Ranking All Of Director John Frankenheimer’s Movies
“What are John Frankenheimer’s Best Movies?” We looked at all of Frankenheimer’s directed filmography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!
We took all of the movies directed by John Frankenheimer and looked at their Rotten Tomato Critic, Rotten Tomato User, IMDB, and Letterboxd scores, ranking them against one another to see which movies came out on top. The movies are ranked in our list below based on which movies have the highest overall score between all 4 review sites in comparison with all of the other movies by the same director. The process is all very scientific with no flaws at all.
The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page.
Happy Viewing!
The Top Film’s Of John Frankenheimer
41 ) The Extraordinary Seaman (1969)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
- IMDB User Review Score: 41
- Letterboxd User Score: 33
Marooned sailors discover a World War II ship haunted by its late captain.
40 ) The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 20
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 31
- IMDB User Review Score: 40
- Letterboxd User Score: 35
A shipwrecked sailor stumbles upon a mysterious island and is shocked to discover that a brilliant scientist and his lab assistant have found a way to combine human and animal DNA with horrific results.
39 ) Story of a Love Story (1973)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
- IMDB User Review Score: 33
- Letterboxd User Score: 36
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 leaving us to wonder whether the affair is real or just a figment of Harry’s imagination.
38 ) Reindeer Games (2000)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 19
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 29
- IMDB User Review Score: 34
- Letterboxd User Score: 34
After assuming his dead cellmate’s identity to get with his girlfriend, an ex-con finds himself the reluctant participant in a casino heist.
37 ) The Holcroft Covenant (1985)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 28
- IMDB User Review Score: 34
- Letterboxd User Score: 31
A man who was a confidant of Adolf Hitler dies and leaves a fortune to make amends for his Nazi past–but his son has to search the world to find it
36 ) Prophecy (1979)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 21
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 26
- IMDB User Review Score: 39
- Letterboxd User Score: 28
A Savage beast, grown to monstrous size and driven mad by toxic wastes that are poisoning the waters, spreads terror and death on a Maine countryside.
35 ) Year of the Gun (1991)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 18
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 30
- IMDB User Review Score: 34
- Letterboxd User Score: 31
In this thriller, American novelist David Raybourne (Andrew McCarthy) accidentally becomes entangled in the Red Brigade’s terrorist plan to kidnap Italian Premier Aldo Moro during a research trip to Rome. As the terrorists attempt to kill David, he and his photojournalist friend (Sharon Stone) must struggle to stay alive.
34 ) 99 and 44/100% Dead (1974)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 24
- IMDB User Review Score: 38
- Letterboxd User Score: 27
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.
33 ) Forbidden Area (1956)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
- IMDB User Review Score: 19
- Letterboxd User Score: 36
Why are so many B-99 bombers from Hibiscus Air Base crashing or simply disappearing? Colonel Price comes up with a terrifying explanation, but will anyone believe him
32 ) The Rainmaker (1982)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
- IMDB User Review Score: 18
- Letterboxd User Score: 36
The Rainmaker is a made for TV movie starring Tommy Lee Jones
31 ) The Fifth Column (1960)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
- IMDB User Review Score: 16
- Letterboxd User Score: 36
A TV film made as part of The Buick-Electra Playhouse.
30 ) Bomber’s Moon (1958)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
- IMDB User Review Score: 10
- Letterboxd User Score: 36
A hard-hearted Colonel loses many men in his group’s bombing missions over World War Two Germany, but keeps on going and won’t tolerate lightly a young Major losing his nerve under the strain,who refuses to continue.
29 ) The Young Stranger (1957)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
- IMDB User Review Score: 26
- Letterboxd User Score: 19
Director John Frankenheimer’s 1957 drama explores the lack of communication between a wealthy film producer and his troubled teenage son after the boy is involved in an altercation at a movie theatre. The cast includes James MacArthur, James Daly, Kim Hunter, Whit Bissell and James Gregory.
28 ) Dead Bang (1989)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 16
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 22
- IMDB User Review Score: 32
- Letterboxd User Score: 28
Los Angeles homicide detective Jerry Beck searches for the murderer who killed a police officer on Christmas Eve. The investigation takes Beck inside the violent world of hate groups and white supremacists, who are hatching a deadly plot to attack even more innocent people. Beck must also confront his own personal demons, including his growing problem with alcohol, if he wants to track down and stop the violent neo-Nazis before it is too late.
