John Frankenheimer

Directing

John Frankenheimer

Born 1930-02-19 · New York City, New York, USA

John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas. He won four consecutive Emmy Awards in the 1990s for the television movies Against the Wall, The Burning Season, Andersonville and George Wallace, which also received a Golden Globe award. He was considered one of the last remaining directors who insisted on having complete control over all elements of production, making his style unique in Hollywood. His 30 feature films and over 50 plays for television were notable for their influence on contemporary thought. He became a pioneer of the "modern-day political thriller," having begun his career at the peak of the Cold War. Many of his films were noted for creating "psychological dilemmas" for his male protagonists along with having a strong "sense of environment," similar in style to films by director Sidney Lumet, for whom he had earlier worked as assistant director. He developed a "tremendous propensity for exploring political situations" which would ensnare his characters. Movie critic Leonard Maltin writes that "in his time [1960s]... Frankenheimer worked with the top writers, producers and actors in a series of films that dealt with issues that were just on top of the moment—things that were facing us all." Among his credits were The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Birdman of Alcatraz (also 1962), The Train, (1964), Seven Days in May (also 1964) and Ronin (1998). Description above from the Wikipedia article John Frankenheimer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

The General's Daughter poster
6.4

When the body of Army Capt. Elisabeth Campbell is found on a Georgia military base, two investigators, Warrant Officers Paul Brenner and Sara Sunhill, are ordered to solve her murder. What they uncover is anything but clear-cut. Unseemly details emerge about Campbell's life, leading to allegations of a possible military coverup of her death and the involvement of her father, Lt. Gen. Joseph Campbell.

The General's Daughter

1999

Val poster
7.2

For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood's most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors, has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage, from 16mm home movies made with his brothers, to time spent in iconic roles for blockbuster movies like Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone, and Batman Forever. This raw, wildly original and unflinching documentary reveals a life lived to extremes and a heart-filled, sometimes hilarious look at what it means to be an artist and a complex man.

Val

2021

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films poster
7.2

A documentary about the rise and fall of the Cannon Film Group, the legendary independent film company helmed by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

2014

No artwork available
8.0

illustrates how directors pushed boundaries and altered the art of filmmaking during the turbulent, swinging 1960s. Narrated by Woody Harrelson, "Reel Radicals" features clips from such seminal films as Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967); Mike Nichols' "The Graduate" (1967); Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider" (1969); John Frankenheimer's "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962); Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" (1964) and "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968); John Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy" (1969); Richard Brooks' "Elmer Gantry" (1960) and "In Cold Blood" (1967); and Norman Jewison's "In the Heat of the Night" (1967) and "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968). Frankenheimer, Jewison, Hopper, Schlesinger, Penn, Buck Henry, Paul Mazursky, Roger Corman and Arthur Hiller are among the filmmakers who discuss the decade.

Reel Radicals: The Sixties Revolution in Film

2002

Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans poster
7.2

Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans interweaves stunning newly discovered footage and voice recordings with original interviews. It is the true story of how a cinema legend would risk almost everything in pursuit of his dream.

Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans

2015

Grand Prix: Challenge of the Champions poster
8.0

A short making of feature about the 1966 John Frankenheimer movie Grande Prix

Grand Prix: Challenge of the Champions

1966

Lionpower from MGM poster
6.3

"Lionpower from MGM" (1967) is an exciting 60's promotional short subject, which showcases MGM's releases for the 1967-68 film season under a "five seasons" theme--fall, winter, spring, summer--plus a "fabulous fifth season". The main music is set to the rousing theme from "The Magnificent Yankee" composed by David Raksin in 1950. The promo is narrated by some of the best voice-over actors of the time, and is an excellent time capsule of a by-gone era.

Lionpower from MGM

1967

The Sky Divers poster
6.0

A behind-the-scenes, promotional short about the making of the feature film The Gypsy Moths (1969), which extensively features free fall skydiving.

The Sky Divers

1969

Steve McQueen: The Lost Movie poster
7.0

The story of the abandoned production of 'Day of the Champion', a movie about Formula 1 which was set to film in 1966.

