show name	Playhouse 90
genre	Anthology
writer	Rod SerlingLeslie StevensJames P. CavanaghDavid Shaw
director	John FrankenheimerFranklin J. SchaffnerRalph NelsonVincent J. DonehueArthur Hiller
theme music composer	Alex North
composer	Jerry GoldsmithRobert AllenJohn WilliamsRobert Drasnin (4.1)Fred Steiner
country	United States
language	English
num seasons	4
num episodes	134
executive producer	Peter Kortner
producer	Julian ClamanMartin ManulisHerbert Brodkin
editor	Henry BatistaRobert L. SwansonSam GoldRichard K. Brockway
cinematography	Gert AndersenAlbert Kurland
runtime	90 minutes
company	CBS ProductionsFilmaster ProductionsScreen Gems
distributor	CBS TelevisionColumbia TriStar TelevisionSony Pictures Television
network	CBS
picture format	Black-and-white
audio format	Monaural
first aired
last aired
status	Ended }}

''Playhouse 90'' is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of the mid-1950s were usually hour-long shows, the title highlighted the network's intention to present something unusual, a weekly series of hour-and-a-half dramas rather than 60-minute plays.

Background

The producers were Martin Manulis, John Houseman, Russell Stoneman, Fred Coe, Arthur Penn and Hubbell Robinson. The leading director was John Frankenheimer (27 episodes), followed by Franklin Schaffner (19 episodes). Other directors included Sidney Lumet, George Roy Hill, Delbert Mann and Robert Mulligan.

With Alex North's opening theme music, the series debuted October 4, 1956 with Rod Serling's adaptation of Pat Frank's novel ''Forbidden Area''. The following week, ''Requiem for a Heavyweight'', also scripted by Serling, received critical accolades and later dominated the 1956 Emmys by winning awards in six categories, including best direction, best teleplay and best actor. Serling was given the first Peabody Award for television writing. For many viewers, live TV drama had moved to a loftier plateau. ''Playhouse 90'' established a reputation as television's most distinguished anthology drama series and maintained a high standard for four seasons (with repeats in 1961).

Productions were planned from the start to be both live and filmed, with a filmed show every fourth Thursday to relieve the pressure of mounting the live telecasts. The first filmed ''Playhouse 90'' was ''The Country Husband'' (November 1, 1956) with Barbara Hale and Frank Lovejoy portraying a couple in a collapsing marriage. The filmed episodes were variously produced by Screen Gems and CBS.

The ambitious series frequently featured critically acclaimed dramas, including the original television versions of ''The Miracle Worker'' (with Teresa Wright as Annie Sullivan), and ''The Helen Morgan Story'' (with an Emmy to Polly Bergen for her performance in the title role), ''In the Presence of Mine Enemies'' (Rod Serling's Warsaw ghetto drama starring Charles Laughton, with Robert Redford in an early role), and the original television version of ''Judgment at Nuremberg'', featuring Maximilian Schell in the role he would repeat in the 1961 film, but with an otherwise different cast, including Claude Rains in the Spencer Tracy role. ''Playhouse 90'' received many Emmy Award nominations, and it later ranked #33 on ''TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 1997, the acclaimed "Requiem for a Heavyweight" was ranked #30 on ''TV Guides 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.

Early on though in 1956, ''Playhouse 90'' faced some controversy due to scheduling. It was thought by independent producers that in ''Playhouse 90'''s procurement, scheduling and promotion decisions, major networks favored programs that they produced or in which they had ownership interest. Worried about this issue, CBS suspended its plans for the series in fear that they had violated anti-trust laws. Soon afterwards though, CBS received an oral opinion from its legal counsel that no laws had been violated and the show continued.

Writers

Writers for the series included Robert Alan Aurthur, Sumner Locke Elliott, Horton Foote, Frank D. Gilroy, Roger O. Hirson, A. E. Hotchner, Abby Mann, JP Miller, Paul Monash and Leslie Stevens. Playwright Tad Mosel, who wrote four teleplays for ''Playhouse 90'', recalled, "My first ''Playhouse 90'' was glamour... Glamour had come to television because CBS had built this magnificent Television City in Los Angeles... Television had come to deserve buildings for itself. This was a whole new idea, that you'd have a building for television. ''Playhouse 90'' was one of the first shows to go into that mammoth building."

