John Wayne

THE LONGEST DAY

20th Century Fox, 1962.  Directed by Andrew Marton.  Camera:  Jean Bourgoin.  With John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Rod Steiger, Robert Wagner, Richard Beymer, Mel Ferrer, Jeffrey Hunter, Paul Anka, Sal Mineo, Roddy McDowall, Stuart Whitman, Eddie Albert, Edmond O'Brien, Fabian, Red Buttons, Tom Tryon, Richard Burton, Peter Lawford, Sean Connery, Curt Jurgens.

Click for larger image

Click for larger images

In 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower makes the momentous decision to carry out a combined Allied invasion of Europe on

the 6th of June.  The plan proves to be a wise strategic move.  The German High Command, assuming the invasion will not take place during the current inclement weather, is caught unaware; Panzer divisions are awaiting the attack at Dover, the Luftwaffe is scattered, and Hitler himself has taken a sleeping pill and left orders that he is not to be disturbed.

Allied sources alert the French Resistance, who cut telegraph wires and blow up ammunition trains.  Dummy parachute figures are dropped to confuse the Germans.  Airborne glider infantry are landed near the key site of the Orne River Bridge.

Then, at dawn, the full Allied might is unleashed as 150,000 troops, backed up by 5,000 transport and fighter vessels, storm the three major Normandy beachheads of Juno, Omaha, and Utah.  Although a division of paratroopers is slaughtered when they overshoot their mark, French commandos capture the seaside town of Oistreham and American Rangers successfully scale the supposedly impregnable cliffs of Point-du-Hoc.

It is at Omaha Beach that the assault falters; held back by a seemingly impregnable cement wall, the troops are unable to advance.  But Brigadier General Cota rallies his men, urges Sergeant Fuller to place a dynamite charge, and blasts a clear path from the beach.  With the coming of nightfall, the Allies are firmly entrenched on European soil.

American Film Institute Catalog

Additional photos courtesy of Gary