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

Christopher Todd: This stuff you unearthed, Colonel Casey, is dynamite. Very revealing of General Scott's extracurricular love life. Any taste of victory we have in our mouths, Colonel, is due in no small measure to your efforts.
Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey: The taste I've got in my mouth, Mr. Secretary, is unmentionable.
Christopher Todd: I can understand that feeling, Colonel. But when you deal with a jackal like your general...
Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey: Mr. Todd, this is a full Air Force general. Six times wounded, wearing only half the medals he deserves. Whatever else he is, he's no jackal.
Christopher Todd: My god, the sensitivity of our warriors! Did I step on your old school tie, Colonel?
Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey: You're just like a lot of civilians, Mr. Todd. After every armistice, you want to put us away in mothballs, like the fleet. When it comes to a little dying...
Christopher Todd: Hold up, Colonel!
Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey: ...you'll be sure to put us in a uniform...
Christopher Todd: That's enough, Colonel!


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: You ever been up here before?
Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey: It's a big room.
President Jordan Lyman: [Sarcastically] Too big for living and too small for a convention.


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Facts about

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.
An important plot point in the film involves the attempted coup taking place on the same day as the Preakness Stakes horse race. However, the seven-day timeline for the film would have had the coup taking place on Sunday while the Preakness is always run on a Saturday. John Frankenheimer said that the problem was solved by a scriptwriting acquaintance of his. This man worked as a script doctor and liked to gamble but wagered his professional services instead of money. Frankenheimer had won some work from the man and gave him the problem. The solution? In one scene a character walks by a poster which says "First Ever Sunday Running of the Preakness".
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.
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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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