Vanished (1971) User Reviews

Presidency in crisis

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 29 September 2020]

Richard Widmark heads a cast with a lot of recognizable names in a miniseries adaption of Fletcher Knebel's novel Vanished. Knebel also wrote Seven Days In May where another president faced a crisis.

The crisis here is the disappearance of presidential adviser Arthur Hill and all the wild speculation it causes. A lot dissembling comes from White House sources causing no end of problems for new press secretary James Farentino.

Widmark is the president and he's also facing re-election. The series is a good portrayal of the many conflicting problems a president can face and it is eminently clear that nothing happens in a vacuum. E..G. Marshall plays the head of the Central Intelligence Agency and a confirmed cold warrior and a bureaucratic infighter. Marshall is Widmark's foe in the executive branch.

Widmark's real enemy is opposition Senator Robert Young who played an occasional bad guy on the big screen. But on television was best known for Marcus Welby, MD and Father Knows Best. He's a nasty piece of work behind that snake oil charm, someone totally different from Jim Anderson or Marcus Welby.

Arthur Hill's character the close presidential adviser was no doubt based on Colonel Edward House who had a similar position with Woodrow Wilson. House never had to deal with anything like what Hill has to do for Widmark.

Like Seven Days In May, Vanished concludes with the president addressing the nation and all is revealed at that point. It's quite a story and I'm sure you'll like what Richard Widmark and the rest of the cast give us.

Real-life parallel

[mobile707 · 18 April 2012]

First of all, I admit this is not really a review of "Vanished". I have not seen it. But I do want to comment on the real-life episode that reportedly inspired the novel on which "Vanished" is based: About 4 weeks prior to the 1964 presidential election, Lyndon Johnson's chief-of-staff -- a 46-year-old husband and father of six named Walter Jenkins -- was arrested and charged with Disorderly Conduct following an incident in the men's bathroom of a YMCA located in Washington, DC. Jenkins had worked for LBJ since 1939 and had been his top administrative aide since 1945. It later emerged that Jenkins had been involved in a similar incident in January 1959 (while Johnson was Senate Majority Leader) but that had been covered up somehow.

In 1964, homosexuality was still such a taboo subject in American society that the media simply did not discuss the matter for about 7 days following the arrest, even though the reporters knew about it. Finally, after a week, the story "broke", even though most public discussion took place without mentioning the word "homosexuality".

Johnson's Republican opponent, Senator Goldwater of Arizona, actually knew Jenkins from their service in the Air Force Reserves and his comments were very restrained. Goldwater's VP-nominee, an obscure Congressman from Buffalo NY, was a bit less subtle, but even so the whole matter received a tiny fraction of the attention it would have received in later years. (Imagine if George W. Bush's chief-of-staff had been arrested for same-sex solicitation a month prior to the 2004 election. That would not have been simply "the lead" story in the national media, it would have been virtually THE ONLY story.)

The author Fletcher Knebel published the novel "Vanished" in 1968, about 3-4 years after the Jenkins episode, and then the TV-movie was originally aired in March 1971. So the movie was not -- as another reviewer wrote -- "filmed during the height of the Watergate scandal", which I think most people would place 2-3 years later.

Doomsday tale or new world order?

[mark.waltz · 10/10 · 1 July 2023]

Every man has a breaking point, especially the president of the United States", James Farentino says as part one concludes, and indeed, it does seen like president Richard Widmark (in a well deserved Emmy nominated performance) has gone over the deep end, either involved in something far too big for him to control, or just turning evil as the lust for power starts to control him. Widmark's assistant, Arthur Hill, disappears without a trace, leaving a worried wife, Eleanor Parker, and suspicions stemming from a traitorous act or even becoming involved in an affair with another man. Political enemy Robert Young (another well deserved Emmy nomination) uses all of this to his advantage as the bubbling pot of political stew heats up.

While this is a complex plot, it is never confusing and certainly never boring. There are great supporting performances by Jim Davis, Larry Hagman, Skye Aubrey, Tom Bosley, Hayden Rorke, Robert Hooks, Murray Hamilton and E. G. Marshall, and even an amusing cameo by a certain golden girl as herself. Everybody here serves a purpose in the plotline that at 3 hours does seem like a chore but turns out to be a rewarding viewing experience, surprisingly not mentioned when people talk about ground breaking TV movies even though it was the first two part one.

Wow...that sure escalated!

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 3 August 2023]

"Vanished" is a two-part movie which is quite unusual for a couple reasons. First, the network spent a lot of money on it...far more than usual for the time period. Part of this is because they spent a lot on actors...including many of the best character actors of the day as well as convincing Richard Widmark to make his first TV film. Second, the film talks about homosexuality and is pretty up front about it...a rare thing for 1971.

