From left, co-director Darryl F. Zanuck; actors Peter Lawford and Irina Demick; Commando leader Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat (played by Lawford in the film); and actor Richard Todd, on location.

The Remains of the Day

How an intrepid director and a truly star-studded cast came together to make the 1962 war epic The Longest Day, against odds that almost rivaled the real event

By Tim Bouverie

It’s one of the great scenes of cinema. Major Werner Pluskat scans the sea from his bunker overlooking Omaha Beach. Suddenly, he stops. Out of the early-morning mist, hundreds of ships appear on the horizon, accompanied by the fate motif from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. “Mein Gott!” Hastily, he telephones his superior, Oberstleutnant Ocker.

“It’s the invasion! There must be 5,000 ships out there!,” he yells.