The man made some astonishingly bad movies: the Ben Affleck debacle "Reindeer Games," "The Island of Dr. Moreau" (1996), "99 and 44/100% Dead" and "Year of the Gun." But, Frankenheimer made one classic, great film: "The Manchurian Candidate" in 1962. It's one of my favorite movies.

Why the bad movies? Frankenheimer actually drove RFK to the Ambassador Hotel the night he was killed. They were good friends. Some say he became an alcoholic after the RFK assasination and he never recovered artistically. There is also an ugly, persistent rumor that he is the father of Michael Bay, the director of the Ben Affleck gems "Pearl Harbor" and "Armageddon". shudder However, this is not true. He took a paternity test to prove it.

In "The Manchurian Candidate," however, Frankenheimer got the most sterling performances out of his actors. Angela ("Murder She Wrote") Lansbury positively seethes with Republican evil. She does a dead on Nancy Reagan almost 20 years before Nancy Reagan did! Frank Sinatra was never able to equal his great "Manchurian" performance in another movie, (well...maybe "Pal Joey").

In one key scene Frankenheimer had the genius to shoot a close up of Sinatra's face subtly, slightly out of focus during a brainwashing sequence. It was masterful.

In another scene, the editing and camera work that juxtaposes a room of evil Chinese leaders with a room of friendly, black gospel church ladies is something that is talked about in filmmaking textbooks.

I mourn Frankenheimer's passing, briefly, and then realize that the world lost him as an artist 30 years ago.