John Frankenheimer

Between 1954 and 1960, John Frankenheimer directed 152 live television dramas, an average of one every two weeks. During the 1950s he was regarded as television's top directorial talent, and much of his significant work was for ''Playhouse 90'', for which he directed 27 teleplays between 1956 and 1960. He began with ''Forbidden Area'' (October 4, 1956), adapted by Serling from the Pat Frank novel about Soviet sabotage, following with ''Rendezvous in Black'' (October 25, 1956), adapted from Cornell Woolrich's novel of twisted revenge; ''Eloise'' (November 22, 1956), adapted from the book by Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight; and ''The Family Nobody Wanted'' (December 20, 1956), from the Helen Doss book about a childless couple who adopt a dozen children of mixed ancestry, a book brought to TV again in 1975.

As ''Playhouse 90'' moved into 1957, Frankenheimer directed a science fiction drama, ''The Ninth Day'' (January 10, 1957), by Howard and Dorothy Baker, about a small group of World War III survivors and a Serling original, ''The Comedian'' (February 14, 1957), featuring Mickey Rooney as an abrasive, manipulative television comedian. In later interviews, Frankenheimer expressed his admiration for Rooney's acting in this memorable drama.

After ''The Last Tycoon'' (March 14, 1957), adapted from the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel about a film studio head, Frankenheimer followed with Tad Mosel's ''If You Knew Elizabeth'' (April 11, 1957) about an ambitious college professor; another Fitzgerald adaptation, ''Winter Dreams'' (May 23, 1957), dramatizing a romantic triangle; ''Clash by Night'' (June 13, 1957), with Kim Stanley in an adaptation of the Clifford Odets play; and ''The Fabulous Irishman'' (June 27, 1957), a biographical drama tracing events in the life of Robert Briscoe. Frankenheimer used a fake bull's head jutting into the frame when he staged ''The Death of Manolete'' (September 12, 1957), Barnaby Conrad's drama about the death of the legendary bullfighter, a production later ranked by Frankenheimer as one of his worst.

Robert Alan Aurthur's script for ''A Sound of Different Drummers'' (October 3, 1957) borrowed so heavily from Ray Bradbury's ''Fahrenheit 451'' that Bradbury sued. ''The Troublemakers'' (November 21, 1957) was George Bellak's adaptation of his own 1956 play about a campus newspaper editor killed by other students. Frankenheimer ended the year with ''The Thundering Wave'' (December 12, 1957), starring James and Pamela Mason in an Aurthur drama about acting couple who agree to do a play together despite their separation.

Frankenheimer kicked off 1958 with ''The Last Man'' (January 9, 1958), an Aaron Spelling revenge drama, followed by ''The Violent Heart'' (February 6, 1958) from Daphne du Maurier story of romance on the French Riviera, ''Rumors of Evening'' (May 1, 1958) about a World War II pilot obsessed with USO entertainer and Serling's ''Bomber's Moon'' (May 22, 1958) about a World War II pilot accused of cowardice. ''A Town Has Turned to Dust'' (June 19, 1958), a Serling drama about 1870 lynching of innocent Mexican in Southwestern town, was based on the Emmett Till case. In ''The New York Times'' for October 3, 1958, the day after JP Miller's ''Days of Wine and Roses'' was telecast, Jack Gould wrote a rave review with much praise for the writer, director and cast: :It was a brilliant and compelling work... Mr. Miller's dialogue was especially fine, natural, vivid and understated. Miss Laurie's performance was enough to make the flesh crawl, yet it also always elicited deep sympathy. Her interpretation of the young wife just a shade this side of delirium tremens--the flighty dancing around the room, her weakness of character and moments of anxiety and her charm when she was sober--was a superlative accomplishment. Miss Laurie is moving into the forefront of our most gifted young actresses. Mr. Robertson achieved first-rate contrast between the sober man fighting to hold on and the hopeless drunk whose only courage came from the bottle. His scene in the greenhouse, where he tried to find the bottle that he had hidden in the flower pot, was particularly good... John Frankenheimer's direction was magnificent. His every touch implemented the emotional suspense but he never let the proceedings get out of hand or merely become sensational.

"Old Man" (November 20, 1958) was adapted by Horton Foote from William Faulkner's story set during the 1927 Mississippi River flood. ''Face of a Hero'' (January 1, 1959), based on the Pierre Boulle novel, starred Jack Lemmon, who took this play to Broadway for a run of 36 performances in October to November 1960. The following year, Frankenheimer began with ''The Blue Men'' (January 15, 1959), an Alvin Boretz drama about the trial of police detective who refused to make an arrest. A.E. Hotchner adapted Ernest Hemingway's ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' into a two-parter (March 12 and March 19, 1959). ''Journey to the Day'' (April 22, 1960) was a Roger Hirson drama about group therapy.

