John Frankenheimer Movies
by BaxterCallow | created - 28 Sep 2017 | updated - 28 Sep 2017 | Public- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. The Young Stranger (1957)
Approved | 84 min | Drama
After a 16-year-old, neglected by his movie producer father, gets in trouble, his father doesn't believe his claim of self-defense.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: James MacArthur, Kim Hunter, James Daly, James Gregory
Votes: 657
2. The Young Savages (1961)
Not Rated | 103 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A district attorney investigates three white teenagers accused of murdering a blind Puerto Rican kid.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Dina Merrill, Edward Andrews, Vivian Nathan
Votes: 2,935
It's a West Side Story without the romance and music.
3. All Fall Down (1962)
Approved | 111 min | Drama
Ralph (Karl Malden) and Annabell Willart (Dame Angela Lansbury) are a feuding couple who are constantly bickering over their worthless, good-for-nothing son Berry-Berry (Warren Beatty). ... See full summary »
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Eva Marie Saint, Warren Beatty, Karl Malden, Angela Lansbury
Votes: 2,314
4. Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
Not Rated | 147 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A surly convicted murderer held in permanent isolation redeems himself when he becomes a renowned bird expert.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Neville Brand
Votes: 19,292
Lancaster is wonderful; a tribute to the human spirit.
5. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
PG-13 | 126 min | Drama, Thriller
An American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury
Votes: 79,786
A classic blend of satire and political thriller that was uncomfortably prescient in its own time, The Manchurian Candidate remains distressingly relevant today.
6. Seven Days in May (1964)
Approved | 118 min | Drama, Thriller
United States military leaders plot to overthrow the President because he supports a nuclear disarmament treaty and they fear a Soviet sneak attack.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Fredric March, Ava Gardner
Votes: 17,326 | Gross: $7.96M
A strikingly dramatic, realistic and provocatively topical film.
7. The Train (1964)
Not Rated | 133 min | Action, Thriller, War
In 1944, a German colonel loads a train with French art treasures to send to Germany. The Resistance must stop it without damaging the cargo.
Directors: John Frankenheimer, Arthur Penn | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Paul Scofield, Jeanne Moreau, Suzanne Flon
Votes: 18,869 | Gross: $7.41M
A ripping system of motion, at once streamlined spectacle and thorny moral quandary
8. Seconds (1966)
R | 106 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
An unhappy middle-aged banker agrees to a procedure that will fake his death and give him a completely new look and identity - one that comes with its own price.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Rock Hudson, Frank Campanella, John Randolph, Frances Reid
Votes: 22,188
Featuring dazzling, disorienting cinematography from the great James Wong Howe and a strong lead performance by Rock Hudson, Seconds is a compellingly paranoid take on the legend of Faust.
9. Grand Prix (1966)
Approved | 176 min | Drama, Sport
American Grand Prix driver Pete Aron is fired by his Jordan-BRM racing team after a crash at Monaco that injures his British teammate, Scott Stoddard.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Toshirô Mifune
Votes: 10,494 | Gross: $20.85M
Still dazzling, and the movie Ron Howard's "Rush" is sure to be measured against.
10. The Fixer (1968)
M | 132 min | Drama
In Czarist Russia, around 1911, a Russian-Jewish handyman, Yakov Bok (Sir Alan Bates), is wrongly imprisoned for a most unlikely crime.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Alan Bates, Dirk Bogarde, Georgia Brown, Hugh Griffith
Votes: 1,467
I came away admiring only the acting.
11. The Extraordinary Seaman (1969)
G | 80 min | Adventure, Comedy, War
In World War 2 four American sailors are marooned in the Philippines and encounter an old vessel captained by Commander Finchhaven, apparently a relic from WW1. They help him get his engine going and ask him for a passage to Australia.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: David Niven, Faye Dunaway, Alan Alda, Mickey Rooney
Votes: 833
12. The Gypsy Moths (1969)
R | 107 min | Action, Drama, Romance
Three skydivers and their travelling thrill show barnstorm through a small midwestern town one Fourth of July weekend.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Gene Hackman, Scott Wilson
Votes: 2,464
13. I Walk the Line (1970)
PG-13 | 97 min | Drama
Henry Tawes, a middle-aged sheriff in a rural Tennessee town, is usually the first man to criticize others for their bad behavior. Miserable in his marriage, Henry falls in love with teenage Alma, who is the daughter of local criminal.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Gregory Peck, Tuesday Weld, Estelle Parsons, Ralph Meeker
Votes: 2,335
14. The Horsemen (1971)
PG | 109 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Drama depicting rural life in contemporary Afghanistan and the Afghani people's love for an ancient traditional sport similar to horseback polo.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Omar Sharif, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jack Palance, Peter Jeffrey
Votes: 1,327 | Gross: $0.07M
The characters are basically unlikely, and neither John Frankenheimer's spare, heroic direction nor Claude Renoir's spectacular photography can quite bring The Horsemen to life.
