LYCOS RETRIEVER 
John Frankenheimer
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Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966) is a disturbing film to watch. With its unresolved, horrific ending, it's possibly one of the most depressing films ever made. (Blinder, 212) Essentially based on the premise that a part of everyone's life is unfulfilled and that we all have a "key unturned" (Blinder, 213), Seconds [F]ocuses on the hallucinatory nightmare of Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph), who takes dramatic and desperate action to fill the empty void in his life. He undergoes plastic surgery to alter his physical appearance in the mistaken belief that this will ... improve his psychological well-being. However, Hamilton makes the fatal error of turning the key and changing his identity to Tony Wilson (Rock Hudson) without knowing what he is looking for on the other side of the door. (Blinder, 213) What Hamilton does discover when he becomes Tony Wilson is a world that is just as disillusioning and constricting as the one he has left behind.
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John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate is a study of the psychological effects of McCarthyism, as well as a parody of Cold War fanaticism. In Frankenheimer's world, the far right becomes the tool of the far left, as Communist infiltrators use popular paranoia against Communism to destroy American constitutional government.
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As a filmmaker, John Frankenheimer has had an extraordinary career. Many of his films express his views on important social and philosophical topics, and he's never hesitated to tackle controversial subjects. The films of Frankenheimer reflect the care and integrity in which he creates his projects. His movies are numerous, and include The Manchurian Candidate, Birdman of Alcatraz, Seven Days in May, Grand Prix, Ronin and many more. Some actors and collaborators that have worked with Frankenheimer are interviewed here and include Roy Scheider, Kirk Douglas, Samuel L. Jackson, Ann-Margret, and many more.
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John Frankenheimer, who died last year at 72, belonged to a generation of Hollywood filmmakers who began their careers in the glory days of live television. His early pictures bridged TV and Tinseltown drama, old and new visual technologies. From the get-go, Frankenheimer had a rapport with actors. His second feature, The Young Savages (1961), stars Burt Lancaster as an up-from-the-slums prosecutor. The Frankenheimer protag par excellence, Lancaster ... played the regenerated murderer Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), the spookily calm right-wing general plotting a military coup in Seven Days in May (1964), the Resistance fighter railway inspector in The Train (1964), and the disenchanted sky diver of The Gypsy Moths (1969). All five are in Film Forum's 14-film retro, which covers less than half of this prolific helmer's oeuvre.
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Throughout John Frankenheimer's extraordinary career, he has directed many films which express his views on important social and philosophical topics. "Birdman of Alcatraz" and "The Fixer" explore the indomitability of the human spirit. "Seven Days In May" details the anatomy of a United States military coup. "The Manchurian Candidate" is an indictment of the McCarthy era. The Train questions whether a work of art is more valuable than a human life. "Black Sunday" and "Year of the Gun" confront one of the modern world's most distressing dilemmas, international terrorism.
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John Frankenheimer was born in New York, as the son of Walter Frankenheimer, a German-Jewish stockbroker, and Helen (Sheedy) Frankenheimer, an Irish Catholic. Frankenheimer attended La Salle Military Academy where he was one of the best tennis players and the captain of the tennis team. At Williams College he studied English, graduating with a B.A in 1951. Frankenheimer had become interested in acting at the college, and for a year he acted in summer stock. In 1954 he married Carolyn Miller, the marriage ended in divorce, and in 1961 he married Evans Evans, and actress, they had two daughters.
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John Frankenheimer