Live to tape

''Playhouse 90'' began as a live series, making a transition to tape in 1957. Kevin Dowler, writing for the Museum of Broadcast Communications, noted: :Its status as a "live" drama was short lived in any case, since the difficulties in mounting a 90-minute production on a weekly basis required the adoption of the recently developed videotape technology, which was used to pre-record entire shows from 1957 onward. Both the pressures and the costs of this ambitious production eventually resulted in ''Playhouse 90'' being cut back to alternate weeks, sharing its time slot with ''The Big Party'' between 1959 and 1960. The last eight shows were aired irregularly between February and May 1960, with repeats broadcast during the summer weeks of 1961...

:The success of ''Playhouse 90'' continued into the 1957-58 season with productions of ''The Miracle Worker'', ''The Comedian'' and ''The Helen Morgan Story''. Although these shows, along with ''Requiem'' and ''Judgment at Nuremberg'' were enough to ensure the historical importance of ''Playhouse 90'', the program also stood out because of its emergence in the "film era" of television broadcasting evolution. By 1956, much of television production had moved from the east to the west coast, and from live performances to filmed series. Most of the drama anthologies, a staple of the evening schedule to this point, fell victim to the newer types of programs being developed. ''Playhouse 90'' stands in contrast to the prevailing trend, and its reputation benefited from both the growing nostalgia for the waning live period and a universal distaste for Hollywood on the part of New York television critics. It is also probable that since the use of videotape (not widespread at the time) preserved a "live" feel, discussion of the programs could be easily adapted to the standards introduced by the New York television critics.

The program was normally telecast in black-and-white, but on Christmas night, 1958, it offered a color production of Tchaikovsky's ''The Nutcracker'', starring the New York City Ballet and choreographed by George Balanchine. The program was, however, presented live rather than on videotape, and has survived only on a black-and-white kinescope.

TV Listings

Season !! Time Slot
1 (1956-1957)	Thursday at 9:30 pm
2 (1957-1958)
3 (1958-1959)
4 (1959-1960)	Thursday at 9:30 pm (October 1, 1959 - January 21, 1960)Tuesday at 9:30 pm (February 9, 1960; March 22, 1960)Wednesday at 8:00 pm (February 24, 1960; May 18, 1960)Monday at 9:30 pm (March 7, 1960; May 2, 1960)Sunday at 9:30 pm (April 3, 1960)Friday at 9:30 pm (April 22, 1960)

Source for movies

More than a few teleplays in the series were later filmed as theatrical motion pictures, including ''Requiem for a Heavyweight'', ''The Helen Morgan Story'', ''Days of Wine and Roses'' and ''Judgment at Nuremberg''. ''Seven Against the Wall'' was scripted by Howard Browne, who later reworked his teleplay into the screenplay for Roger Corman's 1967 movie, ''The St. Valentine's Day Massacre''. Three of the actors in the ''Playhouse 90'' production reprised their roles for the Corman film: Celia Lovsky, Milton Frome and Frank Silvera.

In at least one case, the reverse was true; William Saroyan's ''The Time of Your Life'' starring Jackie Gleason had been a James Cagney film of the same title ten years earlier, and used one of the original cast members from the film in a supporting role.

An indifferently received TV movie production of ''In the Presence of Mine Enemies'', starring Armin Mueller-Stahl in the Charles Laughton role, was shown on cable TV in 1997 by Showtime.

Awards

; Peabody Awards

1957 Rod Serling for ''Requiem for a Heavyweight''

1959 ''Playhouse 90''

; Golden Globe Awards

1957 Best TV Show – ''Playhouse 90''

1958 Best Dramatic Anthology Series – ''Playhouse 90''

; Emmy Awards

1957 Best New Program Series – ''Playhouse 90''

1957 Best Art Direction - One Hour or More – Albert Heschong in ''Requiem for a Heavyweight''

1957 Best Single Performance by an Actor – Jack Palance in ''Requiem for a Heavyweight''

1957 Best Single Program of the Year – ''Requiem for a Heavyweight''

1957 Best Teleplay Writing - One Hour or More – Rod Serling in ''Requiem for a Heavyweight''

1957 Best Director - One Hour or More – Ralph Nelson in ''Requiem for a Heavyweight''

1958 Best Single Performance by an Actress – Polly Bergen in ''The Helen Morgan Story''

1959 Best Dramatic Series - One Hour or Longer – ''Playhouse 90''

1960 Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Drama – ''Playhouse 90''

References

External links

"Backstage at Playhouse 90," ''Time'', December 2. 1957

'Writing for Television" by Rod Serling

television for future viewers" by Jake Ayres. ''Daily Bruin'', May 29, 2007.