Steve McQueen: The Lost Movie

2021

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau poster
6.7

The story of the insane scandals related to the remake of “Island of Dr. Moreau” —originally a novel by H. G. Wells—, which was brought to the big screen in 1996. How director Richard Stanley spent four years developing the project just to find an abrupt end to his work while leading actor Marlon Brando pulled the strings in the shadows. Now for the first time, the living key players recount what really happened and why it all went so spectacularly wrong.

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau

2014

Ronin: Filming in the Fast Lane poster
NR

A behind-the-scenes featurette that focuses on John Frankenheimer's approach to the 1998 film "Ronin."

Ronin: Filming in the Fast Lane

2004

Jazz Seen poster
8.0

"Jazz Seen" is an exploration of the life of William Claxton, whose photographs turned the world of jazz on its keen and perceptive ear. Various jazz artists, photographers, and actors recount memories they had with Claxton and explore his work, while parts of his life are re-enacted by actors.

Jazz Seen

2001

Pushing the Limit: The Making of Grand Prix poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Pushing the Limit: The Making of Grand Prix

2006

Yul Brynner: The Man Who Was King poster
8.5

There is only one Yul Brynner. No other actor had his looks, his range of talents, his energy and his capacity to draw others into the spell of his charm. A true sophisticate of deliberately mysterious origins, Yul Brynner was at home in a wide variety of languages and social environments.

Yul Brynner: The Man Who Was King

1995

Behind the camera

Ronin poster
7.0

A briefcase with undisclosed contents – sought by Irish terrorists and the Russian mob – makes its way into criminals' hands. An Irish liaison assembles a squad of mercenaries, or 'ronin', and gives them the thorny task of recovering the case.

Ronin

1998

Reindeer Games poster
5.7

After assuming his dead cellmate's identity to get with his girlfriend, an ex-con finds himself the reluctant participant in a casino heist.

Reindeer Games

2000

Seconds poster
7.4

An unhappy middle-aged banker agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and give him a completely new look and identity; one that comes with its own price.

Seconds

1966

Grand Prix poster
7.3

The most daring drivers in the world have gathered to compete for the 1966 Formula One championship. After a spectacular wreck in the first of a series of races, American wheelman Pete Aron is dropped by his sponsor. Refusing to quit, he joins a Japanese racing team. While juggling his career with a torrid love affair involving an ex-teammate's wife, Pete must also contend with Jean-Pierre Sarti, a French contestant who has previously won two world titles.

Grand Prix

1966

Grand Prix poster
7.3

The most daring drivers in the world have gathered to compete for the 1966 Formula One championship. After a spectacular wreck in the first of a series of races, American wheelman Pete Aron is dropped by his sponsor. Refusing to quit, he joins a Japanese racing team. While juggling his career with a torrid love affair involving an ex-teammate's wife, Pete must also contend with Jean-Pierre Sarti, a French contestant who has previously won two world titles.

Grand Prix

1966

The Manchurian Candidate poster
7.5

Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco, finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and soon races to uncover a terrible plot.

The Manchurian Candidate

1962

The Manchurian Candidate poster
7.5

Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco, finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and soon races to uncover a terrible plot.

The Manchurian Candidate

1962

Path to War poster
6.7

A powerful drama of soaring ambition and shattered dreams that takes a provocative insider's look at the way the USA goes to war—as seen from inside the LBJ White House leading up to and during the Vietnam War.

Path to War

2003

Seven Days in May poster
7.4

A U.S. Marine Corps colonel alerts the president of a planned military coup against him.

Seven Days in May

1964

The Island of Dr. Moreau poster
4.9

A plane crash surviving attorney stumbles upon a mysterious island and is shocked to discover that a brilliant scientist and his lab assistant have found a way to combine human and animal DNA—with horrific results.

The Island of Dr. Moreau

1996

French Connection II poster
6.8

"Popeye" Doyle travels to Marseilles to find Alain Charnier, the drug smuggler that eluded him in New York.

