Twilight’s Last Gleaming1977

Director
Robert Aldrich

Acters

Burt Lancaster (Gen. Lawrence Dell)
Roscoe Lee Browne (James Forrest)
Joseph Cotten (Arthur Renfrew - Secretary of State)
Melvyn Douglas (Zachariah Guthrie)
Charles Durning (President David T. Stevens)
Richard Jaeckel (Capt. Stanford Towne)

An imprisoned rogue US Air Force general with a secret personal agenda, escapes the brig and takes over a missile launch facility, threatening to start WW3.

The new President moves into the White House – the same day a certain Lawrence Dell manages to outwit the crew of a launching-pad, thus getting into possession of nine deadly rockets. Only someone like Dell, familiar with the controlling devices and the alarm system in the rocket base, could have been capable of carrying out such masterly coup. He himself, a former general and electronic genius in the US Air Force, had worked out the plans. Nothing and nobody could deprive him of his knowledge, not even his long-time imprisonment in a US Army camp where he was exiled as rebel and mutineer after the construction of the launching site. Together with two fellow prisoners, Dell has escaped from the camp, firmly determined to force the US Administration not to keep back any longer from the American people the secret documents revealing the true background of the Vietnam War…

“’Twilight’s Last Gleaming’ is a nail-biting thriller which plays up the tensions of the day to make a riveting drama with great performances from Lancaster and Winfield, and the plot twists and turns at every juncture.” – BackSeatMafia.com

“A very strong film, thoroughly gripping, occasionally quite exciting. In an era famous for its political thrillers, ‘Twilight’s Last Gleaming’ manages to hold its head up high.” – Blue Print Review (UK)

“Aldrich specialized in insightful genre films and Twilight’s Last Gleaming is a typical example: aggressive, violent, sometimes crass, and unexpectedly intelligent political thriller that is ripe for rediscovery.” – Through the Shattered Lens