Seven Days in May (1964)

Director:

John Frankenheimer

Writers:

Fletcher Knebel (novel) &
Charles W. Bailey II (novel) ...

Release Date:

12 February 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

"I'm suggesting Mr President, there's a military plot to take over the Government of these United States, next Sunday..."

Plot:

US military leaders plot to overthrow the President because he supports a nuclear disarmament treaty and they fear a Soviet sneak attack.

Plot Keywords:

General | Joint Chiefs Of Staff | U.S. President | Coup | Cold War

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Burt Lancaster	...	Gen. James Mattoon Scott
Kirk Douglas	...	Col. Martin 'Jiggs' Casey
Fredric March	...	President Jordan Lyman
Ava Gardner	...	Eleanor Holbrook
Edmond O'Brien	...	Sen. Raymond Clark
Martin Balsam	...	Paul Girard
Andrew Duggan	...	Col. William 'Mutt' Henderson
Hugh Marlowe	...	Harold McPherson
Whit Bissell	...	Sen. Frederick Prentice
Helen Kleeb	...	Esther Townsend
George Macready	...	Christopher Todd
Richard Anderson	...	Col. Murdock
Bart Burns	...	Art Corwin

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Norway:12 (1964) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | USA:Approved (certificate #20565) | Canada:PG (video rating) | West Germany:12 (f) | Finland:K-8 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Imperial County, California, USA

Company:

Seven Arts Productions

Trivia:

The "Eleanor Holbrook" subplot was based on a real-life incident involving General Douglas MacArthur. In 1934, the general sued journalists Drew Pearson and Robert Allen for libel. He dropped the suit when the defendants announced they intended to take testimony from Isabel Rosario Cooper, a Eurasian woman who had been the general's mistress.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the dance, an extra is dancing with a black-haired woman, but moments later he's dancing with a blonde.

Quotes:

Christopher Todd: This stuff you unearthed, Colonel Casey, is dynamite. Very revealing of General Scott's extracurricular love life. Any taste of victory we have in our mouths, Colonel, is due in no small measure to your efforts.
Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey: The taste I've got in my mouth, Mr. Secretary, is unmentionable.
Christopher Todd: I can understand that feeling, Colonel. But when you deal with a jackal like your general...
Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey: Mr. Todd, this is a full Air Force general. Six times wounded, wearing only half the medals he deserves. Whatever else he is, he's no jackal.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in "HBO First Look: 'The Contender': The Making of a Political Thriller (#7.17)" (2000)

Seven Days in May Was Anything But Far-fetched

The novel and the movie Seven Days in May were based on a very potential reality. See James Bamford's 2002 book, Body of Secrets, which is about the National Security Agency. General Edwin Walker, mentioned in another review, was only the least of what was going on in the higher echelons of the U.S. military near the end of the Eisenhower Administration and the beginning of the Kennedy-Johnson Administration.

At military bases, and even at the National War College in Washington, the most rabid preachings took place about the real threat of communism coming not from Russia or Cuba, but from high-ups in the domestic power structure, including the government. The entire Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), led by Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer, was very right wing and rabidly obsessed with the idea that American civilization could not endure unless Cuba was militarily conquered and occupied in the long-term. They repeatedly threw suggestions for this at Eisenhower, who never took the bit. When Ike left the Oval Office and Kennedy, who had never been a military higher-up, replaced him, Lemnitzer felt adrift and became very paranoid. There were all sorts of JCS contingency plans, never implemented, for creating an incident that could be blamed falsely on the Russians and/or the Cubans to justify an invasion - a sort of second sinking of the battleship Maine. The more far-fetched of these ideas included terrorism at home to be blamed on Cuba and an attack on a friendly Central American country that could be falsely blamed on Cuba, all without the President's approval. Lemnitzer, according to Bamford, had little use for the concept of civilian control of the military. In fact,enough of this atmosphere within the U.S. military was in the wind that there was a secret Congressional inquiry into the potential for a military takeover of the government, which was based on more than idle wonder. Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee (the father of the recent Vice President), a member of the investigating committee, called for Lemnitzer's firing. Kennedy did not fire him, but did not re-appoint him to a second term as Chairman, preferring the more rational Maxwell Taylor.

When the book came out, I stayed awake for 24 hours to finish it. I could not put it down. Mercifully, the film is shorter, but it is superbly acted and very well scripted. You won't be disappointed.