The Man (1972 film)
Encyclopedia
The Man is a 1972 political drama directed by Joseph Sargent
Joseph Sargent
Joseph Sargent is an American film director. He has directed many television movies, but his best known feature film works are probably White Lightning, MacArthur, Nightmares and Jaws: The Revenge, with his most popular film being The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. He has won four Emmy Awards...

 and starring James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...

. Jones plays Douglass Dilman, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
The President pro tempore is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate. The United States Constitution states that the Vice President of the United States is the President of the Senate and the highest-ranking official of the Senate despite not being a member of the body...

, who succeeds to the presidency
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 through a series of unforeseeable events, thereby becoming the first African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 president. The screenplay, written by Rod Serling
Rod Serling
Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...

, is largely based upon The Man, a novel by Irving Wallace
Irving Wallace
Irving Wallace was an American best-selling author and screenwriter. Wallace was known for his heavily researched novels, many with a sexual theme. One critic described him "as the most successful of all the many exponents of junk fiction perhaps because he took it all so seriously, not so say...

.

In an interview with Greg Braxton of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

 that ran Jan. 16, 2009, four days before Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

 was inaugurated as president, Jones was asked about having portrayed the fictional first black U.S. president on film. He replied: "I have misgivings about that one. It was done as a TV special. Had we known it was to be released as a motion picture, we would have asked for more time and more production money. I regret that."

Plot

President Fenton and the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...

 are killed while at a summit in Frankfurt, West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 when the palace hosting the legation suffers a collapse. Vice President Noah Calvin, elderly and in very ill health, refuses to assume the office, pointing out that they'll need another replacement almost immediately.

Arthur Eaton, the Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...

, is urged to take the office, but he points out that according to the law, the line of succession
United States presidential line of succession
The United States presidential line of succession defines who may become or act as President of the United States upon the incapacity, death, resignation, or removal from office of a sitting president or a president-elect.- Current order :This is a list of the current presidential line of...

 places the job next with the President pro tempore of the Senate
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
The President pro tempore is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate. The United States Constitution states that the Vice President of the United States is the President of the Senate and the highest-ranking official of the Senate despite not being a member of the body...

, who is Douglass Dilman.

A stunned Dilman is sworn in and arrives at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

 to assume office. Eaton's outspoken wife Kay berates her husband for not pushing to become president, even though it would be contrary to the succession order. Eaton assures her that he will become president once Dilman proves unable to handle the job.

In the morning, as Eaton and his advisers come to the Oval Office
Oval Office
The Oval Office, located in the West Wing of the White House, is the official office of the President of the United States.The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end...

, it becomes evident that Eaton is setting himself up as the "power behind the throne." Dilman meets with Eaton, who gives him a binder of briefing notes. Included are statements the President can give in response to questions asked by the press
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...

, statements that generally conform to positions on issues by the administration of the deceased Fenton.

Dilman meets the press for the first time as president. At the outset, he goes along with the information provided. An aggressive reporter observes the "puppet strings" as Dilman stops to consult notes after each question, and he questions Dilman's independence.

Eaton scribbles a note and has it taken forward to the president. Dilman, having realized that he's being manipulated, crumples Eaton's note, shoves the briefing binder aside and proceeds under his own initiative, deciding that if God or fate has made him president, he will have to make his own decisions.

Dilman, a moderate, is confronted with activists and extremists over his skin color. Robert Wheeler, a young black man, meanwhile, is sought for extradition
Extradition
Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...

 by apartheid South Africa for a deadly act in that country; Dilman offers his help as the young man claims he was in Burundi
Burundi
Burundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...

 at the time.

Senator Watson introduces a bill that would require approval of Congress in any attempt by the President to dismiss a member of the cabinet. Eaton doesn't tell Dilman about it, but a few black congressmen have a meeting with Dilman to discuss their concerns. Dilman believes they are referring to a minority rights bill and pledges his support, until one of the congressmen tells the President it isn't about the rights bill but the Watson bill.

Dilman subsequently chews out a group of senior leaders whom Eaton is meeting with, questioning his relevance if such an important bill is not even being brought to his attention.