French Connection II

1975

The Train poster
7.6

As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France's greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it all happen smoothly but he is also part of a dwindling group of resistance fighters tasked with preventing the theft. He and others stage an elaborate ruse to keep the train from ever leaving French territory.

The Train

1964

The Gypsy Moths poster
6.0

Three skydivers and their travelling thrill show barnstorm through a small midwestern town one Fourth of July weekend.

The Gypsy Moths

1969

The Fixer poster
6.2

Set in tsarist Russia around the turn of the century and based on a true story of a Russian Jewish peasant Yakov Bog who was wrongly imprisoned for a most unlikely crime - the “ritual murder” of a Gentile child in Kyiv. We witness the unrelenting detail of the peasant handyman's life in prison and see him gain in dignity as the efforts to humiliate him and make him confess fail.

The Fixer

1968

Ambush poster
6.5

While escorting an elderly man to an undisclosed location, The Driver is confronted by a van full of armed men and is warned that the old man has stolen a large amount of diamonds. The old man claims to have swallowed the diamonds and that the men will likely cut him open to retrieve them. The Driver decides at the last minute to help him, participating in a car chase and shootout with the van. The Driver eventually evades his pursuers and watches their destruction. He then delivers the old man to a town nearby and asks the merchant if he did indeed swallowed the diamonds. The client merely chuckles and walks away. The Driver then leaves.

Ambush

2001

Birdman of Alcatraz poster
7.5

After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.

Birdman of Alcatraz

1962

52 Pick-Up poster
6.1

Harry Mitchell is a successful Los Angeles manufacturer whose wife is running for city council. His life is turned upside down when three blackmailers confront him with a videotape of him with his young mistress and demand $100,000. Fearing that the story will hurt his wife's political campaign if he goes to the police, Harry pretends that he will pay the men, but does not follow through.

52 Pick-Up

1986

Black Sunday poster
6.7

An Israeli anti-terrorist agent must stop a disgruntled Vietnam vet cooperating in a Black September PLO plot to commit a terrorist attack at the Super Bowl.

Black Sunday

1977

Dead Bang poster
6.4

Los Angeles homicide detective Jerry Beck searches for the murderer who killed a police officer on Christmas Eve. The investigation takes Beck inside the violent world of hate groups and white supremacists, who are hatching a deadly plot to attack even more innocent people. Beck must also confront his own personal demons, including his growing problem with alcohol, if he wants to track down and stop the violent neo-Nazis before it is too late.

Dead Bang

1989

Dead Bang poster
6.4

Los Angeles homicide detective Jerry Beck searches for the murderer who killed a police officer on Christmas Eve. The investigation takes Beck inside the violent world of hate groups and white supremacists, who are hatching a deadly plot to attack even more innocent people. Beck must also confront his own personal demons, including his growing problem with alcohol, if he wants to track down and stop the violent neo-Nazis before it is too late.

Dead Bang

1989

No artwork available
7.5

Why are so many B-99 bombers from Hibiscus Air Base crashing or simply disappearing? Colonel Price comes up with a terrifying explanation, but will anyone believe him?

Forbidden Area

1956

All Fall Down poster
6.0

Ralph and Annabell Willart are a feuding couple who are constantly bickering over their worthless, good-for-nothing son Berry-Berry. When Berry-Berry begins yet another meaningless love affair, this time with an older woman named Echo O’Brien, he really gets his parents at each others’ throats.

All Fall Down

1962

The Fourth War poster
5.4

Cold War adversaries Col. Jack Knowles and his Russian counterpart, Col. Valachev, are stationed on opposite sides of the German-Czech border. Both men are responsible for a group of troops in their remote settings, and both have been shaped by their combat experiences and a shared aversion to their superiors' ways of doing things. After a defector is killed, things escalate into a full-fledged battle with serious geopolitical ramifications.

The Fourth War

1990

The Young Savages poster
6.5

A district attorney investigates the racially charged case of three teenagers accused of the murder of a blind Puerto Rican boy.

The Young Savages

1961