Early in the story, the President's chief advisor, Arnold Greer, disappears from a golf course. Additionally, his home safe is empty, $15,000 is missing from his bank account and his wife knows nothing. Soon, it becomes very possible that the man ran off with his male lover...though this is NOT certain.

The disappearance is now the problem of the President's Press Secretary. He is supposed to be giving the press answers...but he has very few. Soon, it's obvious that there are leaks in the White House and this explains why the President is so closed-mouthed about everything. What REALLY is going on? Well, possibly World War III!

This is a very good film but also one that won't satisfy folks who want a lot of action or a fast pace. It's slow and deliberate. But it also has some amazing acting and the story, if you stick with it, is pretty amazing Cold War stuff. Well made...and available on YouTube if you want to see it.

By the way, one reviewer said that the movie came out in the midst of the Watergate scandal. This is not true...Watergate didn't break until two years later.

First two-part TV movie

[bwaynef · 5/10 · 19 May 1999]

"Vanished" has earned a place in history as the first made for television movie to air in two parts, which, I suppose, may also make it the first mini-series. Quantity and quality are not the same thing, of course, and little about "Vanished" prevents it from being your standard TV suspenser. It does boast a terrific cast, though, with Richard Widmark very impressive indeed as the President of the United States. Too bad that other Richard--you know, Nixon, who was President at the time this movie aired--hadn't stepped aside to make room for the former Tommy Udo (see "Kiss of Death" for details).

Surprisingly Strong Made-For-TV Thriller

[IslandMadMacs · 5 June 2003]

Similar to the timeless and powerful Kirk Douglas/Burt Lancaster classic "Seven Days In May". This surprisingly good political thriller was filmed during the height of the Watergate scandal. And although there was some relevance to events at the time, the Vanished storyline does not deal with the trials of 'Tricky Dick'. What it does do, and do well, is take the viewers along a very slippery political path laced with many red herrings. There's some ingenious scripting I suspect will trip up even the most jaded viewers: Threats of war with the Chinese communists, treason at the highest level - and considering this was made in 1971 - scandalous suggestions of homosexual liaisons affecting the national security of the United States. It's a strong 'all star cast' with good performances all around. Particularly in light of the fact that this was a made-for-TV production.

Robert Young, of Marcus Welby MD fame, really steals the show as the manipulative congressman from the south. His performance as Senator Gannon, perhaps unintentionally, is a dead-on-ringer for a "mean" Mark Twain, his evil twin brother perhaps. Rivaling that of Hal Holbrook's recent one man performance and Jerry Hardin's much beloved turn at the author during the Star Trek next generation TV series.

If you know of anyone who might have a copy of this movie - I would certainly like to talk with that person. :-)

Doesn't Hold Up Well

[Eric-62-2 · 8 April 2004]

"Vanished" has an impressive cast in the first ever two part TV movie, some good location photography in Washington that was rare for TV in those days and a great main theme by Leonard Rosenmann. But what starts out as an interesting premise of a presidential advisor disappearing and leading to all kinds of baffling questions as the flummoxed press secretary (James Farentino) tries to get to the bottom of things, ultimately closes with a laughably lame finish.

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE END!

We end up discovering that the President (Widmark) has orchestrated the whole business to concoct his utopian scheme for nuclear disarmament (in other words we get four hours to be served up an unimaginative premise given to us in the opening minutes of "Seven Days In May" which was written by the same author) which in effect involves an arrogant community of atomic scientists blackmailing the entire world into disarming or else, irrespective of how in the setting of Cold War America this would have been an irresponsible policy action (someday, someone is going to have the guts to point out that the existence of atomic arsenals during the Cold War is what prevented a bloody conventional war in Western Europe from happening a third time in the 20th century and that what was needed to end the Cold War was not the elimination of atomic weapons, but the elimination of communism, which is exactly what happened). The CIA director is supposed to be the villain of the piece because he feeds information to the president's chief political rival, but frankly the way things unfold he ends up coming across as more sympathetic given how the President freezes him out of the process out of pure spite. His crime was having a covert group set things up among atomic scientists to get information which in the early 70s we were supposed to regard as a heinous offense, but in the post-9/11 world this comes off as being a big deal over nothing.

"Vanished" represents that intrusion into Cold War era films and telefilms of the weak-kneed philosophy toward waging the Cold War that thankfully our real life leaders never implemented. The unfortunate thing is that most people still refuse to learn this lesson when looking back on films made during the Cold War like this one.