CLIMAX!: TO WAKE AT MIDNIGHT (TV)
Summary
One in this dramatic anthology series. In this program, Erich Ganz, a decorated soldier of the German army, wakes up in a British army hospital in 1955 after 11 years in a coma. Erich had been injured and captured in France, and brought to Britain where neither his name nor his war crimes record was known. The recuperating Erich is given sarcastic "history lessons" by a Nazi-hating British doctor, who fills him in on the downfall of the Third Reich. Confused and frightened, Erich flees to Germany to see his 12-year-old son, who is being raised by his father. Erich's wartime feelings of doubt the Nazi cause become fully realized, as he sees his country in ruins; faces a cold father who lives in the past and will not let go of past glories and ethnic hatreds; and recalls his own unhappy upbringing as he watches his intelligent, sensitive son molded and stifled by the grandfather's stern militarism. Erich begins an affair with his father's housekeeper, Marie, who at first reminds him of his late wife, but he is soon repelled by her prejudices and her inability to learn from the tragedies of the recent past. Matters come to a head when the couple have an argument and the enraged housekeeper tells Erich the ugly truth about his wife's death. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: June 23, 1955 Thursday 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:50:24
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: T:31152
- GENRE: Drama, historical
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, historical; Germany; Nazism; World War II
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1954-1958
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Martin Manulis … Producer
- Edgar Peterson … Associate Producer
- John Frankenheimer … Director
- Rod Serling … Writer
- William Lundigan … Host
- Wendell Corey … Cast, Erich Ganz
- Maria Riva … Cast, Marie
- Akim Tamiroff … Cast, Albert Ganz
- George Voskovec … Cast, Anchel Rosenthal
- Peter Votrian … Cast, Paul Ganz
- Keith McConnell … Cast, the Intern
- Noel Drayton … Cast, Dr. Favorsham
- John Dodsworth … Cast, Maj. Adams
- Helen Winston … Cast, the Nurse
- Harold Dyrenforth … Cast, the Station Attendant
- Paul Simeon … Cast, Otto