Adapted by
Rod Serling from the best-selling novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles Waldo Bailey II, Seven Days in May was allegedly inspired by the far-right ramblings of one General Edwin Walker.
Burt Lancaster plays General James M. Scott, who, convinced that liberal President Jordan Lyman (
Fredric March) is soft on America's enemies, plots a military takeover of the United States. Every effort made by President Lyman to find concrete evidence of General Scott's scheme is scuttled by political protocol, human error and accidental death. Ultimately, Lyman must rely upon the man who first uncovered the plot: Scott's best friend, Colonel "Jiggs" Casey (
Kirk Douglas).
John Frankenheimer's terse direction and
Ellsworth Fredericks' stark black and white photography enhance the "docudrama" feel of Seven Days in May. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide