The Longest Day

The Longest Day (1962), starring John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Sean Connery and Sir Richard Burton

 This monumental account of the allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944) is a classic among WWII films. Spectacular battle scenes; intense acting by John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Sean Connery and Sir Richard Burton, among others; and gut-wrenching pathos capture the horrors and heroics of a defining historical event. 1962; black and white, 3 hours.

Editorial review of  The Longest Day courtesy of Amazon.com

The Longest Day is Hollywood’s definitive D-day movie. More modern accounts such as Saving Private Ryan are more vividly realistic, but producer Darryl F. Zanuck’s epic 1962 account is the only one to attempt the daunting task of covering that fateful day from all perspectives. From the German high command and front-line officers to the French Resistance and all the key Allied participants, the screenplay by Cornelius Ryan, based on his own authoritative book, is as factually accurate as possible.

The endless parade of stars (John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery, and Richard Burton, to name a few) makes for an uneasy mix of verisimilitude and Hollywood star-power, however, and the film falls a little flat for too much of its three-hour running time. But the set-piece battles are still spectacular, and if the landings on Omaha Beach lack the graphic gore of Private Ryan they nonetheless show the sheer scale and audacity of the invasion. —Mark Walker

Cast of characters

American Troops

• Eddie Albert (Green Acres;The Fuller Brush Girl (1950)) … Col. Thompson
• Paul Anka … U.S. Army Ranger
• Richard Beymer … Pvt. Dutch Schult
• Red Buttons (The Big Circus; Alice in Wonderland (1985)) … Pvt. John Steele
• Ray Danton (I’ll Cry Tomorrow) … Capt. Frank
• Fred Dur … U.S. Army Ranger Major
• Fabian (Five Weeks in a Balloon; All About Eve) … U.S. Army Ranger
• Mel Ferrer (Lili; Born to Be Bad) … Maj. Gen. Robert Haines
• Henry Fonda (Yours, Mine and Ours; The Big Street) … Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
• Steve Forrest (Spies Like Us) … Capt. Harding
• Leo Genn (Quo Vadis) … Brig. Gen. Edwin P. Parker Jr.
• Peter Helm … Young GI
• Jeffrey Hunter (King of Kings) … Sgt. (later Lt.) John H. Fuller
• Alexander Knox (Crack in the World) … Maj. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith
• Roddy McDowall (Planet of the Apes; The Greatest Story Ever Told) … Pvt. Morris
• Sal Mineo (Escape from the Planet of the Apes) … Pvt. Martini
• Robert Mitchum (Holiday Affair) … Brig. Gen. Norman Cota
• Edmond O’Brien (A Girl a Guy and a Gob) … Gen. Raymond D. Barton
• Ron Randell (The She-Creature) … Joe Williams, war correspondent
• Robert Ryan (The Dirty Dozen) … Brig. Gen. James M. Gavin
• Tommy Sands (Babes in Toyland) … U.S. Army Ranger
• George Segal (Houdini 1998) … U.S. Army Ranger
• Rod Steiger (Back from Eternity) … Destroyer Commander
• Tom Tryon (The Story of Ruth) … Lt. Wilson
• Robert Wagner (Titanic 1953) … U.S. Army Ranger
• Stuart Whitman (Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines) … Lt. Sheen
• John Wayne (The Quiet Man) … Lt. Col. Benjamin Vandervoort

German

• Hans Christian Blech (Battle of the Bulge) … Maj. Werner Pluskat
• Paul Hartmann … Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt
• Werner Hinz … Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
• Karl John … Gen. Wolfgang Hager
• Curd Jürgens (The Inn of the Sixth Happiness; Me and the Colonel) … Maj. Gen. Gunther Blumentritt
• Wolfgang Büttner … Maj. Gen. Dr. Hans Speidel
• Gert Fröbe (Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines) … Sgt. Kaffekanne
• Richard Münch … Gen. Erich Marcks
• Wolfgang Preiss (The Counterfeit Traitor) … Maj. Gen. Max Pemsel
• Peter van Eyck … Lt. Col. Ocker

British

• Richard Burton (1984; The Longest Day) … Flying Officer David Campbell
• Richard Wattis (The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas) … British Paratrooper
• Donald Houston (Clash of the Titans [1981]) … RAF Pilot
• Leslie Phillips (Les Girls) … RAF Officer Mac
• Sean Connery (Murder on the Orient Express [1974]; Dr. No) … Pvt. Flanagan
• Michael Medwin … Pvt. Watney
• Kenneth More … Capt. Colin Maud
• Norman Rossington … Pvt. Clough
• Richard Todd (The Hasty Heart) … Maj. John Howard

French

• Christian Marquand … Cmdr. Philippe Kieffer – Commando Leader
• Georges Rivière … Sgt. Guy de Montlaur
• Jean Servais … RAdm. Janjard

Civilians

• Arletty … Madame Barrault
• Jean-Louis Barrault … Father Louis Roulland
• Bourvil … Mayor of Colleville
• Pauline Carton … Maid
• Irina Demick (Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines) … Janine Boitard
• John Gregson … British Padre
• Fernand Ledoux … Louis
• Peter Lawford (Royal Wedding; Ocean’s 11 (1960)) … Lord Lovat
• Madeleine Renaud … Mother Superior
• Georges Wilson … Alexandre Renaud

[Updated April 16, 2023]