27 ) The Fourth War (1990)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 8
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 27
- IMDB User Review Score: 34
- Letterboxd User Score: 28
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.
25 ) The Turn of the Screw (1959)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
- IMDB User Review Score: 3
- Letterboxd User Score: 36
A governess put in charge of two young children begins to see the ghost of her dead predecessor.
25 ) The Gypsy Moths (1969)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 23
- IMDB User Review Score: 29
- Letterboxd User Score: 19
Three skydivers and their travelling thrill show barnstorm through a small midwestern town one Fourth of July weekend.
24 ) 52 Pick-Up (1986)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 15
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 21
- IMDB User Review Score: 29
- Letterboxd User Score: 19
Harry Mitchell is a successful Los Angeles manufacturer whose wife is running for city council. His life is turned upside down when three blackmailers confront him with a video tape of him with his young mistress and demand $100,000. Fearing that the story will hurt his wife’s political campaign if he goes to the police, Harry pretends that he will pay the men, but does not follow through.
23 ) Against the Wall (1994)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 15
- IMDB User Review Score: 26
- Letterboxd User Score: 19
Based on the true story of the Attica Prison uprising of 1971.
22 ) The Burning Season (1994)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
- IMDB User Review Score: 13
- Letterboxd User Score: 14
Based on the true story of a Brazilian rubber tapper who leads his people in protest against government and developers, who want to cut down their part of the rainforest for a new road and ranch land. The rich and the powerful will stop at nothing, and frequently resort to murder
21 ) The Horsemen (1971)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 16
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 17
- IMDB User Review Score: 23
- Letterboxd User Score: 24
In the poor, desolate northern provinces of the mountainous feudal Sunni kingdom of Afghanistan (before the Soviet-engineered republican revolutions), the status of the proud men and their clans is determined less by wealth or even military power (both rare) then by victories in the ancient, though game of buskashi, a vicious form of polo dating back to Genghis Khan, in which the chapendaz (participating horsemen) use their horse-whips on both mounts and rivals in a ruthless fight for a heavy ‘ball’, a dead calf, which must be carried a long way, almost impossible with all the others mercilessly assailing. Tursen, a former champion, now holds the status of village notable thanks to his position as stable-keeper of the regional lord Osman Bey, and has finally bred a horse without equal, the white stallion Jahil, in time for the royal tournament on the plain of Bagrami, just outside the capital Kabul…
19 ) I Walk the Line (1970)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- IMDB User Review Score: 26
- Letterboxd User Score: 19
Tawes is the sheriff in a godforsaken little hole somewhere in Tennessee. A man of strong moral fibre he is always quick to judge others and follows the law zealously. Then he meets Alma, a young beautiful girl who turns his world upside down. Unable to ignore his feelings he starts having an affair with her. But in small town nothing is secret for long
19 ) The Challenge (1982)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 12
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 12
- IMDB User Review Score: 29
- Letterboxd User Score: 24
Rick, a down-and-out American boxer, is hired to transport a sword to Japan, unaware that the whole thing is a set up in a bitter blood-feud between two brothers, one who follows the traditional path of the samurai and the other a businessman. At the behest of the businessman, Rick undertakes samurai training from the other brother, but joins his cause. He also becomes romantically involved with the samurai’s daughter.
17 ) The Fixer (1968)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 13
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 18
- IMDB User Review Score: 20
- Letterboxd User Score: 24
Set in tsarist Russia around the turn of the century and based on a true story of a Russian Jewish peasant Yakov Bog who was wrongly imprisoned for a most unlikely crime – the “ritual murder” of a Gentile child in Kiev. We witness the unrelenting detail of the peasant-handyman’s life in prison and see him gain in dignity as the efforts to humiliate him and make him confess fail.
17 ) All Fall Down (1962)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 19
- IMDB User Review Score: 20
- Letterboxd User Score: 14
Ralph and Annabell Willart are a feuding couple who are constantly bickering over their worthless, good-for nothing son Berry-Berry..
16 ) The Young Savages (1961)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 14
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 20
- IMDB User Review Score: 20
- Letterboxd User Score: 14
A district attorney investigates the racially charged case of three teenagers accused of the murder of a blind Puerto Rican boy.
14 ) Days of Wine and Roses (1958)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 32
- IMDB User Review Score: 1
- Letterboxd User Score: 7
An alcoholic falls in love with and gets married to a young woman, whom he systematically addicts to booze so they can share his “passion” together.