15. Story of a Love Story (1973)
110 min | Drama
Harry is a married writer who has an affair with a woman whose husband knows that she is unfaithful. As a result of his work, Harry has trouble distinguishing between fantasy and reality ... See full summary »
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Alan Bates, Dominique Sanda, Michel Auclair, Evans Evans
Votes: 177
16. The Iceman Cometh (1973)
PG | 239 min | Drama
A salesman with a sudden passion for reform has an idea to sell to his barfly buddies: throw away your pipe dreams. The drunkards, living in a flophouse above a saloon, resent the idea.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Lee Marvin, Fredric March, Robert Ryan, Jeff Bridges
Votes: 1,876
For four hours we live in these two rooms and discover the secrets of these people, and at the end we have gone deeper, seen more, and will remember more, than with most of the other movies of our life.
17. 99 and 44/100% Dead! (1974)
Passed | 98 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Uncle Frank Kelly calls on Harry Crown to help him in a gang war. The war becomes personal when Harry's new girlfriend is kidnapped by Uncle Frank's enemy, Big Eddie.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Richard Harris, Chuck Connors, Edmond O'Brien, Bradford Dillman
Votes: 831 | Gross: $0.04M
18. French Connection II (1975)
R | 119 min | Action, Crime, Drama
"Popeye" Doyle travels to Marseille to find Alain Charnier, the drug smuggler who eluded him in New York.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Bernard Fresson, Philippe Léotard
Votes: 20,887 | Gross: $12.48M
If Frankenheimer and his screenplay don't do justice to the character, they at least do justice to the genre, and this is better than most of the many cop movies that followed "The French Connection" into release.
19. Black Sunday (1977)
R | 143 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
When a Black September terrorist group begins a plot to carry out a massive terrorist attack in the United States, an Israeli commando works with the FBI to identify the target and conspirators, and prevent the plan from succeeding.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver
Votes: 9,080 | Gross: $15.77M
A smart, tense thriller from director John Frankenheimer, Black Sunday succeeds on a technical level, even if it fails to bring its characters to vivid life.
20. Prophecy (1979)
PG | 102 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A government health inspector is dispatched to assess the damage a logging company is causing to a patch of forest claimed by Native Americans, and comes face to face with true terror wreaking havoc in the woods.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Talia Shire, Robert Foxworth, Armand Assante, Richard Dysart
Votes: 6,136 | Gross: $18.39M
Too bad the ambitious pic was so poorly made and also so lacking in entertainment value, because there's a good sci-fi story here if done right.
21. The Challenge (1982)
R | 108 min | Action, Drama
A down-and-out American boxer becomes involved in a feud between two Japanese brothers.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Scott Glenn, Toshirô Mifune, Donna Kei Benz, Atsuo Nakamura
Votes: 2,667 | Gross: $3.53M
Hard-boiled, revolting, kung-fu friendly and ridiculous.
22. The Holcroft Covenant (1985)
R | 112 min | Action, Crime, Mystery
The son of a German General becomes part of a mysterious conspiracy to gain hidden Nazi funds.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Michael Caine, Anthony Andrews, Victoria Tennant, Lilli Palmer
Votes: 3,789 | Gross: $0.39M
23. 52 Pick-Up (1986)
R | 110 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A secret fling between a man and his mistress leads to blackmail and murder.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret, Vanity, John Glover
Votes: 7,012 | Gross: $5.19M
24. Dead Bang (1989)
R | 102 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A man kills a storekeeper and a cop. LASD homicide detective Jerry Beck gets the case. His murder suspect is connected to a heavily armed white supremacy group.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Don Johnson, Penelope Ann Miller, William Forsythe, Bob Balaban
Votes: 4,481 | Gross: $8.13M
25. The Fourth War (1990)
R | 91 min | Drama, Thriller
Cold War drama about two gung-ho border commanders (Roy Scheider, Jurgen Prochnow) who carry out their own private war against each other on the German - Czechoslovakia border.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Roy Scheider, Jürgen Prochnow, Tim Reid, Lara Harris
Votes: 1,965 | Gross: $1.31M
26. Year of the Gun (1991)
R | 111 min | Action, Romance, Thriller
In 1978, a journalist and a photojournalist, both young Americans, had a close encounter with Red Brigades terrorists in Rome.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Andrew McCarthy, Sharon Stone, Valeria Golino, John Pankow
Votes: 2,957 | Gross: $1.18M
28. The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)
PG-13 | 96 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
After being rescued and brought to an island, a man discovers that its inhabitants are experimental animals being turned into strange-looking humans, all of it the work of a visionary doctor.
Directors: John Frankenheimer, Richard Stanley | Stars: David Thewlis, Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer, Fairuza Balk
Votes: 35,478 | Gross: $27.66M
The movie keeps switching focus without ever getting its bearings, and when Brando exits earlier than expected, there's little but mayhem to fall back on.
29. Ronin (1998)
R | 122 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A freelancing former U.S. Intelligence Agent tries to track down a mysterious package that is wanted by the Irish and the Russians.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsgård
Votes: 195,079 | Gross: $41.62M
This is comparable to French Connection with great action, dynamic road chase scenes, and solid performances.
30. Reindeer Games (2000)
R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
After assuming his dead cell-mate's identity to get with the other man's girlfriend, an ex-convict finds himself a reluctant participant in a casino heist.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Ben Affleck, Gary Sinise, Charlize Theron, James Frain
Votes: 42,392 | Gross: $23.36M
Despite a decent cast, subpar acting and a contrived plot disappointed reviewers.
Tell Your Friends