FILM · 1964 · USA
Seven Days in May
59 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (59)
- #001
Burt Lancaster, a liberal Democrat, hesitated to take the role of Scott because he felt the character and the film unfairly maligned the conservative Republican Party. Kirk Douglas convinced him that Scott's role was a morally ambiguous figure rather than a villain.
- #002
The film was originally scheduled for release in December 1963, but Burt Lancaster insisted the premiere date be postponed because it came immediately after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The same fate befell Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), which was also scheduled to open in December 1963.
- #003
For security reasons, the Pentagon banned camera crews near the complex's entrances. John Frankenheimer wanted photographs of Kirk Douglas entering and leaving the building. So, without asking permission, they outfitted a station wagon with two cameras and drove Douglas, dressed in a full Navy Colonel's uniform, up to the Pentagon and inside. Douglas received salutes from real military personnel, who had no reason to believe it was for a film. He then turned around, walked out and drove away, giving them their entrance and exit shots. The scene was cut from the film, however.
- #004
Director John Frankenheimer wanted a more futuristic rifle for the army to use, given the films soon to be released, and chose the Colt M16 for the purpose. The M16 was subsequently selected to replace the obsolete and excessively heavy M14 then in service.
- #005
The film was never released in Brazil because of the coup d'état staged by the military on April 1, 1964. The generals who overthrew the government found the film uncomfortably close to what they had done in real life and did not want Brazilians reminded of it, so they banned it.
- #006
One of the first full-page advertisements for the film's imminent release ran in the NY Times on November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
- #007
While preparing a dialogue scene with Fredric March, Burt Lancaster suddenly forgot his lines. He told March that he had known them earlier in his office. March then asked Lancaster why he hadn't brought his office with him. Lancaster was annoyed, and the next day he knew his lines.
- #008
There has been much debate over whether star actors Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, who made seven films together, were truly friends or business partners who tolerated each other for the sake of the films they worked on. Director John Frankenheimer said they were friends, but that their friendship and working relationship were always tense because of Douglas's alleged jealousy of Lancaster and Lancaster's rather legendary ego.
- #009
Kirk Douglas was initially signed to play General James Mattoon Scott. Douglas eventually realized that his friend Burt Lancaster would be ideal for the role of Scott, and after Lancaster joined the film he took the less flashy role of Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey.
- #010
Before filming began, Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster spent some time touring Washington D.C. They were accompanied by a young officer, the future four-star general and Secretary of State Alexander Haig.
- #011
It was John Houseman's first feature film role, although he was not billed in the credits.
- #012
The final scene, in which General Scott leaves a building, gets into his car and tells his driver to take him home, was shot in Paris, France, during the filming of John Frankenheimer and Burt Lancaster's The Train (1964). In his 1999 DVD commentary, Frankenheimer explains that the building's doors were wide open, so the French names of the shops were not visible. An earlier ending in which General Scott dies in a car crash was unused, and Frankenheimer preferred this ending.
- #013
Several members of the cast and crew were real military veterans; most served during World War II. Both star Kirk Douglas and author Fletcher Knebel served in the Navy. Screenwriter Rod Serling, producer Edward Lewis, cinematographer Ellsworth Fredericks and actors Burt Lancaster, Andrew Duggan, Richard Anderson, John Larkin and Fredd Wayne served in the Army. Actor Bart Burns was in the Marines, while Edmond O'Brien, Martin Balsam, Whit Bissell and Robert Brubaker were in the U.S. Army Air Forces; Brubaker also served in the Korean War. Actor Bill Raisch served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during the war and was severely injured in a fire aboard ship, losing his right arm in the process. John Houseman worked for the Office of War Information, while Bill Baldwin was a war correspondent for the ABC network during World War II. Star Fredric March was in the army during World War I. Both director John Frankenheimer and actor Jack Mullaney served in Korea; Frankenheimer in the Air Force, Mullaney in the Army.
- #014
According to director John Frankenheimer, the character of General Scott is a mixture of General Curtis LeMay and General Douglas MacArthur. Fletcher Knebel, co-author of the novel, said he based the character on Edwin Walker, a disgraced former army general who was forced out of the military after it emerged that he had used political materials from various far-right organizations he belonged to as "training manuals" to indoctrinate his troops with far-right politics, and who became a cashier.
- #015
Spencer Tracy was initially announced for the role of the President.
- #016
When Colonel Casey observes Senator Prentice entering General Scott's office, he checks his wristwatch. The watch is an Accutron Astronaut made by Bulova. Introduced in 1960, the Accutron Astronaut was unique in using a tuning fork oscillator instead of a traditional balance wheel and balance spring. Because of its ability to withstand extreme temperatures and G loads, it became a popular watch choice for military pilots. It was issued to pilots of the X-15 and A-12 high-performance aircraft.
- #017
On the wall of General Scott's office is a portrait of General James Doolittle, the man behind the daring "Doolittle Raid" on Japan a few months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Although its military value was limited, its impact on both the Japanese and American publics was profound. Clearly Scott admires Doolittle's courage, organization and planning, and his willingness to take action, all of which can be seen in Scott's character and actions.
- #018
The President likens General Scott to Joseph McCarthy and General Walker. Major General Edwin Walker was a far-right figure who clashed with President Dwight D. Eisenhower over his far-right views and accused his superiors and others, including Eleanor Roosevelt and former President Harry S. Truman, of being communist sympathizers. Like General Scott, he violated the Hatch Act by using his military authority to influence the votes of those under his command. After leaving the military, he was the chief instigator of the violent riots at the University of Mississippi in 1962 that attacked a black student's right to enroll at the university.
- #019
Paul Girard (Martin Balsam) meets Admiral Barnswell (John Houseman), commander of the 6th Fleet, aboard his flagship USS Kitty Hawk in Gibraltar; the Kitty Hawk was one of the newest and largest aircraft carriers of 1964. The scene was shot in San Diego Bay, where the Kitty Hawk was actually the flagship of the 7th Fleet in the Pacific. The USS Midway is visible in the background; the Midway is now a museum in San Diego, while the Kitty Hawk was decommissioned in 2009 and is currently (2025) being scrapped in Brownsville, Texas. At the time of her decommissioning, the Kitty Hawk was the second-longest-serving ship in the U.S. Navy after the USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides" (commissioned in 1797 and still on the Navy's active warship list).
- #020
The painting in Eleanor's apartment, showing a man leaning against a beached boat and a woman lying prostrate on the sand, belonged to John Frankenheimer. In his DVD commentary, Frankenheimer says the only thing he wanted during his divorce was the painting, which he took and hung in his office. When he arrived on set to shoot the apartment scene, he disliked what he saw and told the set decorators to go to his office and get his painting. After his ex-wife saw the painting, she sued him and he lost ownership of it.
- #021
The film is set in the near future (relative to 1964), but no exact date is ever given. Subtle clues in the film suggest it most likely takes place in May 1975, yet the license plate on Senator Prentice's limousine bears 1969 and 1970 registration tags.
- #022
During the briefing between Colonel "Jiggs" Casey and General Scott in Scott's Pentagon office, the second image on the video screen, supposedly showing B-47s taxiing at Wright Field during the January alert, is footage from the film Strategic Air Command (1955).
- #023
Many actors listed in the studio records/cast call sheets for this film did not appear in the final cut, among them Leonard Nimoy, Victor Buono and Bill Raisch.
- #024
The film's cast includes five Oscar winners: Burt Lancaster, Edmond O'Brien, Martin Balsam, Fredric March and John Houseman; and three Oscar nominees: Ava Gardner, Kirk Douglas and Ferris Webster.
- #025
In the original novel on which the film is based, Admiral Farley C. Barnswell's flagship is the USS Eisenhower; a good guess on the part of the novel's authors, Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II, since an aircraft carrier by that name would not be ordered until June 29, 1970, exactly eight years after the book's publication.
- #026
It is the second film in John Frankenheimer's "paranoid" trilogy, after The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and before Seconds (1966).
- #027
John Frankenheimer had served in the Air Force and knew the Pentagon very well.
- #028
It is the fifth of the seven films Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster made together.
- #029
The film was banned in Brazil because of the military coup that took place there between March 31 and April 1, 1964, events quite similar to those in the film, while the original novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II managed to be released in the very month of the coup, with photos from the film starring its leads on the back cover. The book cover identifies it as the number one bestselling book in the United States in 1963.
- #030
Colonel Casey's first name, Martin, is never spoken; he is always addressed (or referred to) by the nickname "Jiggs." Casey's full name can be seen on the window separating his office from the waiting room outside General Scott's office. It can be assumed that "Jiggs" is a nickname from Casey's military days and possibly a humorous nod to his humble beginnings and his extraordinary rise through the ranks and posts. Jiggs was a character in a popular comic strip about the assistant to a bricklayer who won a million dollars. This was the same premise used for the popular TV series of the era The Beverly Hillbillies (1962).
