Seven Days in May

Two great tenors from the Golden Age of American television, join forces. Screenwriter Rod Serling of the often politically charged science fiction series The Twilight Zone, and director John Frankenheimer who was concerned about the growing power of the military, what he called the General MacArthur syndrome. Burt Lancaster, with his usual determination, plays a general who hatches an audacious plan to depose the incumbent president (Fredric March) for his lack of vigour in nuclear treaties with the Russians. Everything takes place over seven decisive days, which immediately gives great momentum to this chronicle of a coup, constructed as a race against the clock. A hefty political statement too that warns of the fragility of US liberalism and benefits from strong performances by Kirk Douglas as the colonel who discovers the conspiracy and Ava Gardner as a society lady from the Washington inner circle who is manipulated by sentimental blackmail.