Senator Watson visits the South African embassy, where the ambassador comments that his own country would never have a black man as president. He shows a news film to Senator Watson that proves Wheeler was indeed in South Africa, and it breaks as a scandal
Scandal
A scandal is a widely publicized allegation or set of allegations that damages the reputation of an institution, individual or creed...

 threatening Dilman's young presidency.

Dilman's activist daughter Wanda clashes with Kay Eaton at a dinner in the White House. The President watches the verbal exchange with pride and bemusement. But when he obtains the young black man's confession, handing him over for extradition, the President alienates Wanda, who doesn't agree with handing over an activist against white minority rule in South Africa. During this scene there is a very telling moment with Wheeler (played by George Sanford Brown who would play the runaway slave in North and South) when Wheller calls the President a "House Nigger" and the President responds that "Black men don't burn churches and kill 4 children, they don't hunt down a Martin Luther King with a telescopic sight. Passion may drive you to the streets to throw a brick but to buy a gun plant a alibi and travel 5000 miles and kill a human being is bloodless, worthy of the selective morality of Adolf Eichman."

The President addresses reporters, explaining that while some people think violence is the only answer, he will rely on diplomacy and peaceful means. He washes his hands of the Wheeler issue.

A reporter asks if he's going to pass up a run for the presidential nomination in the next election. Dilman replies that he is going to "fight like heck" to win the nomination. To the tune of "Hail to the Chief
Hail to the Chief
"Hail to the Chief" is a march primarily associated with the President of the United States. Its playing accompanies the appearance of the President at many public appearances. For major official occasions, the United States Marine Band and other military ensembles generally are the performers, so...

," he is introduced to the party's national convention.

Cast

  • James Earl Jones
    James Earl Jones
    James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...

     as Douglass Dilman
  • Martin Balsam
    Martin Balsam
    Martin Henry Balsam was an American actor. He is known for his Oscar-winning role as "Arnold Burns" in A Thousand Clowns and his role as "Detective Milton Arbogast" in Psycho.- Early life :...

     as Jim Talley
  • Burgess Meredith
    Burgess Meredith
    Oliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director...

     as Senator Watson
  • Lew Ayres
    Lew Ayres
    Lew Ayres was an American actor, best known for starring as Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front and for playing Dr...

     as Noah Calvin
  • William Windom
    William Windom (actor)
    William Windom is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his work on television, including several episodes of The Twilight Zone; playing the character of Glen Morley, a congressman from Minnesota like his own great-grandfather and namesake in The Farmer's Daughter; the character of John...

     as Arthur Eaton
  • Barbara Rush
    Barbara Rush
    Barbara Rush is an American stage, film, and television actress.-Career:A student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Barbara Rush performed on stage at the Pasadena Playhouse before signing with Paramount Pictures...

     as Kay Eaton
  • Georg Stanford Brown
    Georg Stanford Brown
    Georg Stanford Brown is an Afro-Cuban-American actor and director, perhaps best known as one of the stars of the ABC police television series The Rookies from 1972–76...

     as Robert Wheeler
  • Janet MacLachlan
    Janet MacLachlan
    Janet MacLachlan was an American character actress who had roles in such television series as The Rockford Files, Alias and The Golden Girls.-Career:MacLachlan was born in New York City on August 27, 1933...

     as Wanda

Trivia

William Windom sought the presidency in this movie. A year earlier, in Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Escape from the Planet of the Apes, directed by Don Taylor, is a 1971 science fiction film starring Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Bradford Dillman and Ricardo Montalbán. It is the third of five films in the original Planet of the Apes series produced by Arthur P. Jacobs, the second being Beneath the...

, Windom played the president.

Lew Ayres previously played a Vice-President elevated to the Presidency in Advise and Consent
Advise and Consent (film)
Advise & Consent is a 1962 American motion picture based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Allen Drury, published in 1959. The movie was adapted for the screen by Wendell Mayes and was directed by Otto Preminger...

, and portrayed the President in the made-for-TV Earth II
Earth II (TV series pilot)
Earth II was a 1971 pilot, aired November 28, for a television series about a colony established in orbit around the Earth. It starred Gary Lockwood, Anthony Franciosa, Lew Ayres and Mariette Hartley.-Story outline:...

.
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