Actress, Mary Sinclair

Category:1956 television series debuts Category:1961 television series endings Category:1950s American television series Category:1960s American television series Category:American anthology television series Category:Black-and-white television programs Category:English-language television series Category:CBS network shows Category:live television programs Category:Teleplays Category:Television films Category:Television series by CBS Paramount Television Category:Television series by Sony Pictures Television Category:Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series winners

sh:Playhouse 90

name	James Drury
birth name	James Child Drury
birth date	April 18, 1934
birth place	New York, New York
occupation	Former actor; oil and natural gas businessman
yearsactive	1955–2005
spouse	Carl Ann Head Drury (1979-present)Phyllis Mitchell (1968-1979) (divorced)Cristall Orton (1957-1964) (divorced) 2 sons
website	http://www.thevirginian.net/ }}

James Child Drury, Jr. (born April 18, 1934) is an American actor probably best known for his success in playing the title role in the 90-minute weekly Western television series ''The Virginian'', broadcast on NBC from 1962-1971. With 12-14 hour workdays, the series had perhaps the most demanding production schedules in the history of network television.

Biography

Drury was born in New York, New York, where his father James Sr. was a New York University professor of marketing. He grew up in both New York and Oregon.

After a series of bit parts and playing second-lead for Walt Disney, in 1962 Drury got a substantial role as a lascivious gold prospector in the early Sam Peckinpah western Ride the High Country. In the same year, he also landed the top-billed leading role of the ranch foreman on ''The Virginian'', a lavish series which ran for nine seasons. The show was based on Owen Wister's classic novel, and the various screen versions that had been filmed since. It has been rumored that Drury was possibly cast because of a vague resemblance to Gary Cooper, who had played the part in an early movie version. Director Andrew J. Fenady stated Drury was offered the lead role in the series due to his impressive performance in an unsuccessful television pilot ''The Yank'' that was inspired by ''The Rebel'' In the series, as the novel, the actual name of "The Virginian" is never revealed.

Other Drury costars on ''The Virginian'' included Lee J. Cobb, Randy Boone, Roberta Shore, Gary Clarke, Clu Gulager, Diane Roter and toward the end of the run, Tim Matheson. Drury also had a cameo role in the 2000 TV movie of ''The Virginian'' starring Bill Pullman. The film followed Wister's novel more closely than had the television series. Drury appeared in a number of films and other television programs, including ''The Young Warriors'' and the TV cowboy reunion movie ''The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw'' with Doug McClure, who played the fun-loving cowhand, Trampas for the entire run of ''The Virginian''.

In 1991 Drury was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. In 1997 and 2003, he was a guest at the Western Film Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the 2003 show, he was reunited with his ''Virginian'' co-stars Gary Clarke, Randy Boone, and Roberta Shore.

Drury was in the oil and natural gas business in Houston at the turn of the 21st century. His son, Timothy Drury, is a keyboardist, guitarist and vocalist who has played with The Eagles and also with Whitesnake. Drury was a close friend of the Houston marksman Joe Bowman, who trained numerous actors on how to use weapons.

Filmography

''Blackboard Jungle'' (1955) uncredited

''Love Me or Leave Me'' (1955)

''The Tender Trap'' (1955)

''Diane'' (1956) uncredited

''The Last Wagon'' (1956)

''Forbidden Planet'' (1956)

''Love Me Tender'' (1956)

''Bernardine'' (1957)

''Good Day for a Hanging'' (1959)

''Toby Tyler'' (1960) as Jim Weaver

''Pollyanna'' (1960)

''Ten Who Dared'' (1960)

''Third of a Man'' (1962)

''Ride the High Country'' (1962)

''The Young Warriors'' aka ''Eagle Warriors'' (1967)

''Breakout'' (1968) TV movie

''The Devil and Miss Sarah'' (1971) TV movie

''The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw'' (1991)

''The Virginian'' (2000) TV movie

''Hell to Pay'' (2005)

