"Seven Days in May" - the movie - Is being shown on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM-TV) in one hour

[Peter Lemkin]

Back to Seven Days in May, one of my favorite films, with a screenplay from one of my favorite TV writers. Here's a collection of material I've gathered about this subject.

Rod Serling's friend Doug Brode, who, along with Serling's widow, Carol, wrote "Rod Serling and 'The Twilight Zone:' The 50th Anniversary Tribute" (2009), recalled: "Rod had an open mind to the good, the bad and the in-between of technology. He was a guarded optimist until the Kennedy assassination. After that, his work reflected his sense of hopelessness." (NYT 7/7/11)

6/12/1962 A United Artists executive, Robert Blumofe, says in a letter to Edward Lewis that he declined to consider making a film of the book Seven Days in May because of the negative image it might project abroad "and the inevitable and implacable opposition of the military." "If…the Executive branch of the Government were to encourage the making of this film, I'd certainly be happy to reconsider it with you at that time," he wrote.

9/6/1962 Rod Serling letter to Kirk Douglas: "I very much share your enthusiasm for the Seven Days in May' project. I also count myself extremely lucky to finally get this opportunity to work with you. The project has not only great import, but is the most eminently dramatizeable story I've seen in many a moon."

2/6/1963 Letter from Charles Bailey and Fletcher Knebel to Kirk Douglas about the making of the film Seven Days in May, critiquing Rod Serling's screenplay. They believe that Serling has made their book too black and white, too much of an indictment of the military, and it needs to be toned down.

2/8/1963 Stanley Kubrick letter to Kirk Douglas, about Rod Serling's screenplay. He urges that the film try not to compromise on the message about the need for civilian control over the military. Kubrick reminds Douglas of Eisenhower's "military-industrial complex" speech.

8/23/1963 Kirk Douglas memo to Bryna head producer Edward Lewis regarding an early cut of the film, and how the ending needed to be redone.

Director John Frankenheimer filmed shots for the movie "Seven Days in May" on board the carrier Kitty Hawk in 1963. In an early example of guerrilla filmmaking, Frankenheimer photographed Martin Balsam being ferried out to the now-decommissioned supercarrier USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63, redesignated CV-63 in the mid-1970s), berthed at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego without prior Defense Department permission. He also wanted a shot of Kirk Douglas entering the Pentagon, but could not get permission because of security considerations, so he rigged a movie camera in a parked station wagon to photograph Douglas walking up to the Pentagon. Douglas actually received salutes from military personnel inasmuch as he was wearing the uniform of a U.S. Marine Corps colonel.

10/2/1963 "If the United States ever experiences a 'Seven Days in May' it will come from the CIA, and not from the Pentagon," one U.S. official commented caustically. ("Seven Days in May" is a fictional account of an attempted military coup to take over the U.S. Government.) (The Washington Daily News, Wednesday, October 2, 1963, p.3
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11/19/1963 Look magazine ran a photo essay by Fletcher Knebel on the making of the film Seven Days in May. The journalist revealed the rampant anxieties that the film's production had set off in Washington. "At the outset of filming, the moviemakers had a call from still another arm of government. The Secret Service was alarmed at a spurious report that the movie involved a President's assassination."

Seven Days in May was originally scheduled for release in December 1963 but Burt Lancaster insisted the release date be postponed as it was too soon after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The same fate befell Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which was also scheduled for a December 1963 opening.

2/12/1963 The John Frankenheimer film Seven Days in May premieres. Originally a bestselling political thriller by Charles Waldo Bailey II and Fletcher Knebel (published 1962 by Harper and Row). It was filmed with the cooperation of the Kennedy administration. Ted Sorensen recalled that JFK joked darkly about how "I know a couple [of Joint Chiefs] who wish they could" overthrow him. (Kennedy p684). Arthur Schlesinger related how Kennedy saw the book as "a warning to the republic." (RFK and his Times 485)

Frankenheimer recalled, "President Kennedy wanted Seven Days in May made. Pierre Salinger conveyed this to us. The Pentagon didn't want it done. Kennedy said that when we wanted to shoot at the White House he would conveniently go to Hyannis Port that weekend." (The Celluloid Muse: Hollywood Directors Speak, Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg, 1972 Signet, p92)