- #031
At the time this film was made, video conferencing was the stuff of science fiction, but in the not-too-distant future it would become a mainstream practice.
- #032
As Casey follows the TV news anchor, he parks his car behind a taxi. The advertisement on the back of the taxi is for the Preakness racetrack and promotes the first race, to be held on Sunday, May 10.
- #033
General Edwin Walker, who partly formed the basis for the character of General Scott, was the victim of an assassination attempt on April 10, 1963. Bullet fragments recovered from the scene were later matched to a rifle belonging to Lee Harvey Oswald, who used the same rifle to assassinate President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. This film was to be released in December 1963 but was postponed because of the assassination.
- #034
While Senator Ray Clark is held at the Site Y base west of El Paso, Texas, he learns from a copy of The El Paso Herald-Post, a real afternoon daily newspaper published until 1997, that Paul Gerard died in a plane crash.
- #035
At about 1 hour 28 minutes, a trijet passenger plane can be seen landing with engines mounted under its wings, making it resemble a DC10 rather than a Boeing 727. The film was shot in 1964, and the first DC10 entered commercial service with American Airlines on August 5, 1971.
- #036
Kent McCord, the actor who played Officer Jim Reed on Adam-12 (1968), appears in an uncredited, non-speaking role in the film (as a Secret Service agent), most visibly in the corridor just before the President's press briefing near the end.
- #037
Kirk Douglas, Richard Anderson and George Macready all appeared in Paths of Glory (1957).
- #038
As Kirk Douglas and his team follow a suspect, they head north up IVAR AVE above Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, CA, rather than in Washington, D.C., where they are supposed to be. They then follow the man to an alley beside the hotel. As they approach the hotel on the right side, you can see the hotel and its marquee.
- #039
Early in the film, the clock on the clerk's desk at the Pentagon check-in point shows the date as Monday, May 12. Assuming this is after the film's premiere date, the events of the film would take place in 1969, 1975, 1980 or 1986. Judging by the technology shown in the film, the events probably would not occur after 1986, since the next May 12 to fall on a Monday was in 2003.
- #040
In Eleanor's apartment there is a dark, gloomy abstract painting showing an unwanted man leaning against a beached boat and a woman prostrate on the sand. The painting, belonging to General Scott's rejected mistress, clearly represents the failure of their relationship. Meanwhile, on a nearby wall hang a series of elegant, light and airy paintings representing Eleanor herself.
- #041
George Macready and Kirk Douglas had previously appeared together in Paths of Glory (1957).
- #042
Many sources claim that in the scene where Kirk Douglas, wearing an authentic-looking Marine Corps Colonel's uniform, climbs the Pentagon steps, real military personnel and guards outside the Pentagon passed by without recognizing Douglas, took him for a real US Marine Corps colonel and saluted him, and Douglas returned the salute. This genuine, unscripted footage was included in the film's final cut. Because the Pentagon would not permit filming at that location, director John Frankenheimer shot it secretly using a camera hidden in a parked station wagon. However, since no such scene appears in the film, this may be more of an urban legend.
- #043
While in Texas, Senator Clark drove a Chevrolet Nova. It was a popular car, and versions of it were also produced in Mexico and sold in Latin America. The car's name was much joked about, because in Spanish "no va" means "doesn't go."
- #044
Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien and Burt Lancaster had previously appeared together in The Killers (1946).
