Vanished

"Vanished" has earned a place in history as the first made for television movie to air in two parts, which, I suppose, may also make it the first mini-series. Quantity and quality are not the same thing, of course, and little about "Vanished" prevents it from being your standard TV suspenser. It does boast a terrific cast, though, with Richard Widmark very impressive indeed as the President of the United States. Too bad that other Richard--you know, Nixon, who was President at the time this movie aired--hadn't stepped aside to make room for the former Tommy Udo (see "Kiss of Death" for details).

"Vanished" is a two-part movie which is quite unusual for a couple reasons. First, the network spent a lot of money on it...far more than usual for the time period. Part of this is because they spent a lot on actors...including many of the best character actors of the day as well as convincing Richard Widmark to make his first TV film. Second, the film talks about homosexuality and is pretty up front about it...a rare thing for 1971.

Early in the story, the President's chief advisor, Arnold Greer, disappears from a golf course. Additionally, his home safe is empty, $15,000 is missing from his bank account and his wife knows nothing. Soon, it becomes very possible that the man ran off with his male lover...though this is NOT certain.

The disappearance is now the problem of the President's Press Secretary. He is supposed to be giving the press answers...but he has very few. Soon, it's obvious that there are leaks in the White House and this explains why the President is so closed-mouthed about everything. What REALLY is going on? Well, possibly World War III!

This is a very good film but also one that won't satisfy folks who want a lot of action or a fast pace. It's slow and deliberate. But it also has some amazing acting and the story, if you stick with it, is pretty amazing Cold War stuff. Well made...and available on YouTube if you want to see it.

By the way, one reviewer said that the movie came out in the midst of the Watergate scandal. This is not true...Watergate didn't break until two years later.

Similar to the timeless and powerful Kirk Douglas/Burt Lancaster classic "Seven Days In May". This surprisingly good political thriller was filmed during the height of the Watergate scandal. And although there was some relevance to events at the time, the Vanished storyline does not deal with the trials of 'Tricky Dick'. What it does do, and do well, is take the viewers along a very slippery political path laced with many red herrings. There's some ingenious scripting I suspect will trip up even the most jaded viewers: Threats of war with the Chinese communists, treason at the highest level - and considering this was made in 1971 - scandalous suggestions of homosexual liaisons affecting the national security of the United States. It's a strong 'all star cast' with good performances all around. Particularly in light of the fact that this was a made-for-TV production.

Robert Young, of Marcus Welby MD fame, really steals the show as the manipulative congressman from the south. His performance as Senator Gannon, perhaps unintentionally, is a dead-on-ringer for a "mean" Mark Twain, his evil twin brother perhaps. Rivaling that of Hal Holbrook's recent one man performance and Jerry Hardin's much beloved turn at the author during the Star Trek next generation TV series.

If you know of anyone who might have a copy of this movie - I would certainly like to talk with that person. :-)

First of all, I admit this is not really a review of "Vanished". I have not seen it. But I do want to comment on the real-life episode that reportedly inspired the novel on which "Vanished" is based: About 4 weeks prior to the 1964 presidential election, Lyndon Johnson's chief-of-staff -- a 46-year-old husband and father of six named Walter Jenkins -- was arrested and charged with Disorderly Conduct following an incident in the men's bathroom of a YMCA located in Washington, DC. Jenkins had worked for LBJ since 1939 and had been his top administrative aide since 1945. It later emerged that Jenkins had been involved in a similar incident in January 1959 (while Johnson was Senate Majority Leader) but that had been covered up somehow.

In 1964, homosexuality was still such a taboo subject in American society that the media simply did not discuss the matter for about 7 days following the arrest, even though the reporters knew about it. Finally, after a week, the story "broke", even though most public discussion took place without mentioning the word "homosexuality".

Johnson's Republican opponent, Senator Goldwater of Arizona, actually knew Jenkins from their service in the Air Force Reserves and his comments were very restrained. Goldwater's VP-nominee, an obscure Congressman from Buffalo NY, was a bit less subtle, but even so the whole matter received a tiny fraction of the attention it would have received in later years. (Imagine if George W. Bush's chief-of-staff had been arrested for same-sex solicitation a month prior to the 2004 election. That would not have been simply "the lead" story in the national media, it would have been virtually THE ONLY story.)

The author Fletcher Knebel published the novel "Vanished" in 1968, about 3-4 years after the Jenkins episode, and then the TV-movie was originally aired in March 1971. So the movie was not -- as another reviewer wrote -- "filmed during the height of the Watergate scandal", which I think most people would place 2-3 years later.

... I found this early TV miniseries to be tedious with an outrageous ending.

Production values wise it's an impressive achievement, with many stars of both the large and small screen appearing, many in almost cameo roles. It's the tale of a presidential advisor who seems troubled about something (Arthur Hill as Arnold Greer) who disappears one day. He went to play golf and never came back home. Presidential press secretary Gene Culligan (James Farentino) and his old college roommate FBI agent Larry Storm (Robert Hooks) go out to the golf course to investigate and find Greer's car still in the parking lot. An employee of the club says that Greer borrowed a golf cart when he went out on the green and never returned it. Thinking that maybe Greer had a heart attack or some other kind of medical emergency out on the course, Culligan and Storm take flashlight in hand and go looking for him. They find the cart, abandoned, and they find a piece of cloth from a suit that Culligan recognizes as Greer's, caught in the barbed wire topping the security fence around the course, as though Greer scaled that fence and disappeared on purpose - or was he forced to do so?

In a parallel story, at the beginning of the film, the body of a Chinese sailor has washed up on shore and it is believed to have come from a submarine belonging to the Communist Chinese that was parked inside American waters.

So the search begins. The film started out engaging but it just wanders all over the place and loses focus . It's insinuated - not too subtly - that Greer might have been secretly gay and has skipped town with his lover. In 1971, that would have been a huge scandal, especially with the president facing reelection in just a few months.

What makes this film interesting is the portrayal of the presidency as it existed a year before Watergate and about two years before that scandal began to make headlines. The president, portrayed by Richard Widmark, gives the role the intelligence and dignity people demanded of the Commander in Chief at the time. So nice to see a president actually speaking in complete coherent sentences like an intelligent adult who actually understands foreign affairs, the wheat proposal - whatever that is, and "the fighter budget". In support, his advisors are for the most part portrayed as honest and conscientious public servants. And notice no computers. The secretaries, as they were called at the time, are swimming in a sea of paper.

I give it a 5/10 for the nostalgia value and the fine performances. If only it was in service to a tighter and more believable script.