Frankenheimer Reception Rounds Up Filmland Past

The American Cinematheque’s John Frankenheimer Retrospective this weekend, although well done, paled in comparison with the director’s first Los Angeles round-up.

“I was in the Air Force in the early ‘50s,” Frankenheimer recalled at Friday’s opening-night reception at the Directors Guild. “They sent me out to do a documentary on registered cattle--what a way to keep the guys off the street!”

In researching the film, Frankenheimer met Harry Howard, impresario of “Ranch Round-Up,” a televised paean to bovine talent. Frankenheimer was offered a job as the show’s writer, then, when the director was immobilized by alcohol, given that job, too.

“There were two cameras,” he said. “One on the cows and one on Harry. And Harry told me to make sure the camera stayed on him.”

From such basic directorial advice, Frankenheimer launched a career that includes hundreds of hours of live, televised drama in the ‘50s, and more than two dozen motion pictures, including “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Seven Days in May,” “Black Sunday” and “Grand Prix.”

Despite his “Ranch Round-Up” beginnings, birds, not cows, were the main focus of the Frankenheimer night that began with a VIP reception, attended by more than 100 Cinematheque patrons, before the screening of “Birdman of Alcatraz.”

Among those nibbling on the light buffet were Piper Laurie, who starred in Frankenheimer’s “Playhouse 90” version of “Days of Wine and Roses”; Wolf Schmidt, producer of his upcoming “The Fourth War”; and Jeff Berg, the director’s agent from ICM.

Burt Lancaster, the star of “Birdman,” was on hand to introduce the film and reminisce with the director.

During the repartee before the screening, Lancaster drew a gasp from the audience by revealing that, unbeknown to Frankenheimer or himself, a handler had prepared the birds in “Birdman” for scenes in which they grew ill and fell from their perches by pouring lighter fluid down their throats.

Though he and Frankenheimer had a difficult relationship on their first film together, “The Young Savages,” Lancaster specifically requested the director for “Birdman.”

“Nobody, but nobody, handles a camera like John,” said Lancaster. “If John has any weakness, in my opinion, at least in those days, he was not sure of himself in dealing with scripts. It was difficult for him to deal with scripts in motion picture terms. I’d have to assume he knows how to deal with them now.”

For Frankenheimer, the problem these days isn’t in dealing with scripts, but in getting the backing to film them, he noted: “It’s terribly difficult to get a film made today. You have to go with the flow; you have to go with what you can get financed.”