- #045
Whether consciously or unintentionally, the film was almost a mirror of Art's life under the John F. Kennedy administration. The fictional President Lyman wants a complete ban on nuclear weapons, while President Kennedy (after the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis) initially pushed for a complete ban on nuclear tests, but this was opposed by both the US military and the Russians (who feared independent observers would realize at the time how small the secret Soviet arsenal was). Kennedy's June 1963 American University speech ("we all inhabit the same planet") and the Limited Test Ban compromise signed a day before the 18th anniversary of Hiroshima (underground tests were still permitted) took place while director John Frankenheimer was shooting in the summer of 1963. The film, set in 1970 (the book was published in 1974), is notable because 1970 is a midterm election year. Kennedy was looking forward to winning the 1964 election, in which his chances were high (before the assassination, of course). If that had happened, Kennedy would have had a 2-term presidency, would have eased Vietnam tensions (Kennedy knew Vietnam was a quagmire and wanted the US out, but could not afford to look that soft before the elections), the unrest of the late '60s would not have occurred, it would not have paved the way for Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson's election in 1968, and hopefully the president would have carried Kennedy's "complete" test ban through to 1970. In a sense, Frankenheimer's film seems to show a paradise-like political future only 7 years away (in addition to the technological advances shown in General Scott's office in the film). Finally, as a small note, actor Whit Bissell plays California Senator Prentice, who opposes President Lyman's ban. However, California's actual senators in 1963, Republican Thomas H. Kuchel and Democrat Clair Engel, supported Kennedy's Limited Test Ban (Engel was unable to vote on 24 September 1963 because he was battling a fatal brain tumor, but an aide secured Engel's support in the Congressional Record).
- #046
There are a number of clues about the actual year in which the action takes place. The book clearly states that the year is 1975. This is one of the years in which the calendar days line up.
- #047
John Larkin, who played Colonel Broderick, died suddenly less than a year after the film's release. Larkin had already completed many films and TV episodes that were released or broadcast after his death.
- #048
As Secret Service agent and Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey leaves Dulles Airport and follows McPherson, who is leaving the airport in General Scott's car, he parks his car behind a taxi bearing a large banner on its bumper advertising "Preakness. First Sunday running May 18" once they reach their destination. A subliminal reference to the Preakness code General Scott uses for his plan to overthrow the government.
- #049
(At about the 57th minute) The first on-screen interaction between President Lyman and General Scott takes place. It is conducted by video conference and lasts less than a minute.
- #050
It was included in the American Film Institute's 2001 list of 400 nominated films for the 100 Most Heart-Pounding American Films.
- #051
Martin Balsam, George Macready, Richard Anderson and Kenner G. Kemp later appeared in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), in which Kemp and Macready shared a scene.
- #052
ECOMCON was said to be at a secret base, "Site Y." The real Site Y was actually a secret "base" at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the atomic bomb was built during World War II.
- #053
This is the second of three films in which Martin Balsam's character is killed. The first was Psycho (1960), and the third was The Bedford Incident (1965).
- #054
North Carolina native Lois Colette Jackson made her final appearance, without being credited in the title sequence, as the woman talking with Senator Raymond Clark (actor Edmond O'Brien, at Charlie's Bar, near the secret "Y" base in Southwest Texas): "You wonder what the country's coming to. All those boys sitting out in the desert never see a girl. Why, they'd be better off out in the open." Jackson died at age 35 in a single-car accident in West Hollywood at 02:05 on the morning of 15 May 1969. Her husband at the time, 27-year-old Solomon Sturges, lost control of the car, struck three parked vehicles and hit a utility pole. Sturges was only slightly injured, while Colette died on arrival at Citizen's Emergency Hospital, leaving behind her baby daughter Shannon Sturges. As both an actress and a performance, her nascent career was cut short by fate and the peculiarities of Hollywood filmmaking. Had she lived, there seems little doubt that she would have appeared in future Frankenheimer films.
- #055
Reportedly, the first choice to play General Scott was Henry Fonda, who was rejected because of scheduling problems.
- #056
Just before Colonel Casey enters the President's living quarters, he sees an officer sitting outside the entrance door with a briefcase and stares at him for a long time. This officer carries the "football," the nuclear codes needed to launch atomic war. Casey is reflecting on the seriousness of what he is about to do.
- #057
This film was shown on the ITV channel in the UK on the evening of Sunday, 27 September 1970.
- #058
After his televised speech, while General Scott is in his office discussing it with Jigs, it is clear that Scott is putting out feelers to see whether he can bring Jigs into his secret circle for taking over the government. When Jigs tells Scott that the person who introduced him seemed a bit mature and Scott says he is, but that he provides a platform for his own position and is only using him, Jigs replies, "I see," and when Scott asks, "Do you see?" he answers with a rhetorically and thoughtfully loaded question. It is clear that Scott is not referring to the commentator who introduced him, but is probably trying to determine whether Jigs sees a broader perspective and whether he agrees with Scott.
- #059
Engaging in any political activity while in uniform is a violation of the UCMJ (UNIFORM CODE OF MILITARY JUSTICE). General Scott should not have given a speech while in uniform.
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