Executive Action (1973)(dvd)

Synopsis: Unshown on TV for many years, and not even revived when Oliver Stone's JFK was going the rounds, this drama about the Kennedy assassination in Dallas makes for absolutely riveting viewing.

Partly based on Mark Lane's controversial book Rush to Judgment, which alerted the world to the grassy knoll, it shows how a shadowy group of businessmen and military leaders (including Robert Ryan and Burt Lancaster) plots to kill JFK, who has “gone soft on communism and the blacks”.

Brilliantly organised, the film describes how the shooters plan their kill as well as the search for a fall guy, Lee Harvey Oswald. It's often as tense as The Day of the Jackal, only this time the question is not how does he fail, but how do they get away with it?

As seen on TCM, Colour, 4:3

Cast: Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan
Runtime: 86 min