This 1964 drama was based on the novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II.  The screenplay was written by Rod Serling.

Burt Lancaster plays General James Mattoon Scott, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Kirk Douglas plays Marine Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey.  Nothing needs to be said about the performances of  these two actors because they always turn in excellent acting jobs.  Fredric March is President Jordan Lyman and I can't think of anyone who would play him better.  Ava Gardner has the role of Elinor Holbrook, the ex-girlfriend of General Scott.  Edmond O'Brien is the bourbon drinking Senator Raymond Clark from Georgia and Andrew Duggan is Colonel Henderson.  John Houseman has a small role as Vice-Admiral Barnswell.

The story takes place when the cold war is in full bloom and the president and congress have entered  into a treaty with the Soviet Union in which each country has agreed to destroy its nuclear arsenal.  The treaty is highly unpopular with the citizens of the United States and with the military.  There is a strong belief that the Soviets will not honor the treaty and will eventually attack the defenseless United States.  General Scott and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff hatch a plot to overthrow the constitutionally elected government of the United States.  This plot is discovered by Colonel Casey and he reports it to the president.  The rest of the movie shows the attempts of the president and a small group of his advisors trying to stop the coup.

Edmond O'Brien was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar but Peter Ustinov won for Topkapi.  The movie was remade for cable in 1994 and was called The Enemy Within.

Some critics have suggested that the movie is dated and the plot driven by the hysteria of the times.  The word "hysteria" suggests an uncontrollable and maybe even irrational fear of nuclear war.  There was nothing irrational about the fear to anyone who lived through those times when backyard bomb shelters were being sold on street corners and school children were taught to "duck and cover".  In fact, the fear was much more real and immediate than the things people are afraid of today.  Today's fears are promulgated by many different groups whose very existence depends on donations from the public.  Take, for example, global warming.  Earth has been a relatively warm, ice-free planet for 95% of its existence.  There were no glaciers or polar ice caps.  The present warm up is probably just a mild, natural occurring fluctuation not unlike the previous small warming trend which began about 1870 and ended about 1940.  Many of the same end-of-the-worlders who are worried about global warming were predicting a new and severe ice age back in the 1970's.  Also, the hole in the ozone layer is probably another naturally occurring phenomenon caused by changes in solar activity and not by us spraying cans of hair spray into the air.  The fears today are much more "hysterical" than they were back in the early 1960's when this movie was made.

There have been reports that I can't confirm that President Kennedy wanted this movie made so badly that he allowed filming in the White House.  These same reports claim that he feared a military overthrow of the United States Government.  I don't know if this is true or merely hype or urban legend.  In any case, he didn't live to see the movie completed.

Wav Sound Files (11KHz)