sainte-Mere-Eglise and launches an assault. He takes the town after heavy fighting and finds the bodies of the F company hung-up all-over town, where they were shot by Germans before they even landed. Germans abandon their HQ near Normandy once Norman and his forces break through from the beaches.The film concludes with a montage showing various Allied units consolidating their beachheads before they advance inland by crossing France to eventually reach Germany.
Storyline
- In 1944, the U.S. Army and Allied forces plan a huge invasion landing in Normandy, France. Despite bad weather, General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the okay and the Allies land at Normandy. General Norma Cota travels with his men onto Omaha Beach. With much effort, and lost life, they get off the beach, traveling deep into French territory. The German military, due to arrogance, ignorance and a sleeping Adolf Hitler, delay their response to the Allied landing, with crippling results. — Jwelch5742 In 1944, the U.S. Army and Allied forces plan a huge invasion landing in Normandy, France. Despite bad weather, General Eisenhower gives the okay and the Allies land at Normandy. General Norma Cota (Robert Mitchum) travels with his men onto Omaha Beach. With much effort, and lost life, they get off the beach, traveling deep into French territory. The German military, due to arrogance, ignorance and a sleeping Adolf Hitler, delay their response to the Allied landing, with crippling results. — maschzentertainment Tells the story of the D-Day invasion of Normandy in WWII. There are dozens of characters, some seen only briefly, who together weave the story of five separate invasion points that made up the operation. — John Vogel
