The Longest Day (1962, B&W, ****). Directed by Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, and Bernhard Wicki. Starring John Wayne, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda, Sean Connery, Robert Mitchum, Rod Steiger, Robert Wagner, Red Buttons, Mel Ferrer, and on and on. An unbelievable cast, but would you believe the Oscars were for cinematography and special effects? That combination makes it easy to understand why many consider TLD the zenith of Hollywood at war. Supposedly based on the Cornelius Ryan book of the same name. The black and white gives it a final classic touch.

D-Day, the Sixth of June. (1956, Color, ***) Directed by Henry Koster, with Robert Taylor, Richard Todd, Dana Winter. Based on the novel The Sixth of June, Hollywood prefixes the "D-Day" just in case you don't know. The real story gets pushed aside for a love yam as a Yank and a Brit both fall in love with Dana Winter. In between comes Normandy, so from our biased perspective it loses out to TLD, but it has its moments.

D-Day on Mars (1945, B&W, *) It only took Hollywood a few months to cash in on the D-Day name. No time to come up with a WWII story, so it's the Purple Monster (really) defending Earth from the Aliens, put together quickly from a Republic Pictures (no relation to Seversky) serial. We'll spare you the cast list.