John Frankenheimer, director of “The Manchurian Candidate”, “Birdman of Alcatraz”, and the most depressing movie of all time, “Seconds,” died today of a stroke. He was 72.
Frankenheimer also helmed the esteemed sequel “French Connection II” and one of my favorite childhood disaster flicks, “Black Sunday.”
I have only seen the Manchurian Candidate, a very fine movie, if a little over-the-top. Just a couple of weeks back I was listening to some of Frankheimer’s audio-commentary on the DVD.
Oh, man, this is a blow. JF did lots of great flicks, from the recent greats “Ronin” and “Reindeer Games” to the all-time classic “52 Pick-Up” (which contained the classic line, delivered by Roy Scheider: “Something about your face makes me want to slap the shit out of it.”) as well as “Seven Days In May” and the afore-mentioned “Manchurian Candidate.” He was a rock classic…Timmy
Sad day for lovers of film…
Sir Rhosis
What a shame.
Two other great films, The Train with Burt Lancaster and the film adaptation of The Iceman Cometh with Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Frederic March and Jeff Bridges.