Television series

''Steve Canyon'' - Twice as Lieutenant Richard Muller

''Gunsmoke'' - Four times

''The Rifleman'' - Twice Episode 4 "The Marshal" (1958) and Episode 109 "Death Trap" (1960)

''Cheyenne (TV series)'' - Episode "The Impostor" as Bill Magruder (1960)

''Rawhide (TV series)'' - Episode "Incident of the Night on the Town" as Rance (1961)

''The Virginian'' (1962–1971)

''Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In'' - Twice

''Firehouse (TV series)'' (1974)

''Walker, Texas Ranger'' - Three episodes as Captain Tom Price

''The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.'' - Twice as Ethan Emerson

''Alias Smith and Jones'' - Sheriff Lom Trevors

References

External links

James Drury The Virginian Official Website

The Virginian Website

Info at Official Myspace page

Picture of Drury in Oregon

Interview with Kirby Jonas and James Drury

Category:1934 births Category:American businesspeople Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:Living people Category:People from California Category:People from Houston, Texas Category:People from New York City Category:People from Oregon Category:Western (genre) film actors

de:James Drury es:James Drury fr:James Drury fi:James Drury nds:James Drury

name	John Frankenheimer
birth name	John Michael Frankenheimer
birth date	February 19, 1930
birth place	Queens, New York City, New York, USA
death date	July 06, 2002
death place	Los Angeles, California, USA
years active	1948-2002
spouse	Carolyn Miller (1954-62)Evans Evans (1963-2002) }}

John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits were ''Birdman of Alcatraz'' (1962), ''The Manchurian Candidate'' (1962), ''Seven Days in May'' (1964), ''The Train'', (1964), ''Grand Prix'' (1966), ''Black Sunday'' (1977) and ''Ronin'' (1998).

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."

Early life

Frankenheimer was born in Queens, New York, the son of Helen Mary (née Sheedy) and Walter Martin Frankenheimer, a stockbroker. Frankenheimer once speculated that he might be related to actress Ally Sheedy. His father was of German Jewish descent and his mother was Irish Catholic, and Frankenheimer was raised Catholic.

He grew up in New York City and became interested in movies at an early age; he recalled going to the cinema every weekend. In 1947, he graduated from La Salle Military Academy in Oakdale, Long Island, New York. In 1951, he graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he studied English. He also developed an interest in acting as a career while in college but began thinking seriously about directing when he was in the Air Force. This led him to join a film squadron based in Burbank, California, where he shot his first documentary. He also began studying film theory by reading books about other famous directors, such as Sergei Eisenstein along with how-to books about the craft of film making.

In May 2001, amid rumors that he was the biological father of film director Michael Bay, Frankenheimer stated he had a brief relationship with Bay's birth mother. After the rumors surfaced that Bay's natural father was a filmmaker, there was much speculation about Frankenheimer, who continued to deny the story and told the ''Los Angeles Times'' that there had once been "tests" to determine paternity (long before DNA testing).

Career

Frankenheimer began his directing career in live television at CBS. 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.

His first theatrical film was ''The Young Stranger'' (1957), starring James MacArthur as the rebellious teenage son of a powerful Hollywood movie producer. Frankenheimer directed the production, based on a ''Climax!'' episode, "Deal a Blow", which he directed when he was 26.

He returned to television during the late 1950s, moving to film permanently in 1961 with ''The Young Savages'', in which he worked for the first time with Burt Lancaster in a story of a young boy murdered by a New York gang.

''Birdman of Alcatraz''

Production of ''Birdman of Alcatraz'' began under director Charles Crichton. Burt Lancaster, who was producing as well as starring, asked Frankenheimer to take over the film. As Frankenheimer describes in Charles Champlin's interview book, he advised Lancaster that the script was too long but was told he had to shoot all that was written.

The first cut of the film was four-and-a-half hours long, the length Frankenheimer had predicted. Moreover, the film was constructed so that it could not be cut and still be coherent. Frankenheimer said the film would have to be rewritten and partly reshot. Lancaster was committed to star in ''Judgment at Nuremberg'', so he made that film while Frankenheimer prepared the reshoots. The finished film, released in 1962, was a huge success and was nominated for four Oscars, including one for Lancaster's performance.

Frankenheimer was next hired by producer John Houseman to direct ''All Fall Down'', a family drama starring Eva Marie Saint and Warren Beatty. Because of the production difficulties with ''Birdman of Alcatraz'', ''All Fall Down'' was actually released first.

