criterionforum.org

John Frankenheimer (1930 – 2002)



You've got to have a DP who you're in sync with and
who's in sync with you. It has to be almost like a
dance team.

~ John Frankenheimer (from an interview with Tim Rhys and Ian Bage in Moviemaker, 1996)

Filmography

Lamp Unto My Feet (TV episodes, 1948)

Search for Tomorrow (TV series episode, 1951)

You Are There (3 TV series episodes, 1953)

Danger (2 TV series episodes, 1954-1955)

The Ninth Day (TV, 1956)

Climax (26 TV series episodes, 1955-1956)

The Young Stranger (1957) BBC (R2 UK)

The Comedian (TV, 1957)

The DuPont Show of the Month (TV series episode, 1959)

Startime (TV series episode, 1959)

The Turn of the Screw (1959)

The Fifth Column (TV, 1960)

Sunday Showcase (2 TV series episodes, 1959-1960)

Playhouse 90 (27 TV series episodes, 1956-1960)

The Young Savages (1961)

All Fall Down (1962)

Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) MGM (R1) – also included on Frank Sinatra: MGM Movie Legends Collection (tbr 24th July, 2007) / MGM (R2 UK) / Fox (R2 UK) – included in 3 Great Films with Tony Rome and The Detective

Seven Days in May (1964) Warner (R1)

The Train (1964) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK)

Seconds (1966) Paramount (R1)

Grand Prix (1966) Warner (R1)

The Fixer (1968)

The Extraordinary Seaman (1969)

The Gypsy Moths (1969) Warner (R1)

I Walk the Line (1970) Sony Pictures (R1)

The Horsemen (1971) Columbia (R1)

Story of a Love Story (1973)

The Iceman Cometh (1973) Kino (R1) – also included on The American Film Theatre: Collection 1

99 and 44/100% Dead (1974)

French Connection II (1975) Fox (R1) – also as double feature with French Connection / Fox (R2 UK) – as double feature with French Connection

Black Sunday (1977) Paramount (R1)

Prophecy (1979) Paramount (R1)

The Rainmaker (TV, 1982)

The Challenge (1982)

The Holcroft Covenant (1985) MGM (R1) / Knob Ryder (R1)

52 Pick-Up (1986) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK)

Riviera (as Alan Smithee, TV, 1987)

Dead Bang (1989) Warner (R1) – also as triple feature with The Last Boy Scout and Action Jackson

The Fourthy War (1990) MGM (R2 JP)

Year of the Gun (1991) Columbia (R1) / Prism Leisure (R2 UK)

Tales from the Crypt (TV episode, 1992) Warner (R1) – included in Tales from the Crypt: The Complete 4th Season / Laser Paradise (R2 DE) – included in Masters of Horror 7: Tales from the Crypt

Against the Wall (TV, 1994) HBO (R1) / Prism Leisure (R2 UK)

The Burning Season (TV, 1994)

Andersonville (TV, 1996) Warner (R1)

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) New Line (R1) – also as triple feature with The Hidden and Dark City

George Wallace (TV, 1997)

Ronin (1998) MGM (R1) / MGM (R2 UK) – also included in Robert De Niro Collection / Fox (R2 JP)

Reindeer Games (2000) Buena Vista (R1) / Buena Vista (R2 UK) / Roadshow Entertainment (R4 AU)

Ambush (short, 2001) BMW Films (R1)

Path to War (TV, 2002) HBO (R1)


Recommended Web Resources

Archive of American Television Interview with John Frankenheimer 13 part video interview with Frankenheimer

Director's Guild of America – John Frankenheimer Memorial Gallery (with biography, filmography and interviews)

Moviemaker (April, 1996) – Interview with Frankenheimer by Tim Rhys and Ian Bage

Museum of Broadcast Communications – Overview of Frankenheimer's work in television

The Opsroom: Celebrating The Sandbaggers Television Show – Tribute to John Frankenheimer with reviews of some of his films

Senses of Cinema – Career overview by Stephen Bowie

Senses of Cinema – “A Key Unturned: Seconds article by Peter Wilshire

George Wallace has finally gotten a R1 release: http://www.amazon.com/George-Wallace-Tw ... 436&sr=8-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can't believe that the Frankenheimer thread is largely empty. Well, anyway, has anyone seen The Fixer, 1968? The cast looks strong and a Dalton Trumbo screenplay. There seems to have never been a DVD release of this.

I was just trying to figure out where to see it for the 1968 list earlier today, so I’d also be curious to know if anyone thinks it’s worth the effort

Also, I’ll try to clean up this page this week unless someone else wants to take that on

Haven't watched it yet but the circulating copy is from a TCM airing over 15 years ago!

domino harvey wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 9:15 pm Haven't watched it yet but the circulating copy is from a TCM airing over 15 years ago!

Warner Archive has said that it’s one of their “verboten” titles like Nothing Lasts Forever and Stop due to a rights issue

Here is Roger Ebert's very short review of The Fixer from 1968. He didn't care for it. It's actually more of a synopsis than a full fledged analysis

MGM is listed as the studio distributor on IMDB. Wonder how WB got a hold of it.

FrauBlucher wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 1:49 am Here is Roger Ebert's very short review of The Fixer from 1968. He didn't care for it. It's actually more of a synopsis than a full fledged analysis

MGM is listed as the studio distributor on IMDB. Wonder how WB got a hold of it.

The MGM library being sold to Turner in 1986

Yes, if it’s pre-1986 MGM it’s with Warner Bros, if it’s pre-1948 Paramount it’s with Universal and if it’s United Artists from any period (I think) it’s with MGM. And, more recently, if it’s Fox it’s now with Disney.

