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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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 althou... 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 righ... 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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Quotes from

President Jordan Lyman: I know what Scott's attitude on the treaty is, what's yours?
Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey: I agree with General Scott, sir. I think we're being played for suckers. I think it's really your business. Yours and the Senate. You did it, and they agreed so, well, I don't see how we in the military can question it. I mean we can question it, but we can't fight it. We shouldn't, anyway.
President Jordan Lyman: Jiggs, isn't it? Isn't that what they call you?
Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey: Yes sir.
President Jordan Lyman: So you, ah, you stand by the Constitution, Jiggs?
Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey: I never thought of it just like that, Mr. President, but, well, that's what we got and I guess it's worked pretty well so far. I sure don't want to be the one to say we ought to change it.
President Jordan Lyman: Neither do I.


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.


General James Mattoon Scott: And if you want to talk about your oath of office, I'm here to tell you face to face, President Lyman, that you violated that oath when you stripped this country of its muscles - when you deliberately played upon the fear and fatigue of the people and told them they could remove that fear by the stroke of a pen. And then when this nation rejected you, lost faith in you, and began militantly to oppose you, you violated that oath by not resigning from office and turning the country over to someone who could represent the people of the United States.
President Jordan Lyman: And that would be General James Mattoon Scott, would it? I don't know whether to laugh at that kind of megalomania, or simply cry.
General James Mattoon Scott: James Mattoon Scott, as you put it, hasn't the slightest interest in his own glorification. But he does have an abiding interest in the survival of this country.
President Jordan Lyman: Then, by God, run for office. You have such a fervent, passionate, evangelical faith in this country - why in the name of God don't you have any faith in the system of government you're so hell-bent to protect?


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Facts about

John Larkin, who plays Colonel Broderick, died suddenly less than a year after the film was released. Larkin had already shot many other films and TV episodes, which were released or aired posthumously.
Paul Girard (Martin Balsam) meets Admiral Barnswell (John Houseman), commander of the 6th Fleet, in Gibraltar aboard his flagship, USS Kitty Hawk, one of the newest & largest aircraft carriers in 1964. The scene was filmed in San Diego Bay, where the Kitty Hawk was actually flagship of the 7th Fleet based in the Pacific. The aircraft carrier USS Midway is in the background. The Midway is now a museum in San Diego while the Kitty Hawk was decommissioned (2009) and in the naval reserves. At time of her decommissioning, the Kitty Hawk was the longest serving US Navy ship.
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.
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Best Supporting Actor Oscar 1964






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Also directed by John Frankenheimer




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Also produced by Edward Lewis




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