A Little Solitaire

John Frankenheimer and American Film

Edited by Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer

Introduction by R. Barton Palmer

Contributions by Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Matthew H. Bernstein, Dennis Bingham, Tom Conley, Christine Cornea, Corey Creekmur, Victoria Duckett, Bill Krohn, Doug McFarland, James Morrison, Jerry Mosher, Robin L. Murray, Stephen Prince, Charles Ramirez Berg, David Sterritt and Linda Ruth Williams

Published by: Rutgers University Press

Subjects:Film, Media Studies, and Communications

324 Pages, 6.1 x 9.3 in, 53

Paperback
9780813550602
Published: August 11, 2011

$41.95

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9780813580678
Published: August 11, 2011

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Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

Think about some commercially successful film masterpieces--The Manchurian Candidate. Seven Days in May. Seconds. Then consider some lesser known, yet equally compelling cinematic achievements--The Fixer. The Gypsy Moths. Path to War. These triumphs are the work of the best known and most highly regarded Hollywood director to emerge from live TV drama in the 1950s--five-time Emmy-award-winner John Frankenheimer.

Although Frankenheimer was a pioneer in the genre of political thrillers who embraced the antimodernist critique of contemporary society, some of his later films did not receive the attention they deserved. Many claimed that at a midpoint in his career he had lost his touch. World-renowned film scholars put this myth to rest in A Little Solitaire, which offers the only multidisciplinary critical account of Frankenheimer's oeuvre. Especially emphasized is his deep and passionate engagement with national politics and the irrepressible need of human beings to assert their rights and individuality in the face of organizations that would reduce them to silence and anonymity.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Why Don't You Pass the Time by Playing a Little Solitaire? by R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance

Part I. Thrills

1. Murdered Souls, Conspiratorial Cabals: Frankenheimer's Paranoia Films, by David Sterritt

2. The Manchurian Candidate: Compromised Agency and Uncertain Causality, by Charles Ramirez Berg

3. Stealth, Sexuality, and Cult Status in The Manchurian Candidate and Seconds, by Rebecca Bell-Metereau

4. The Train: John Frankenheimer's "Rape of Europa", by Matthew H. Bernstein

5. Action and Abstraction in Ronin, by Stephen Prince

Part II. Politics

6. Late Frankenheimer/Political Frankenheimer, by Douglas McFarland

7. John Frankenheimer's "War on Terror", by Corey K. Creekmur

8. The Burning Season: Environmentalism versus Progress? by Robin L. Murray

9. Pictures and Prizes: Le Grand Prix de Rome and Grand Prix, by Victoria Duckett

Part III. Families

10. Crashing In: Birdman of Alcatraz, by Tom Conley

11. Walking the Line with the Fille Fatale, by Linda Ruth Williams

12. Live TV, Filmed Theater, and the New Hollywood: John Frankenheimer's The Iceman Cometh, by James Morrison

13. Ashes, Ashes: Structuring Emptiness in All Fall Down, by Murray Pomerance

Part IV. Secrets

14. An American in Paris: John Frankenheimer's Impossible Object, by Jerry Mosher

15. Shot from the Sky: The Gypsy Moths and the End of Something, by Dennis Bingham

16. Frankenheimer and the Science Fiction/Horror Film, by Christine Cornea

17. The Fixer: A Jew Who Could Be Any Man, Any Time, Anywhere, by R. Barton Palmer

18. Jonah, by Bill Krohn

John Frankenheimer's Directorial Career: A Chronology

Works Cited and Consulted

Contributors

Index

Murray Pomerance is an independent film scholar in Toronto and the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Johnny Depp Lives Here (Rutgers University Press). He is the coeditor of the Star Decades and Screen Decades series (Rutgers University Press). R. Barton Palmer is the Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature at Clemson University, where he directs the film studies program. He is the author, editor, or general editor of numerous books including Larger than Life: Movie Stars of the 1950s (Rutgers University Press).

"With an all-star lineup of contributors, A Little Solitaire casts important new light on filmmaker John Frankenheimer, his generation, and his era in American film history."
~Robert Sklar, author of Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies