Seven Days In May

President John F. Kennedy was a fan of the best selling novel and provided enthusiastic, if clandestine, support for Rod Serling’s scripted movie version, allowing unusual access to shooting outside the White House. General Edwin Walker,who clashed with Kennedy over the Cuban Missile Crisis, was the prototype for Burt Lancaster’s warmongering general character who engineers a military coup against embattled president Fredric March. Director John Frankenheimer’s live tv background provides plenty of Playhouse 90 immediacy and the supporting cast is unparalleled.