There are occasional exceptions - Paramount uniquely retained The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek when the Universal deal went through, and Jack Nicholson acquired the MGM-produced The Passenger lock, stock and barrel, and asked Sony to handle worldwide distribution - but that general rule will hold true virtually all the rest of the time.

beamish14 wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 4:26 am

FrauBlucher wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 1:49 am Here is Roger Ebert's very short review of The Fixer from 1968. He didn't care for it. It's actually more of a synopsis than a full fledged analysis

MGM is listed as the studio distributor on IMDB. Wonder how WB got a hold of it.

The MGM library being sold to Turner in 1986

I got my studio deals mixed up as MichaelB explained them.

I’ve tried to find an explanation why The Fixer would be “verboten”. I haven’t found a reason yet

FrauBlucher wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 12:06 pm

beamish14 wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 4:26 am

FrauBlucher wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 1:49 am Here is Roger Ebert's very short review of The Fixer from 1968. He didn't care for it. It's actually more of a synopsis than a full fledged analysis

MGM is listed as the studio distributor on IMDB. Wonder how WB got a hold of it.

The MGM library being sold to Turner in 1986

I got my studio deals mixed up as MichaelB explained them.

I’ve tried to find an explanation why The Fixer would be “verboten”. I haven’t found a reason yet

Could be something with Edward Lewis Productions or the estate of Bernard Malamud. Who knows. It did get a VHS release.

Someone on Blu-ray.com claimed - without a source - that a release of The Fixer is "off the table for 30 years", which suggests that it's an intractable copyright issue.

Malamud died in 1986, so if we take the "30 years" as being approximate, that could be a reference to Europe's seventy-year rule, as he'll be out of copyright in 34 years' time or as of New Year's Day 2057. In the US, the film presumably won't enter the public domain until 2064 thanks to differing legislation.

(See also the fact that George Orwell, who died in 1950, is now completely in the public domain in Europe - hence the BFI finally being able to release the classic 1954 Peter Cushing version of Nineteen Eighty-Four - but only his pre-1927 writings are public domain in the US. )

Why didn’t the copyright issue prevent the release of the film on VHS?

crimlaw wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 4:12 pm Why didn’t the copyright issue prevent the release of the film on VHS?

Malamud was still alive, and personally approved it? I've no idea.

I also don't know if Malamud is a red herring, although the exactly contemporary Laughter in the Dark is an example of a film that's definitely unavailable for decades because of literary source copyright issues.

MichaelB wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 5:48 pm

crimlaw wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 4:12 pm Why didn’t the copyright issue prevent the release of the film on VHS?

Malamud was still alive, and personally approved it? I've no idea.

I also don't know if Malamud is a red herring, although the exactly contemporary Laughter in the Dark is an example of a film that's definitely unavailable for decades because of literary source copyright issues.

Tony Richardson’s Laughter in the Dark is also interesting in that it has had TWO aborted re-adaptations in the last 40 years, with one of them filming briefly in 1986 before getting shut down. I don’t think Richardson’s film has screened in North America since a 1994 retrospective of his films in New York, although it seems like the BFI has prints.

Yes, I assume it's available for private study at the BFI, but public screenings and any kind of commercial distribution is completely off limits.

I don't know why Vladimir Nabokov's estate would prefer it not to be seen, but that's the position and it's not going to change without them changing their mind.

Tony Richardson is especially snake bitten when it comes to copyright issues. He has two other literary adaptations “missing in action”: Sanctuary (1961), and The Sailor from Gibraltar.

MichaelB wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 3:58 pm(See also the fact that George Orwell, who died in 1950, is now completely in the public domain in Europe - hence the BFI finally being able to release the classic 1954 Peter Cushing version of Nineteen Eighty-Four - but only his pre-1927 writings are public domain in the US. )

I presume that is why that Substack e-mail list from the Orwell Foundation has started publishing his work.

MichaelB wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 8:45 pm Yes, I assume it's available for private study at the BFI, but public screenings and any kind of commercial distribution is completely off limits.

I don't know why Vladimir Nabokov's estate would prefer it not to be seen, but that's the position and it's not going to change without them changing their mind.

Is it really Nabokov’s estate or the original producer who optioned the novel? I know that Nabokov disliked Skolimowski’s King, Queen, Knave, but unlike Laughter, that did get a home video release. Nabokov’s son and literary executor died relatively recently, so I don’t even know who’s handling his assets

Interestingly, the BFI also holds the footage of Laughter that was shot with Richard Burton, who was replaced by Niccol Williamson. That actually did screen in the UK within the last few years, I think

beamish14 wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 9:37 pmI know that Nabokov disliked Skolimowski’s King, Queen, Knave,

Skolimowski's retrospectively not keen on it either. He's said on more than one occasion that The Adventures of Gerard, King Queen Knave and Torrents of Spring are his worst films, and will single out Gerard if asked to name just one.

I'm not sure if this is applicable, but someone I know was trying to license some documentary footage for something he was working on, and the licensor (I think a trust?) wouldn't give him anything more than a limited term license that had to be renewed periodically. The licensor's reasoning was that they wanted to protect themselves in case the work using their footage eventually fell into the wrong hands. This was a deal killer because going through the process of re-licensing wasn't feasible for a lot of reasons. I'm wondering if the same thing is at play, where the property in question was licensed for a limited term and then when it came time to renew, it was no longer made available to whoever owned the film in question.