The Man

The Man is a 1972 American political drama film directed by Joseph Sargent and starring James Earl Jones. Jones plays Douglass Dilman, the President pro tempore of the United States Senate, who succeeds to the presidency through a series of unforeseeable events, thereby becoming both the first African-American president and the first wholly unelected one. The screenplay, written by Rod Serling, is largely based upon The Man, a novel by Irving Wallace. In addition to being the first black president more than thirty-six years before the real-world occurrence, the fictional Dilman was also the first president elected to neither that office nor to the Vice Presidency, foreshadowing the real-world elevation of Gerald Ford by less than twenty-five months. Plot When the president of the United States and speaker of the House of Representatives are killed at a summit in Frankfurt when the building hosting them collapses, Vice President Noah Calvin, suffering from a terminal illness, refuses to assume of the office of president. Secretary of State Arthur Eaton corrects a popular misconception that he is next in the line of succession, who is actually president pro temp Douglass Dilman. Dilman, a black man, arrives at the White House and is sworn in as president. Eaton's wife Kay berates her husband for not trying to become president, but Eaton assures her that he will assume the presidency once Dilman proves unable to handle the job. Eaton and his advisers arrive at the Oval Office for a meeting with Dilman, giving him a binder which includes pre-written responses to media questions which support the previous president's policies. Dilman proceeds to the briefing room, and answers the media using Eaton's responses. However, when a reporter accuses Dilman of being a puppet, he discards Eaton's binder and proceeds on his own initiative, deciding to make his own decisions. As a moderate, Dilman is confronted by extremists from both ends of the political spectrum due to his race. Robert Wheeler, a young black man, is sought for extradition from the South African government for allegedly attempting to assassinate the country's Minister of Defence. Dilman offers to help Wheeler after he claims that he was in Burundi at the time of the assassination attempt.