Seven Days in May

Based on a novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II, Seven Days in May follows Kirk Douglas’ Martin Casey as he becomes increasingly convinced that a decorated general (Burt Lancaster’s James Mattoon Scott) is planning a coup d’etat – with the story detailing Casey’s increasingly frantic efforts at proving his suspicions. Director John Frankenheimer delivers an exceedingly, often excessively slow narrative that contains few captivating elements, although, having said that, it’s hard to deny the effectiveness of the movie’s various performances – with Douglas and Lancaster’s typically engrossing work matched by a strong supporting cast that includes Fredric March, Martin Balsam, and Edmond O’Brien. The picture’s raft of positive elements is slowly-but-surely rendered moot, however, by Frankenheimer’s less-than-taut handling of the material, as much of Seven Days in May‘s midsection is devoted to the padded-out and fairly tedious investigation into Lancaster’s character’s nefarious conspiracy – with the spinning-its-wheels vibe never more apparent than in the sequences involving Ava Gardner’s palpably pointless Eleanor Holbrook. And although Frankenheimer has admittedly peppered the proceedings with a handful of stirring interludes (eg Casey goes to the President with his suspicions), Seven Days in May ultimately comes off as a decent hour-long thriller trapped within the confines of a bloated misfire.

** out of ****