The Man (1972 Film) - Plot

Plot

President Fenton and the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives are killed while at a summit in Frankfurt, West Germany 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, is urged to take the office, but he points out that according to the law, the line of succession places the job next with the President pro tempore of the Senate, who is Douglass Dilman.

A stunned Dilman is sworn in and arrives at the White House 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, 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, 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 by apartheid South Africa for a deadly act in that country; Dilman offers his help as the young man claims he was in Burundi 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 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 when Wheeler (played by Georg Stanford Brown who would play the runaway slave in the miniseries North and South) calls the President a "House Nigger" and the President responds that "Black men don't burn churches and kill four 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," he is introduced to the party's national convention.