This was the fifth of Frankenheimer's great black and white movies from the 1960s. Based on a novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles Bailey and a screenplay by Rod Serling, it may have seemed like an unlikely cautionary tale at the time. The movie was released when the Cold War was at its height and the John Birch Society was making itself felt by calling into question the patriotism of such main-stream political figures as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Earl Warren. Joseph McCarthy's accusations were still fresh in the public memory, and Barry Goldwater was running for president under the slogan: 'Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!..Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.'
When this movie was made, the idea that a cadre of high government officials could secretly act in such a blatantly illegal fashion may have been thought a stretch—before Watergate. The idea that the US government could actually have a shadow government running affairs was thought preposterous—before Iran-Contra. And, the idea of engineering the impeachment of a president—as was suggested in the movie---still meant something important and had great dramatic effect—before Clinton was impeached. Such was the background of riveting plot of this great political thriller.
As the movie opens, the president's Gallop poll is at an all time low (29%); the people are restless because President Jordan Lyman--note the similarity between the fictitious president's name and that of Lyndon Johnson--(Fredric March) is about to sign an agreement with the Soviets to ban nuclear weapons. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. James Mattoon Scott (Burt Lancaster), and his deputy, Col. Martin 'Jiggs' Casey (Kirk Douglas) are testifying before a contentious and polarized Senate committee about the wisdom of the upcoming agreement. General Scott is totally in disagreement with the president's plan for mutual disarmament with the Soviets and, as he makes his points, he is 'stealing the show' with the help of his backers on the committee. Shortly after this hearing, Jiggs begins to pick up irregularities with Scott, both at a political speech that Scott gives and at the Pentagon where there are code-like communications about a horse race the following Sunday. As he puts several facts together including a scrap of paper with cryptic notes about ECONCOM (some acronym with which he is not familiar), he starts to imagine that Scott is planning a military coup to take over the government on the following Sunday. With Scott out of town, he meets with the president and his skeptical aide, Paul Girard (Martin Balsam), at the White House and lays out his suspicions point by point.
Once the president is convinced of the possible coup, he and some of his most trusted people launch a counter-attack against the possible coup by gathering more information and throwing up barriers in front of Scott's possible plans. Ellie Holbrook (Ava Gardner) is Jiggs friend and Scott's former girlfriend. Her love letters from Scott to her may hold clues necessary to understanding Scott's ideas and plans, and it is Jiggs' unattractive duty to get them from her. The alcoholic Georgia senator, Raymond Clark (Edmond O'Brien), is assigned to find the phantom military base in Texas where ECONCOM may be holding its secret maneuvers. The high-stakes cat-and-mouse maneuvering and counter-maneuvering of the two sides is a race against time that may control the country's future. The movie's suggestive use of military snare drums and timpani serves to heighten the tension of drama as it unfolds.
The casting is very good here, with Lancaster as the square jawed military champion of a hawkish public, Douglas as his aid and partner— dedicated to the military but cautious enough to understand the possible overreach of its power. While in the latter part of his career, Fredric March played the less glorious role of Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind (1960), his resounding scolding of Burt Lancaster, in this movie is something to behold and cheer. March's last film performance was that of Harry Hope in John Frankenheimer's version of Eugene O'Neill's play, The Iceman Cometh (1973).
When this movie was made, the idea that a cadre of high government officials could secretly act in such a blatantly illegal fashion may have been thought a stretch—before Watergate. The idea that the US government could actually have a shadow government running affairs was thought preposterous—before Iran-Contra. And, the idea of engineering the impeachment of a president—as was suggested in the movie---still meant something important and had great dramatic effect—before Clinton was impeached. Such was the background of riveting plot of this great political thriller.
As the movie opens, the president's Gallop poll is at an all time low (29%); the people are restless because President Jordan Lyman--note the similarity between the fictitious president's name and that of Lyndon Johnson--(Fredric March) is about to sign an agreement with the Soviets to ban nuclear weapons. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. James Mattoon Scott (Burt Lancaster), and his deputy, Col. Martin 'Jiggs' Casey (Kirk Douglas) are testifying before a contentious and polarized Senate committee about the wisdom of the upcoming agreement. General Scott is totally in disagreement with the president's plan for mutual disarmament with the Soviets and, as he makes his points, he is 'stealing the show' with the help of his backers on the committee. Shortly after this hearing, Jiggs begins to pick up irregularities with Scott, both at a political speech that Scott gives and at the Pentagon where there are code-like communications about a horse race the following Sunday. As he puts several facts together including a scrap of paper with cryptic notes about ECONCOM (some acronym with which he is not familiar), he starts to imagine that Scott is planning a military coup to take over the government on the following Sunday. With Scott out of town, he meets with the president and his skeptical aide, Paul Girard (Martin Balsam), at the White House and lays out his suspicions point by point.
Once the president is convinced of the possible coup, he and some of his most trusted people launch a counter-attack against the possible coup by gathering more information and throwing up barriers in front of Scott's possible plans. Ellie Holbrook (Ava Gardner) is Jiggs friend and Scott's former girlfriend. Her love letters from Scott to her may hold clues necessary to understanding Scott's ideas and plans, and it is Jiggs' unattractive duty to get them from her. The alcoholic Georgia senator, Raymond Clark (Edmond O'Brien), is assigned to find the phantom military base in Texas where ECONCOM may be holding its secret maneuvers. The high-stakes cat-and-mouse maneuvering and counter-maneuvering of the two sides is a race against time that may control the country's future. The movie's suggestive use of military snare drums and timpani serves to heighten the tension of drama as it unfolds.
The casting is very good here, with Lancaster as the square jawed military champion of a hawkish public, Douglas as his aid and partner— dedicated to the military but cautious enough to understand the possible overreach of its power. While in the latter part of his career, Fredric March played the less glorious role of Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind (1960), his resounding scolding of Burt Lancaster, in this movie is something to behold and cheer. March's last film performance was that of Harry Hope in John Frankenheimer's version of Eugene O'Neill's play, The Iceman Cometh (1973).