The president's friend Paul Fay, Jr., told of an incident that showed JFK was keenly conscious of the peril of a military coup d'etat. One summer weekend in 1962 while out sailing with friends, Kennedy was asked what he thought of Seven Days in May, a best-selling novel that described a military takeover in the United States. JFK said he would read the book. He did so that night. The next day Kennedy discussed with his friends the possibility of their seeing such a coup in the United States. Consider that he said these words after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and before the Cuban Missile Crisis: " It's possible. It could happen in this country, but the conditions would have to be just right. If, for example, the country had a young President, and he had a Bay of Pigs, there would be a certain uneasiness. Maybe the military would do a little criticizing behind his back, but this would be written off as the usual military dissatisfaction with civilian control. Then if there were another Bay of Pigs, the reaction of the country would be, 'Is he too young and inexperienced ? ' The military would almost feel that it was their patriotic obligation to stand ready to preserve the integrity of the nation, and only God knows j ust what segment of democracy they would be defending if they overthrew the elected establishment. " Pausing a moment, he went on, "Then, if there were a third Bay of Pigs, it could happen. " Waiting again until his listeners absorbed his meaning, he concluded with an old Navy phrase, " But it won't happen on my watch. " (Fay, The Pleasure of His Company 190)

"A voice next to me said, "do you intend to make a movie out of Seven Days in May?"
I turned. President Kennedy! "Yes, Mr. President."
"Good." He spent the next twenty minutes, while our dinner got cold, telling me that he thought it would make an excellent movie." (Kirk Douglas, Ragman's Son, p349)

According to David Talbot, the novel was published in September 1962 and JFK had received an advance copy from Knebel in late summer. (Brothers) Knebel said he got the idea for the book after interviewing Curtis LeMay, who at one point went off the record to fume against Kennedy's "cowardice" at the Bay of Pigs. (NYT 2/28/1993) Kennedy quickly read the book and others in his inner circle did as well. JFK contacted director John Frankenheimer, who had been working on The Manchurian Candidate (another Cold War thriller JFK was a huge fan of) and encouraged him to turn Seven Days into a film. "Kennedy wanted Seven Days in May to be made as a warning to the generals," recalled Arthur Schlesinger. "The president said the first thing I'm going to tell my successor is Don't trust the military men even on military matters." (Talbot interview with Schlesinger, Brothers). Sinatra had gotten Kennedy to intervene with United Artists to get The Manchurian Candidate made, when the studio began to get cold feet. (Sinatra interview, 1988 video release) Kirk Douglas' production company acquired the rights to the novel even before it was published. (Brothers, Talbot)

An opinion writer in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner (3/5/1964) questioned whether films like Seven Days should be made: "The world is on too short a fuse" and pictures like this damaged "the American image abroad." A Los Angeles Times columnist (2/6/1964) felt compelled to reassure his readers that a military coup couldn't happen in America, quoting none other than retired admiral Arleigh Burke to support his case. Congressman Melvin Laird called for the movie to be clearly labeled fiction before it was shown overseas. (Variety 5/13/1964)

John Frankenheimer years later pointed out, "Paranoia only exists if the circumstances are totally untrue." As for The Manchurian Candidate, he said history has "vividly demonstrated that there are lots and lots of plots to assassinate presidents and high-ranking figures for political gain…There's a certain grotesque reality about The Manchurian Candidate. And as far as Seven Days in May is concerned, we know that there was a very definite group in the military that would have, at one point, liked to have taken over the government…The extreme right has been very, very effective in undermining quite a few things that could've changed the destiny of this country." (HBO Website interview)

Frankenheimer's widow recalled that her husband never believed the lone gunman theory of JFK's killing. She said that John would discuss his ideas about the assassination with Bobby Kennedy, with whom he drew close in 1968 while filming his presidential campaign ads. Both men agreed there were other forces at work in Dallas beside Oswald. (Brothers, Talbot)

Great collection of thoughts, words, and deeds related to Seven Days In May...a GREAT film - that I only recently RE-watched. It holds up just fine....it really was prescient of what was about to happen. Sadly, JFK was wrong...it did happen on his 'watch'......and sad for us and the USA, which has never recovered and never will until most accept the horrible truths of who/why/and what was behind it all - the 'Unspeakable' Truth.