Want to know the best John Frankenheimer movies? How about the worst John Frankenheimer movies? Curious about John Frankenheimer box office grosses or which John Frankenheimer movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which John Frankenheimer movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
John Frankenheimer (1930-2002) was an American director. He was known for social dramas and action/suspense films. His better known movies include Birdman of Alcatraz, The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, Seconds and Grand Prix. His IMDb page shows 52 directing credits from 1952 to 2000. This page will rank John Frankenheimer movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos, uncredited roles and movies that were not released in North American were not included in the rankings.
John Frankenheimer Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Year
Movie (Year)
Rating
S
Year Movie (Year) Rating S
1966
Grand Prix (1966)
1977
Black Sunday (1977)
1964
Seven Days in May (1964)
1962
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
1964
The Train (1964)
1962
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
1998
Ronin (1998)
1975
French Connection II (1975)
1966
Seconds (1966)
1973
The Iceman Cometh (1973)
1961
The Young Savages (1961)
1979
Prophecy (1979)
1962
All Fall Down (1962)
2002
Path To War (2002)
HBO Movie
1968
The Fixer (1968)
1989
Dead Bang (1989)
1971
The Horsemen (1971)
1982
The Challenge (1982)
1986
52 Pick-Up (1986)
1969
The Gypsy Moths (1969)
1974
99 and 44/100% Dead! (1974)
1991
Year of the Gun (1991)
1990
The Fourth War (1990)
2000
Reindeer Games (2000)
1996
The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)
1970
I Walk The Line (1970)
1985
The Holcroft Covenant (1985)
1969
The Extraordinary Seaman (1969)
John Frankenheimer Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort John Frankenheimer movies by his co-stars
- Sort John Frankenheimer movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort John Frankenheimer movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort John Frankenheimer movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each John Frankenheimer movie received.
- Sort John Frankenheimer movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
| R | Movie (Year) | UMR Co-Star Links | Adj. B.O. Worldwide (mil) | Review | Oscar Nom / Win | UMR Score | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | Movie (Year) | UMR Co-Star Links | Actual B.O. Domestic (mil) | Adj. B.O. Domestic (mil) | Adj. B.O. Worldwide (mil) | B.O. Rank by Year | Review | Oscar Nom / Win | UMR Score | S |
| 1 | Grand Prix (1966) | James Garner & Eva Marie Saint |
23.80 | 232.8 | 232.80 | 8 | 75 | 03 / 03 | 97.7 | |
| 3 | Black Sunday (1977) | Robert Shaw & Bruce Dern |
36.00 | 174.1 | 174.10 | 23 | 71 | 00 / 00 | 93.1 | |
| 2 | Seven Days in May (1964) | Burt Lancaster & Kirk Douglas |
10.20 | 117.1 | 117.10 | 26 | 86 | 02 / 00 | 92.9 | |
| 4 | The Manchurian Candidate (1962) | Frank Sinatra & Janet Leigh |
6.10 | 88.3 | 88.30 | 43 | 93 | 02 / 00 | 92.1 | |
| 5 | The Train (1964) | Burt Lancaster & Paul Scofield |
10.60 | 121.2 | 121.20 | 25 | 81 | 01 / 00 | 91.3 | |
| 6 | Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) | Burt Lancaster & Karl Malden |
7.60 | 108.8 | 108.80 | 33 | 80 | 04 / 00 | 90.4 | |
| 7 | Ronin (1998) | Robert DeNiro & Jean Reno |
41.60 | 95.7 | 162.50 | 47 | 73 | 00 / 00 | 85.1 | |
| 8 | French Connection II (1975) | Gene Hackman & Fernando Rey |
17.00 | 89.5 | 89.50 | 41 | 71 | 00 / 00 | 83.4 | |
| 9 | Seconds (1966) | Rock Hudson & Frank Campanella |
3.10 | 30.6 | 30.60 | 75 | 81 | 01 / 00 | 78.9 | |
| 10 | The Iceman Cometh (1973) | Lee Marvin & Jeff Bridges |
