The Third Day

The Third Day (1965)

ALONE...ON THE DEADLIEST MANHUNT OF ALL!

A man stumbles out of a car crash with no memory of what transpired. Everyone who he meets suggests that he is a ruthless man with an aggressive temper. Could he be deliberately blocking out memories of his past?

Date of release
1965-08-04
TMDB
5.6 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1h 59m
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Director
Jack Smight

Casting

Interesting facts

The Third Day is a 1965 American suspense thriller film directed by Jack Smight and starring George Peppard and Elizabeth Ashley. It was based on a novel by Joseph Hayes.

Production

Jack L. Warner was reluctant to make a film about amnesia, but he agreed to finance this one, because he had an expensive deal with George Peppard, who wanted to do the movie. Warner offered the film to Jack Smight in part because I'd Rather Be Rich, Smight's first feature, had been made relatively cheaply and because star George Peppard had worked with Smight before on television.

Elizabeth Ashley had started a romantic relationship with George Peppard on The Carpetbaggers and was offered the female lead. She wrote in her memoirs, "I could tell from the script it was going to be a piece of technicolor garbage, but I would be costarring with George. My agents, who were also George's agents, thought it was a good idea and pressured me to make it. It would be a big commercial movie.

Peppard later said "I'm the first one around who knows crap when I see it. When The Third Day came along, I wasn't just broke, I was up to my ears in debt. An actor's responsibility is to keep his career going, not how much art he can turn out. I've got an agent, a lawyer, a public-relations firm, a business manager, an ex-wife, two kids, and Elizabeth Ashley. Responsibilities."

Exterior scenes were filmed along the Russian River, north of the town of Bodega Bay in northern California. Film sites include the Highway 1 bridge crossing the Russian River near the junction with highway 116 and Goat Rock State Beach. Ashley wrote "I could tell while I was making the picture that it was going to be just another piece of garbage. And I knew I was terrible. I couldn't even be good in garbage."

Warner Brothers made that just to capitalize on our relationship, and it bombed, which served them right. They didn't use me because I was any good as an actress, oh, no, they wanted me because I was sleeping with George and getting all that publicity. That's when I decided, okay, if I'm going to whore. I'm going to be the whoremaster. I'd pick the parts to benefit me.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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