John Frankenheimer: Interviews, Essays, and Profiles

John Frankenheimer’s career as a professional director began and ended in television. In the mid-1950s, he won acclaim working on live productions for anthology series like Playhouse 90, and from the mid-1990s until his death in 2002 he helmed a string of Emmy-winning features for cable TV, including The Burning Season (1994) and Andersonville (1996). Despite these successes, Frankenheimer’s reputation rests primarily upon the nearly thirty feature films he directed, which range from bona fide classics like Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962) to such lesser achievements as Prophecy (1979) and Dead Bang (1989). Unfortunately for Frankenheimer, the discrepancy between his best films and his worst led many critics during his lifetime to dismiss him as someone whose talent dissipated in the late 1960s. In the decade since his death, however, several critics have emerged who reject the assertion that the quality of Frankenheimer’s output faded after an impressive start. In John Frankenheimer: Interviews, Essays, and Profiles, Stephen B. Armstrong has collected the most interesting and insightful articles and features published on this underrated director. While question-and-answer exchanges make up the bulk of the items featured here, also included are journalistic profiles of the director at work and essays Frankenheimer himself wrote for magazine audiences. In addition, readers will find a series of interviews of people who worked with Frankenheimer, including actors Roy Scheider, Tim Reid, and the director’s wife of 40 years, Evans Frankenheimer. In this volume, the director and others look back on a career that included such films as Seven Days in May, The Train, Grand Prix, The Iceman Cometh, Black Sunday, and Ronin. The first collection of its kind, John Frankenheimer: Interviews, Essays, and Profiles enables those who value the director’s work to develop a better understanding of the man through his own words and the words of others.

Table of Contents:
Contents Introduction Permissions Chronology PART 1: FRANKENHEIMER ON FRANKENHEIMER John Frankenheimer: Little to Big Screen; John Cutts On Screen: John Frankenheimer; C. Robert Jennings Seven Ways with Seven Days in May; John Frankenheimer Criticism as Creation; John Frankenheimer John Frankenheimer; Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg ‘The Gypsy Moths’—Sky Daredevils! John Frankenheimer; Russell AuWerter Filming “The Iceman Cometh”; John Frankenheimer John Frankenheimer: An Interview; Gary D. Engle John Frankenheimer Speaks to Ralph Appelbaum; Ralph Appelbaum John Frankenheimer; Pat Broeske Frankenheimer Says Casting is the Key; Jerry Roberts Dialogue on Film: John Frankenheimer The Grand Prix Circus, Hollywood Style; Peter Dick John Frankenheimer: Shooting Against the Wall; Gerald Pratley The Burning Season of John Frankenheimer: Four Decades of Directing; Mary Hardesty The Manchurian Candidate; Charles Champlin Hollywood Survivor John Frankenheimer; Tim Rhys and Ian Bage Ad Lib: John Frankenheimer; Charles Champlin The Train; Gerald Pratley John Frankenheimer: Renaissance Auteur; Alex Simon The Films of John Frankenheimer; Robert J. Emery John Frankenheimer; Scott Tobias Against the Wall; Robert Wilonsky John Frankenheimer; F. Anthony Macklin Frankenheimer Knew Period’s Main Players; Hugh Hart PART 2: COLLEAGUES AND FAMILY Roy Scheider and 52 Pick-Up; Kirk Honeycutt, Steven Gaydos and Jerry Roberts Pete Hamill: French Connection II; Stephen B. Armstrong ‘He Loved What He Did So Much!’ An Interview with Evans (Evans) Frankenheimer; Murray Pomerance John R. Leonetti: Working with Frankenheimer; Stephen B. Armstrong Tim Reid: Dead Bang and The Fourth War; Stephen B. Armstrong Appendix: Director Credits Bibliography Index About the Author

About the Author :
Stephen B. Armstrong is an associate professor of English at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah, where he teaches creative writing, film history, and literature. His writing has appeared in Film Score Monthly, Film Quarterly, and Classic Images. He is the author of Pictures about Extremes: The Films of John Frankenheimer (2008) and Andrew V. McLaglen: The Life and Hollywood Career (2011).

Review :
A fascinating look inside the mind of a filmmaker whose career ranged from bonafide classics--such as The Manchurian Candidate and Seven Days in May--to unmitigated disasters. Frankenheimer discusses his work in unflinching terms, defending some critical failures (e.g., Prophecy) while acknowledging that others were made to pay the bills (e.g., The Extraordinary Seaman). His realistic approach to his craft can be summarized in this marvelous quote: "Every movie you make is a compromise." Armstrong has done a masterful job in selecting the articles, which were originally published between 1964 and 2010. The chronology of the articles allows the reader to learn how the acclaimed director viewed his films at different points in his life. Editor Stephen B. Armstrong, a professor at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah, includes a comprehensive filmography, a bibliography, and an index. His book is a must for any library with a film reference collection and for anyone interested in what goes on behind the scenes in the making of a motion picture.