2.50 | 15.2 | 15.20 | 108 | 81 | 00 / 00 | 74.1 | |
| 11 | The Young Savages (1961) | Burt Lancaster & Dina Merrill |
5.00 | 72.8 | 72.80 | 47 | 59 | 00 / 00 | 70.2 | |
| 12 | Prophecy (1979) | Talia Shire & Robert Foxworth |
18.40 | 79.0 | 79.00 | 50 | 54 | 00 / 00 | 65.5 | |
| 13 | All Fall Down (1962) | Eva Marie Saint & Warren Beatty |
2.30 | 32.9 | 32.90 | 93 | 63 | 00 / 00 | 56.8 | |
| 14 | Path To War (2002) HBO Movie |
Donald Sutherland | 0.10 | 0.1 | 0.10 | 319 | 70 | 00 / 00 | 51.4 | |
| 14 | The Fixer (1968) | Alan Bates & Dirk Bogarde |
0.60 | 5.3 | 5.30 | 161 | 67 | 01 / 00 | 50.3 | |
| 16 | Dead Bang (1989) | Don Johnson & Penelope Ann Miller |
8.10 | 22.1 | 22.10 | 91 | 61 | 00 / 00 | 46.4 | |
| 15 | The Horsemen (1971) | Omar Sharif | 1.00 | 6.4 | 6.40 | 159 | 66 | 00 / 00 | 45.9 | |
| 17 | The Challenge (1982) | Scott Glenn & Toshirô Mifune |
3.00 | 10.9 | 10.90 | 106 | 64 | 00 / 00 | 45.2 | |
| 18 | 52 Pick-Up (1986) | Roy Scheider & Ann-Margret |
5.20 | 15.1 | 15.10 | 100 | 55 | 00 / 00 | 28.6 | |
| 19 | The Gypsy Moths (1969) | Burt Lancaster & Deborah Kerr |
1.60 | 11.9 | 11.90 | 117 | 55 | 00 / 00 | 26.9 | |
| 20 | 99 and 44/100% Dead! (1974) | Richard Harris | 0.10 | 0.3 | 0.30 | 163 | 58 | 00 / 00 | 25.6 | |
| 22 | Year of the Gun (1991) | Andrew McCarthy & Sharon Stone |
1.20 | 3.0 | 3.00 | 164 | 57 | 00 / 00 | 24.9 | |
| 22 | The Fourth War (1990) | Roy Scheider & Jürgen Prochnow |
1.30 | 3.3 | 3.30 | 176 | 56 | 00 / 00 | 24.4 | |
| 23 | Reindeer Games (2000) | Ben Affleck & Gary Sinise |
23.40 | 46.7 | 64.30 | 90 | 41 | 00 / 00 | 21.6 | |
| 25 | The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) | David Thewlis & Marlon Brando |
27.70 | 67.5 | 67.50 | 54 | 30 | 00 / 00 | 16.0 | |
| 24 | I Walk The Line (1970) | Gregory Peck & Tuesday Weld |
1.00 | 7.0 | 7.00 | 145 | 50 | 00 / 00 | 15.4 | |
| 26 | The Holcroft Covenant (1985) | Michael Caine & Anthony Andrews |
0.40 | 1.2 | 1.20 | 170 | 49 | 00 / 00 | 12.4 | |
| 27 | The Extraordinary Seaman (1969) | David Niven & Faye Dunaway |
0.90 | 6.5 | 6.50 | 146 | 24 | 00 / 00 | 0.4 |
Check out John Frankenheimer’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Steve’s John Frankenheimer You Tube Video
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Bob, I agree Frankensteiner was harsh on Jiggs for ‘ratting on his friend’ for those important reasons, and how close were they anyway? If they were close friends the general would have considered letting his friend in on his plans. And if he went thru with it, friends might have become enemies. You can’t have it both ways.
One of my favorite scenes, near the end of the film –
General Scott – “You’re a night crawler, Colonel. A peddler. You sell information. Are you sufficiently up on your Bible to know who Judas was?”
Colonel “Jiggs” Casey – “I suggest you read that letter, sir. It’s from the President.”
General Scott – “I asked you a question.”
Colonel “Jiggs” Casey – “Are you ordering me to answer, sir?”
General Scott – “I am.”
Colonel “Jiggs” Casey – “Yes, I know who Judas was. He was a man I worked for and admired… until he disgraced the four stars on his uniform.”
HI STEVE: A very comprehensive reply from you, which I greatly appreciate.So it was John Frankenheimer who said that Kirk always wanted to be Burt. I could never recall that identity so thanks for refreshing my memory. Of course we don’t always get we want. If we COULD choose I would probably like to be The Work Horse; whereas he in turn would most likely wish to be one of his idols like Hirsch, Al Leach or The Thin Woman. Indeed as sometimes people “protest too much” [as the saying goes] against their real feelings so I wouldn’t surprise me if for his part Joel always wanted to be Brando.
