CLASSIC MOVIES: SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (1964)

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Brief Movie Synopsis [courtesy of Turner Classic Movies]:

The U.S. President is threatened by a military coup
in "Seven Days In May", written for the screen by
Rod Serling and directed by John Frankenheimer.

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REVIEWS:

"There is a great deal about this 'Seven Days in May' that is rousing
and encouraging to a feeling of confidence and pride—and this is in
addition to the feelings of tension and excitement it stirs. Considerably
more than melodrama and sensationalism are contained in its not too
farfetched speculations. There is, in its slick dramatic frame, a solid
base of respect for democracy and the capacities of freedom-loving men. ....
In some vivid and trenchant dialogue, which Rod Serling has composed in
doing the screenplay from the novel, the President sadly notes the cause
of such a move toward upheaval is not one man's lust for power but the
consequence of a concentration of fear and anxiety. The enemy is not the
general, he says, it is the nuclear age. 'It happens to have killed man's
faith in his ability to influence what happens to him,' he says. If for no
more than this statement, the film is worth its salt. But there is a whole
lot more in it. The whole thing achieves a tingling speed and
irresistible tension under John Frankenheimer's direction."

-- Excerpt from The New York Times; February 20, 1964