''The Manchurian Candidate''

He followed this with his most iconic film, ''The Manchurian Candidate''. Frankenheimer and producer George Axelrod bought Richard Condon's 1959 novel after it had already been turned down by many Hollywood studios. After Frank Sinatra committed to the film, they secured backing from United Artists.

The story of a Korean War veteran, brainwashed by the Communist Chinese to assassinate the candidate for President, co-starred Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury as Harvey's evil mother. Frankenheimer had to fight to cast Lansbury, who had worked with him on ''All Fall Down'', and was just two years older than Harvey. Sinatra's preference had been for Lucille Ball. The film was nominated for two Oscars, including one for Lansbury.

The film was unseen for many years. Urban legend has it that the film was pulled from circulation due to the similarity of its plot to the death of President Kennedy the following year, but Frankenheimer states in the Champlin book that it was pulled because of a legal battle between producer Sinatra and the studio over Sinatra's share of the profits. In any event, it was re-released to great acclaim in 1988.

''Seven Days in May''

He followed with another successful political thriller, ''Seven Days in May'' (1964). He again bought the rights to a bestselling book, this time by Charles Bailey II and Fletcher Knebel, and again produced the film with his star, this time Kirk Douglas.

Douglas intended to play the role of the General who attempts to lead a coup against the President, who is about to sign a disarmament treaty with the Soviets. Douglas then decided he wanted to work with Burt Lancaster, with whom he had just costarred in another film. To entice Lancaster, Douglas agreed to let him play the General, while Douglas took the less showy lead role of the General's aide, who turns against him and helps the President.

The film, written by Rod Serling, costarred Fredric March as the President and Ava Gardner as a former flame of Lancaster's, was nominated for two Oscars.

''The Train''

This film was again taken over from another director, this time Arthur Penn. ''The Train'' had already begun shooting in France when star Lancaster had the original director fired and called in Frankenheimer to save the film. As he recounts in the Champlin book, Frankenheimer used the production's desperation to his advantage in negotiations. He demanded and got the following: his name was made part of the title, "John Frankenheimer's The Train"; the French co-director, demanded by French tax laws, was not allowed to ever set foot on set; he was given total final cut; and a Ferrari.

Again saddled with an unfilmably long script, Frankenheimer threw it out and took the locations and actors left from the previous film and began filming, with writers working in Paris as the production shot in Normandy. The poorly chosen locations caused endless weather delays. The film contains multiple real train wrecks. The Allied bombing of a rail yard was accomplished with real dynamite, as the French rail authority needed to enlarge the track gauge. This can be observed by the shockwaves traveling through the ground during the action sequence. Producers realized after filming that the story needed another action scene, and reassembled some of the cast for a Spitfire attack scene that was inserted into the first third of the film. The finished movie was successful, and the script was nominated for an Oscar.

''Seconds''

''Seconds'' (1966) tells of an elderly man John Randolph given the body of a young man Rock Hudson through experimental surgery. It was poorly received on its release but has come to be one of the director's most respected and popular films subsequently. The film is an expressionistic, part-horror, part-thriller, part-science fiction film about the obsession with eternal youth and misplaced faith in the ability of medical science to achieve it.

''Grand Prix''

He followed ''Seconds'' with his most spectacular production, 1966's ''Grand Prix''. Shot on location at the Grand Prix races throughout Europe, using 65mm Cinerama cameras, the film starred James Garner and Eva Marie Saint. The making was a race itself, as John Sturges and Steve McQueen planned to make a similar movie titled ''Day of the Champion''. Due to their contract with the German Nürburgring, Frankenheimer had to turn over 27 reels shot there to Sturges. Frankenheimer was ahead in schedule anyway, and the McQueen/Sturges project was called off, while the German race track was only mentioned briefly in ''Grand Prix''. Introducing methods of photographing high-speed auto racing that had never been seen before, mounting cameras on the cars, at full speed and putting the stars in the actual cars, instead of against rear-projections, the film was an international success and won three Oscars, for editing, sound and sound effects.

Late 1960s

His next film, 1967's all-star anti-war comedy ''The Extraordinary Seaman'', starred David Niven, Faye Dunaway, Alan Alda and Mickey Rooney. The film was a failure at the box office and critically. Frankenheimer calls it in the Champlin book "the only movie I've made which I would say was a total disaster."

Then came 1968's ''The Fixer'', about a Jew in Tsarist Russia and based on the novel by Bernard Malamud. The film was shot in Communist Hungary. It starred Alan Bates and was not a major success, but Bates was nominated for an Oscar. Frankenheimer was a friend of Senator Robert Kennedy and drove him to the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles the night Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968.

