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John Frankenheimer: Director John Frankenheimer
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The Williamstown Film Festival’s tribute to John Frankenheimer drew more than 250 people to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown on June 26. Frankenheimer, the director of such classic films as The Manchurian Candidate, The Train, Birdman of Alcatraz, and Seven Days in May, received the Williamstown Film Festival's first Lifetime Achievement Award for more than four decades of creative genius. A champagne/dessert party in the Clark Art Institute's atrium preceeded the award ceremony, which included clips of the director's most famous works and an open discussion with the audience, moderated by Williams College professor Jim Shepard and WFF founding member Steve Lawson.
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In his new memoir Born Standing Up, Steve Martin recalls that, back in the late ‘60s, he romanced the daughter of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, until the director John Frankenheimer stole her from him while filming Trumbo's script for The Fixer. After mentioning that, two decades later, the director tried to seduce Victoria Tennant at a time when she was Martin's wife, Martin notes that "Frankenheimer died a few years ago, but it was not I who killed him." Unlikely though it may seem, John Frankenheimer actually did get a few movies directed when he wasn't concentrating on screwing with Steve Martin's love life. The 2000 Reindeer Games was his last film, and though not in the same league as his masterpiece The Manchurian Candidate, it's actually one of his live ones.
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For the ultimate de-programming scene of John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate, a second-unit director made the mistake of filming all of Frank Sinatra's dialogue just slightly out of focus. Crushed--Sinatra, like Spencer Tracy, was a one-shot actor in that the first take was almost always his best--Sinatra and Frankenheimer tried without success to re-shoot the scene, deciding in the end to leave the blurred shots intact and hope for the best. Soon after the premiere, Frankenheimer was surprised to learn that critics and the public shared the belief that the out-of-focus shots were a brilliant move on his part, demonstrating the twisted point of view of a dazed protagonist. Though unintentional in The Manchurian Candidate, Frankenheimer may have gotten the seed of an idea from his serendipitous error.
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Frankenheimer began his directing career in live television shortly after the service. He recalled after being discharged, he had an interview with CBS and had a conversation with the hiring manager. The manager had ... been a member of the armed forces and told Frankenheimer that while they had no openings at the time, he would call when needed. According to the director in an interview with The Directors Series, he had spent two weeks in his hotel room waiting for a phone call as the hotel didn't provide a messaging service. At the end of this period, Frankenheimer did receive a phone call and was put to work as a live television director. Throughout the 1950s he directed over 140 episodes of shows like Playhouse 90, Climax, and Danger, including The Comedian, written by Rod Serling and starring Mickey Rooney as a ragingly vicious television comedian.
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Frankenheimer made several more important films in the mid-1960s. Seven Days in May (1964) was, like The Manchurian Candidate, another Cold War suspense thriller. This film portrays a military coup attempt against the U.S. government. Frankenheimer took over the production of The Train (1964) after its first director, Arthur Penn, was fired. Set in Europe during World War II, the story focused on a train bound for Nazi Germany loaded with French art and the intrigue that surrounded it.
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John Frankenheimer was one of Hollywood's great yellers. On set, in the editing room, even in interviews, the famously blunt director could be counted on for at least a few booming expletives. It was one of the things that made him so memorable.
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Director John Frankenheimer