Twilight's Last Gleaming

Nuclear missiles raise their warheads, but this time the paranoia is inward, and it's American vs American as Lancaster's renegade Air Force General captures a Montana missile base in order to 'blackmail' the President into revealing the shameful secrets of former administrations. The plea for 'open' government makes this in many ways the first film of the Carter administration. On reflection, the script is often contrived and the acting less than dynamic. But praise to Aldrich for his no-nonsense direction, which fashions the material into a fairly riveting computer hardware thriller. His handling of the countdown - 'It stopped at 8. Next time they go!' - is sufficiently convincing for one to think that the film and everything else might end prematurely. Aldrich turns in a neat, professional job, and even his use of split-screen is unusually uncluttered.