''The Gypsy Moths'' was a romantic drama about a troupe of barnstorming skydivers and their impact on a small midwestern town. The celebration of Americana starred Frankenheimer regular Lancaster, reuniting him with ''From Here to Eternity'' co-star Deborah Kerr, and it also featured Gene Hackman. The film failed to find an audience, but Frankenheimer always called it one of his personal favorites.

1970s

He followed this with ''I Walk the Line'' in 1970. The film, starring Gregory Peck and Tuesday Weld, about a Tennessee sheriff who falls in love with a moonshiner's daughter, was set to songs by Johnny Cash. Frankenheimer's next project took him to Afghanistan.

''The Horseman'' focused on the relationship between a father and son, played by Jack Palance and Omar Sharif. Sharif's character, an expert horseman, played the Afghan national sport of buzkashi. ''Impossible Object'', also known as ''Story of a Love Story'', suffered distribution difficulties and was not widely released. Next came a four-hour film of O'Neill's ''The Iceman Cometh'', in 1973, starring Lee Marvin, and the decidedly offbeat ''99 and 44/100% Dead'', a crime black comedy starring Richard Harris.

With his fluent French and knowledge of the culture, Frankenheimer was asked to direct ''French Connection II'', set entirely in Marseille. With Hackman reprising his role as New York cop Popeye Doyle, the film was a success and got Frankenheimer his next job, ''Black Sunday'' in 1976.

''Black Sunday'', based on author Thomas Harris's only non-Hannibal Lecter novel, involves an Israeli Mossad agent (Robert Shaw), chasing a Palestinian terrorist (Marthe Keller) and a disgruntled Vietnam vet (Bruce Dern), who plan to blow up the Goodyear blimp over the Super Bowl. It was shot on location at the actual ''Super Bowl X'' in January 1976 in Miami, with the use of a real Goodyear Blimp. The film tested very highly, and Paramount and Frankenheimer had high expectations for it. When it failed to become the hit that was expected, Frankenheimer admitted he developed a serious problem with alcohol. In later years, Frankenheimer theorized that the audience may have developed an affinity over the course of the movie for the character played by Bruce Dern and thus felt conflicted when he was defeated at the end.

He is quoted in Champlin's biography as saying that his alcohol problem caused him to do work that was below his own standards on ''Prophecy'' (1979), an ecological monster movie about a mutant grizzly bear terrorizing a forest in Maine.

1980s

In 1981, Frankenheimer travelled to Japan to shoot the cult martial-arts action film ''The Challenge'', with Scott Glenn and legendary Japanese star, Toshiro Mifune. He tells Champlin that his drinking became so severe while shooting in Japan that he actually drank on set, which he had never done before, and as a result he entered rehab on returning to America. The film was released in 1982, along with his television adaptation of the acclaimed play ''The Rainmaker''.

In 1985, he directed an adaptation of the Robert Ludlum bestseller ''The Holcroft Covenant'', starring Michael Caine. That was followed the next year with another adaptation, ''52 Pick-Up'', from the novel by Elmore Leonard. ''Dead Bang'' (1989) followed Don Johnson as he infiltrated a group of white supremacists. In 1990, Frankenheimer returned to the cold-war political thriller genre with ''The Fourth War'' with Roy Scheider (with whom Frankenheimer had worked previously on ''52 Pick-Up'') as a loose cannon Army colonel drawn into a dangerous personal war with a Russian officer. It was not a commercial success.

1990s

Most of these 1980s films were less than successful, both critically and financially, but Frankenheimer was able to make a comeback in the 1990s by returning to his roots in television. He directed two films for HBO in 1994: ''Against the Wall'' and ''The Burning Season'' that won him several awards and renewed acclaim. The director also helmed two films for Turner Network Television in 1996 and 1997, ''Andersonville'' and ''George Wallace'', that were highly praised.

His 1996 film ''The Island of Doctor Moreau'', which he took over a few weeks into production from Richard Stanley, was the cause of countless stories of production woes and personality clashes and received scathing reviews. It was said that the veteran director could not stand Val Kilmer, the young star of the film. When Kilmer's last scene was completed it was reported that Frankenheimer said, "Now get that bastard off my set." In an interview, Frankenheimer refused to discuss the film, saying only that he had a miserable time making it.