I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she would meet her connection
At her feet was a footloose man
No, you can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want
You can’t always get what you want [sung by The Rolling Stones]
Do you not think that John was being a bit hard on Jiggs? I mean General Scott was planning a military coup that would overthrow a constitutionally elected president and his administration. If you thought that WH was up to such tricks, would you not turn him in to the authorities?
Seven Days in May was remade as a TV movie in 1994 called The Enemy Within. Forest Whitaker played Kirk’s role, Jason Robards was Burt’s traitorous general and Sam Waterson was the president. Apparently within the African American community “Jiggs” is considered a racist epithet; so as Forest is of course an African American citizen the nickname “Jiggs” was not attributed to his character in that remake
On top of his cinematic directorial film career John was involved with 19 television productions between 1954 and 2002. His first cinematic movie was The Young Stranger [1957] starring James MacArthur and his final one was a short film called Ambush in 2001. His final film OVERALL was a TV one, Path to War starring the close friend of both Sir Maurice Micklewhite and The Great Mumbler, Irish-born Brit thespian Sir Michael Gambon as Lyndon B Johnson. It ran for 165 minutes.
I like a lot of John’s films and these are my favourites in no special order:
The Manchurian Candidate
7 Days in May
The Train
Seconds
The Young Savages
Black Sunday
Dead Bang.
My out-and-out faves are Seconds and especially 7 Days in May. Seconds is a critically highly acclaimed film but was a box office disaster that consolidated Rock Hudson’s demise as a very top star. The Work Horse for example gives it an 81% rating but credits it with a miserable adjusted US gross of $25 million
John’s further remake of The Island of Dr Moreau starring Mr Mumbles in 1996 is a dreadful film. . Unlike WH, I “tell it as it is” even against my own idols; no pretence from me that Dr Moreau was the best Christmas film ever.
Burt seems to have been John’s fave actor, the pair having made 5 flicks together: Young Savages, & Days in May, The Train, Black Sunday and Gypsy Moths. Part 2 to follow.
Added Steve’s Frankenheimer You Tube video to this page. Our thoughts found on his channel are found below.
“Good video. I have seen 12 of these movies…so barely ahead of Flora’s 11. Favorites would be #2 Seven Days In May…a good Kirk/Burt movie. #5 Birdman of Alcatrez….Burt and Telly Savalas are excellent in this one….not to mention Thelma Ritter as the long suffering mother. #7 Ronin….good action heist movie….seems related to DeNiro’s other action heist movie…Heat. #11 Grand Prix…the racing movie McQueen should have made. I like #1 Manchurian Candidate and #4 Seconds….but they are not movies I want to re-watch.”
Hi Bruce, good to see you have a John Frankenheimer page at the UMR. We have similar favorites though I like The Manchurian Candidate more than you do it seems.
Your tally 12 seen from the 30 on the video, mine 16 and Flora 11. Thanks again for the comment, vote and share, always appreciated.
I have seen 11 John Frankenheimer movies. This is the same total as Steve’s video. However, there are two titles that are different. You have The Extraordinary Seaman. Steve has The Young Stranger. So I have actually seen 12 Frankenheimer movies.
The HIGHEST rated movie I have seen is Grand Prix.
The highest rated movie I have NOT seen is Black Sunday.
The LOWEST rated movie I have seen is The Extraordinary Seaman.
Favourite John Frankenheimer Movies:
The Manchurian Candiadate
Seven Days in May
Birdman of Alcatraz
The Train
Other John Frankenheimer Movies I Have Seen:
French Connection II
Seconds
All Fall Down
The Gypsy Moths
I Walk the Line – I did not like this Peck film at all
The Extraordinary Seaman
Hey Flora….thanks for the thoughts on Johnny F. and his movies. I have seen 12 of his movies…so we are tied. I could not find any box office numbers on The Young Stranger or The Story of Love (this one never got released in North America). I have seen 3 of your 4 favorites…somehow I have missed The Train. As for the others you have seen….The French Connection II is one of the worst sequels ever. What…a Peck movie you do not like? How can that be…lol. Actually his late 1960s early 1970s movies are far from his best work. I have not seen The Extraordinary Seaman….but the cast and it’s very low rating have me interested in seeing that movie….if only to see the train wreck…lol. Good stuff as always.