On CalGal's recommendation, I watched Seven Days in May. Directed by John Frankenheimer with screenplay by Rod Serling and starring Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, and Frederic March, it promised to be good...and didn't disappoint.
Lancaster is a popular general who plots a coup because he thinks the unpopular President (March) has sold out the country to the Commies via a disarmament treaty. Ironically, the coup plot is now historically more reminiscent of what occurred during the final days of the Soviet Union (even the planned kidnapping while the President vacations at a remote lake) than anything that ever happened in the U.S. during the Cold War.
The performances are all great, perhaps led by Frederic March. In fact, I started wondering how many more films have a good performance by an actor versus good screenplays or direction. The reason I wonder is that so often actors have the reputation of being shallow prima donnas who muck up everything, whereas screenwriters and directors are the cerebral laborers trying to salvage a "vision." Maybe so, but I've been fortunate enough to see some firstrate acting lately.
And speaking of direction, I also wondered about John Frankenheimer. Here he was in the early 60s directing The Manchurian Candidate, The Train, and Seven Days in May, but by the late 70s he was churning out movies like Prophecy and The Challenge. (Someone out there may be a fan of the latter two films, but I about busted a gut watching The Challenge.) What happened to cause the fall off? Anyone know?
Anyway, I thought Seven Days did have some flaws. The first half of the film is almost strictly from Kirk Douglas's POV, but he virtually disappears in the second half. It's a little too preachy about the nirvana of brotherly love--Serling had a tendency that way--and the end fizzles (although I see why for "message" purposes it ends as it does).
Still, for the first two thirds, I was in "extended bladder" mode--meaning unable to go whiz for fear of missing something. And I found all of the characters interesting and at least somewhat balanced. Even Douglas, who's pretty much a Boy Scout, comes off a little swarmy--unless you're a Linda Tripp fan. It was also interesting to see a film in which the POTUS is the short-handed underdog who is loathe to use "dirt" against an opponent...dated, but a nice twist.
Some other quick comments: it appears that a 50ish, pudgy white male in a black-banded white hat and a light-colored suit--traveling alone and unable to put a fine Windsor knot in his tie--is the early 60s thriller equivalent of a non-regular on Star Trek wearing a red security uniform or teenagers having sex in a slasher flick. A senator attired thusly makes it through Seven Days alive (surprisingly, considering he's abducted by machine-gun-toting gendarmes), but presidential adviser Martin Balsam recycles his wardrobe from Psycho and pays for it a'la Ron Brown.
John Houseman also has a small part...and even almost 40 years ago looked like Professor Kingsfield.