14 ) George Wallace (1997)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 13
- IMDB User Review Score: 13
- Letterboxd User Score: 14
George Wallace is a 1997 television film starring Gary Sinise as George Wallace, the former Governor of Alabama. It was directed by John Frankenheimer, who won an Emmy award for it; Sinise and Mare Winningham also won Emmies for their performances. The film was based on the 1996 biography Wallace : The Classic Portrait of Alabama Governor George Wallace by Marshall Frady, who also co-wrote the teleplay. Frankenheimer’s film was highly praised by critics: in addition to the Emmy awards, it received the Golden Globe for Best Miniseries/Motion Picture made for TV. Angelina Jolie also received a Golden Globe for her performance as Wallace’s second wife, Cornelia.
13 ) French Connection II (1975)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 15
- IMDB User Review Score: 23
- Letterboxd User Score: 14
“Popeye” Doyle travels to Marsailles to find Alain Charnier, the drug smuggler that eluded him in New York.
12 ) Black Sunday (1977)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 10
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 14
- IMDB User Review Score: 23
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
An Israeli anti-terrorist agent must stop a disgruntled Vietnam vet cooperating in a plot to commit a terrorist plot at the Super Bowl.
11 ) The Comedian (1957)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 24
- IMDB User Review Score: 1
- Letterboxd User Score: 7
Sammy Hogarth, a vaudeville comedian who now has his own TV show, is a ruthless egomaniac who demands instant obedience from his staff and heaps abuse on those in lesser positions than he is. His most vituperative behavior, however, is reserved for his weak-willed brother, Lester, who Sammy has hired as his assistant but who really uses him as his whipping boy.
10 ) Path to War (2002)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
From director John Frankenheimer (‘The Manchurian Candidate’) comes this powerful drama of soaring ambition and shattered dreams that takes a provocative insider’s look at the way our country goes to war–as seen from inside the LBJ White House leading up to and during Vietnam.
9 ) Andersonville (1996)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 22
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 9
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
This lengthy docudrama records the harrowing conditions at the Confederacy’s most notorious prisoner-of-war camp. The drama unfolds through the eyes of a company of Union soldiers captured at the Battle of Cold Harbor, VA, in June 1864, and shipped to the camp in southern Georgia. A private, Josiah Day, and his sergeant try to hold their company together in the face of squalid living conditions, inhumane punishments, and a gang of predatory fellow prisoners called the Raiders.
8 ) Ronin (1998)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 13
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
A briefcase with undisclosed contents – sought by Irish terrorists and the Russian mob – makes its way into criminals’ hands. An Irish liaison assembles a squad of mercenaries, or ‘ronin’, and gives them the thorny task of recovering the case.
7 ) The Iceman Cometh (1973)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 6
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 9
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 6
Set in 1912, the entire film takes place inside a dive bar named The Last Chance Saloon, where its destitute patrons eagerly await the arrival of Hickey, who arrives annually and props everyone up with free drinks and spirited stories of his travels. However, when Hickey does show up this year, it is with a message of temperance and an exhortation to give up hopeless dreams and face reality.
6 ) Grand Prix (1966)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 4
- IMDB User Review Score: 16
- Letterboxd User Score: 7
Grand Prix driver Pete Aron is fired by his team after a crash at Monaco that injures his teammate, Scott Stoddard. While Stoddard struggles to recover, Aron begins to drive for another team, and starts dating Stoddard’s wife.
5 ) Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 7
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
- IMDB User Review Score: 7
- Letterboxd User Score: 5
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud’s life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.
4 ) Seconds (1966)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 5
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 5
- IMDB User Review Score: 8
- Letterboxd User Score: 1
A secret organisation offers wealthy people a second chance at life. The customer picks out someone they want to be and the organisation surgically alters the customer to look like the intended person, stages the customer’s death, gets rid of the intended person and the customer takes on a new life.
3 ) Seven Days in May (1964)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 4
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 4
A U.S. Army general alerts the president of a planned military coup against him.
2 ) The Train (1964)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
- IMDB User Review Score: 5
- Letterboxd User Score: 3
As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France’s greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it all happen smoothly but he is also part of a dwindling group of resistance fighters tasked with preventing the theft. He and others stage an elaborate ruse to keep the train from ever leaving French territory.
1 ) The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 3
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
- IMDB User Review Score: 4
- Letterboxd User Score: 1
Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco, finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and soon races to uncover a terrible plot.
