The Man

Not just another cheap, throwaway ABC Movie of the Week, Joseph Sargent's The Man, written for the screen by Rod Serling and based on an Irving Wallace novel, this movie has the potential to be a very good political thriller. The performances are from journeyman to excellent, the dialogue, at times, crackles, and the story is a mixture of the catastrophic and the mundane (the death of the president and speaker of the house being the former and the pervasive racial dismissiveness directed toward James Earl Jones' president pro tempore-to-president is the latter).

Yet.

It's obvious ABC got a higher quality product than they wanted. The Movie of the Week series cranked out one piece of clichéd garbage after another during its 1969-1976 run, and the occasional brilliance (That Certain Summer, Katherine, Duel come to mind) would catch everyone by surprise.

What do you do with something good, when you're regularly paying for crap?

Sheesh, people might begin to expect quality.

So, ABC puts The Man into limited release. The movie looks like a TV flick because it's on a MOTW budget. Probably made $37.26 nationwide. That'll teach 'em to make something good!

But.

I'd put The Man in the box set of post-Twilight Zone Rod Serling work along with the white-knuckled Seven Days in May, the original Planet of the Apes, and some of the better episodes of The Night Gallery. Serling was a great writer, but the trouble with The Man is that it's so starved for time and funds, so shoestrung by lowest common denominatorism from the network, that the movie never gels.

That's catastrophic for the viewer and mundane for the world of networkthink.

"The Man" is dominated by a screenplay written by Rod Serling in his oh-so-earnest mode. The movie benefits from Serling's sincere convictions towards racial progress, but the film is undercut by Serling's tin ear for dialogue.

In the opening scene, a White House breakfast is in progress even though the President and the Speaker of the House are visiting a mediaeval cathedral in Europe. Suddenly news arrives that the cathedral has collapsed: the President and the Speaker are dead. White House aides inform Vice President Calvin (a good performance by Lew Ayres) that he's now the chief executive. But Calvin is old and frail, and he refuses the job. I found this contrived: if the Vice President isn't medically fit to replace the President at an instant's notice, then he isn't fit to be Vice President and shouldn't hold the office.

By an obscure but apparently genuine constitutional fluke, the Presidential succession devolves to an obscure senator named Douglass Dilman (James Earl Jones) who happens to be Negro. Yes, a black man is now President!

"The Man" raises some interesting issues. Jones gives an intelligent and dignified performance as the black President who refuses to see his job promotion as proof of racial progress. He knows he wasn't *elected* to the job, and he doesn't believe that America will elect a black President any time soon. (This was 1972.)

William Windom, who usually played sympathetic roles, gives an excellent performance as a bigoted white politician who covets the Presidency. (The posters for this movie depicted Windom speaking a racial epithet.) Charles Lampkin is excellent in a small role as a black Congressman. And, of course, now that a black man is in the Oval Office, there's a plot to assassinate him...

For some reason, comedian Jack Benny gets very large billing for a very brief scene in "The Man". He appears only in the opening teaser sequence: when the opening credits roll with Benny's name on the screen, we've already seen his entire performance and he won't show up again! Playing himself, Jack Benny performs a comedy monologue during the White House breakfast. But Benny's legendary timing is off, and he doesn't bother to conceal that he's reading his jokes off a legal pad. I'm a Jack Benny fan, but he disgraces himself here.

There are some good scenes in "The Man" but there's a lot of sermonising too, and very little action. I recommend this film with reservations, and I'll give it 5 points out of 10. I sincerely believe that the U.S.A. will eventually elect a black President ... but, sad to say, I also believe that the first African-American President will almost certainly be assassinated. I hope I'm wrong.

The premise of this film is about a man appointed to be President under unusual circumstance. The current President and Speaker of the House tour a building in Europe, which colapses and kills them both, the vice-president is ill and can't fullfill the office.

The Presidency falls to a surprizing fourth in line.

It's a great story and I don't understand why it isn't on video yet.

The only small flaw is that it is time dated with the premise of Apartied in South Africa. Everyone write to the studio and get them to put it out on video. It has appeared on TV but they cut it to ribbons and destroy the continuity. -ARBY

The President of the US is killed. So is the Speaker of the House. The Vice President is ill and cannot accept the presidency.

Enter US Senator Douglass Dillman, who is president pro tempe of the senate. He is also black. He accepts the presidency to the discontent of many cabinet officials, especially the secretary of state. He would be president if not for Dillman.

Racial feelings are revealed among several politicians as Dillman sits in the oval office, determined to overcome the bigotry of those around him and to be as good a president as he can be.

An early vehicle for James Earl Jones, who as Dillman, is brilliant. Excellent performances by the supporting cast. Hopefully, this film will one day be on DVD or VHS. It's also a good potential historical lesson to be absorbed by Americans if this situation should ever happen.

.....then by all means let me know directly at the above e-mail address so that I may arrange for a copy for you. An outstanding undiscovered classic originally made for TV, but whose controversial content resulted in a theatrical release at the 11th hour. James Earl Jones has never been better, nor has Rod Serling's writing, proving he was just as much a genius working outside of the fantasy milieu (as though he hadn't already demonstrated that with "Requiem for a Heavyweight," etc.). Burgess Meredith excels as a white supremacist trying to stymie the new prez at every turn, and Janet MacLachlan is very good as the concerned daughter whose natural opposition to the Oval Office has her torn over her dad's new presence there.