However, his next film, 1998's ''Ronin'', starring Robert De Niro, was a return to form, featuring Frankenheimer's now trademark elaborate car chases woven into a labyrinthine espionage plot. Co-starring an international cast including Jean Reno and Jonathan Pryce, it was a critical and box-office success. As the 1990s drew to a close, he even acted for the first time, appearing in a cameo as a U.S. General in ''The General's Daughter'' (1999).

2000s

His last theatrical film, 2000's ''Reindeer Games'', starring Ben Affleck, underperformed. But then came his final film, ''Path to War'' for HBO in 2002, which brought him back to his strengths – political machinations, 1960s America and character-based drama, and was nominated for numerous awards. A look back at the Vietnam war, it starred Michael Gambon as President Lyndon Johnson along with Alec Baldwin and Donald Sutherland.

One of Frankenheimer's last projects was the 2001 BMW action short-film ''Ambush'' for the promotional series ''The Hire'', starring Clive Owen.

Frankenheimer was scheduled to direct ''Exorcist: The Beginning'', but it was announced before filming started that he was withdrawing, citing health concerns. Paul Schrader replaced him. About a month later he died suddenly in Los Angeles, California, from a stroke due to complications following spinal surgery at the age of 72.

Despite the many celebrated films he directed, many of which won Academy Awards in various categories, Frankenheimer was never nominated for a Best Director Oscar.

Filmography

''The Young Stranger'' (1957)

''The Young Savages'' (1961)

''All Fall Down'' (1962)

''Birdman of Alcatraz'' (1962)

''The Manchurian Candidate'' (1962)

''Seven Days in May'' (1964)

''The Train'' (1965)

''Seconds'' (1966)

''Grand Prix'' (1966)

''The Fixer'' (1968)

''The Extraordinary Seaman'' (1969)

''The Gypsy Moths'' (1969)

''I Walk the Line'' (1970)

''The Horsemen'' (1971)

''The Iceman Cometh'' (1973)

''Story of a Love Story'' (aka ''Impossible Object'') (1973)

''99 and 44/100% Dead'' (1974)

''French Connection II'' (1975)

''Black Sunday'' (1977)

''Prophecy'' (1979)

''The Challenge'' (1982)

''The Rainmaker'' (HBO 1982)

''The Holcroft Covenant'' (1985)

''52 Pick-Up'' (1986)

''Dead Bang'' (1989)

''The Fourth War'' (1990)

''Year of the Gun'' (1991)

''Against the Wall'' (HBO 1994)

''The Burning Season'' (HBO 1994)

''Andersonville'' (TNT 1996)

''The Island of Dr. Moreau'' (1996)

''George Wallace'' (TNT 1997)

''Ronin'' (1998)

''Reindeer Games'' (2000)

''The Hire'' (BMW short) − ''Ambush'' (2001)

''Path to War'' (HBO 2002)

Awards

British Academy Film Awards

1964 ''Train'' nominated for Best Film - Any Source

1962 ''Manchurian Candidate'' nominated for Best Film - Both Any Source and British

Cannes Film Festival

1966 ''Seconds'' nominated for Competing Film

1962 ''All Fall Down'' nominated for Competing Film

New York Film Critics Circle Award

1968 ''Fixer'' nominated for Best Direction

1968 ''Fixer'' nominated for Best Film

Venice Film Festival

1962 ''Birdman of Alcatraz'' nominated for Competing Film

1962 ''Birdman of Alcatraz'' won for San Giorgio Prize

Further reading

Mitchell, Lisa, Thiede, Karl, and Champlin, Charles (1995). ''John Frankenheimer: A Conversation with Charles Champlin'' (Riverwood Press). ISBN 9781880756096.

Armstrong, Stephen B. (2008). ''Pictures About Extremes: The Films of John Frankenheimer'' (McFarland). ISBN 0786431458.

References

External links

John Frankenheimer ''OpsRoom.org''

John Frankenheimer, ''Senses of Cinema'', Issue 41 "Great Directors Series"

Interview with John Frankenheimer video ''TV Legends'', 28 minutes

John Frankenheimer's The Extraordinary Seaman – How Bad Could It Be? (Movie Morlocks)

Literature on John Frankenheimer

John Frankenheimer: The Hollywood Interview

Category:1930 births Category:2002 deaths Category:American film directors Category:American Roman Catholics Category:American people of German-Jewish descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Deaths from stroke Category:Deaths from surgical complications Category:People from New York City Category:Williams College alumni

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