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Seven Days in May Overview:

Seven Days in May (1964) was a Drama - Romance Film directed by John Frankenheimer and produced by Edward Lewis.

Academy Awards 1964 --- Ceremony Number 37 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Supporting ActorEdmond O'BrienNominated
Best Art DirectionArt Direction: Cary Odell; Set Decoration: Edward G. BoyleNominated
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Seven Days in May BlogHub Articles:

Seven Days in May (1964): A Twilight Zone America Strikes Close to Home

By 4 Star Film Fan on Aug 24, 2021 From 4 Star Films

The opening images of Seven Days in May could have easily been pulled out of the headlines. A silent protest continues outside the White House gates with hosts of signs decrying the incumbent president or at the very least the state of his America.  We don’t quite know his egregious act altho... Read full article

Seven Days in May (1964, John Frankenheimer)

By Andrew Wickliffe on Dec 23, 2018 From The Stop Button

Screenwriter Rod Serling really likes to employ monologues in Seven Days in May. John Frankenheimer likes to direct them too. And the actors like to give them. Because they’re good monologues. The monologues give all then actors fantastic material. Everyone except George Macready, who isn’t the ... Read full article

Seven Days in May (1964)

By Beatrice on Jun 9, 2018 From Flickers in Time

Seven Days in May Directed by John Frankenheimer Written by Rod Sterling from a novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II 1964/USA Joel Productions/Seven Arts Productions Repeat viewing/FilmStruck I expected more suspense in a conspiracy theory film from John Frankenheimer. In the not so dis... Read full article

Warner Archive Blu-ray: March, Lancaster, Douglas and Gardner in Seven Days in May (1964)

By KC on Jul 6, 2017 From Classic Movies

Seven Days in May (1964) was director John Frankenheimer's follow-up to The Manchurian Candidate (1962), meant to be another unsettling portrait of power and politics. Given today's political climate though, it is striking how relatively sane everyone seems in this story of an attempted military tak... Read full article

Seven Days in May – part 5

By Tom on Feb 8, 2012 From The Old Movie House

In part 4 I had a section called “ One Liners and Small Roles”. With the exception of Richard Anderson Malcolm Atterbury and John Larkin were just two of the 10 actors who appeared in the film but were not given any screen credits. Other actors who appeared in the film but did not receiv... Read full article

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Seven Days in May Quotes:

President Jordan Lyman: The next step should be to your liking, Chris. Esther, call the Pentagon. Tell General Scott I want to see him right away.
Esther Townsend: [on intercom] Yes, sir.
Christopher Todd: I think it's time we faced the enemy, Mr. President.
President Jordan Lyman: He's not the enemy. Scott, the Joint Chiefs, even the very emotional, very illogical lunatic fringe: they're not the enemy. The enemy's an age - a nuclear age. It happens to have killed man's faith in his ability to influence what happens to him. And out of this comes a sickness, and out of sickness a frustration, a feeling of impotence, helplessness, weakness. And from this, this desperation, we look for a champion in red, white, and blue. Every now and then a man on a white horse rides by, and we appoint him to be our personal god for the duration. For some men it was a Senator McCarthy, for others it was a General Walker, and now it's a General Scott.
[last lines]
President Jordan Lyman: [to reporters at a televised press conference] There's been abroad in this land in recent months a whisper that we have somehow lost our greatness, that we do not have the strength to win without war the struggles for liberty throughout the world. This is slander, because our country is strong, strong enough to be a peacemaker. It is proud, proud enough to be patient. The whisperers and the detractors, the violent men are wrong. We will remain strong and proud, peaceful and patient, and we will see a day when on this earth all men will walk out of the long tunnels of tyranny into the bright sunshine of freedom.
[president exits; reporters stand and applaud]
Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, that was the President of the United States.
Senator Raymond Clark: Ah, don't get your nanny up; you knew there'd be some dislocations. You can't gear a country's economy for war for 20 years, then suddenly slam on the brakes and expect the whole transition to go like grease through a goose. Hmph. Doesn't work out like that. And think how the whole psychology of the thing's been screwed up from the outset. We've been hating the Russians for a quarter of a century. Suddenly we sign a treaty that says in two months they're to dismantle their bombs, we're to dismantle ours, and we all ride to a peaceful glory. This country will probably live as if peace were just as big a threat as war.
President Jordan Lyman: Dammit, Ray, we could've had our paradise. Yes, by God, we could've had full employment, whopping Gross National Product, nice cushy feeling that we've got a bomb for every one of theirs. But just as sure as God made the state of Georgia, there'd've come one day when they'd've blown us up, or we'd've blown them up. My doctor worries about my blood pressure. You know who that gentleman is down there with the black box. There are five of them... you know that one of them sits outside my bedroom at night? You know what he carries in that box: the codes. The codes by which I, Jordan Lyman, can give the orders sending us into a nuclear war. Instead of my blood pressure, Horace should worry about my sanity.
President Jordan Lyman: [introducing his dog Trimmer to Col. Casey] Trimmer is a very political dog. He doesn't have many principles, but he's loyal to his friends.
[a terse note refers to "Site Y"]
Christopher Todd: That could easily mean another place. These military games... why, the multiplicity of our secret bases confuses ourselves more than the Soviets.
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Seven Days in May Facts
Both the book and the movie suggest that the story takes place in the near future -- that is, after the early 1960s. Using the day-date combinations featured on screen, the most likely setting for these events is May 1969.
In the original novel upon which the film was based, Admiral Farley C. Barnswell's flagship is the USS Eisenhower, a good guess on the part of the novelists Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II: an aircraft carrier of that name would not be ordered until 29 June 1970, a full eight years after the book's publication.
Some film reference works (e.g., the multivolume set, "The Motion Picture Guide") incorrectly list Jack Mullaney's character as "Lt. Hough". "Hough" is the last name of this character in the novel upon which the film is based.
During a briefing between Col. "Jiggs" Casey and Gen. Scott in Scott's Pentagon office, the second shot on the video screen, allegedly of B-47s taxiing at Wright Field during the January alert, is footage from the film Strategic Air Command.
Col. Casey's first name, Martin, is never spoken; he is always addressed (or referred to) by his nickname, "Jiggs". Casey's full name can be seen on the window that separates his office from the waiting room outside General Scott's office.
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