The 70s didn't invent paranoid thrillers - this is one that stemmed from the early 60s anti-Commie nutbag generals running loose. You think today is a divisive time but back then there was everything with have now and nuclear weapons.
Frederic March is an unpopular president determined to push a nuclear treaty with the Russians through. Burt Lancaster is fabulous as a general who is secretly plotting a coup with Kirk Douglas solid in the thankless role of the officer who figures it out.
The best bit about this is the first half as Douglas figures out - relatively quickly, I should add - what's going on, and March and his team of advisers figure out what the hell to do. It's all very early 60s adult, which means a lot of craggy character actors smoking and black and white photography. Ava Gardner's part - an ex flame of Lancaster's - feels badly "tacked in" to get some glamour.
The film suffers in the second half when Douglas pretty much disappears from the action and it becomes more about March and Senator Edmund O'Brien trying to stop it. Also once they figure out a coup was on I always got the impression everyone wasn't in that much danger... maybe when Martin Balsam dies, that was a bit of a threat to democracy, but the plotters were remarkably passive. I mean, heaps of officers must've been involved in the coup - none of them did anything?
This is one of those movies that could be remade - you use the powers of the plotters more, have them try to kill people (I think Balsam's death is an accident).
Awesome cast - people like John Houseman and Hugh Beaumont (as a Bill O'Reilly type figure) add class to little roles.
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