Director John Frankenheimer in top form with ‘Black Sunday’

BLACK SUNDAY (1977)

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

Long before author Thomas Harris introduced Hannibal Lecter into the film and literary world, he wrote a crackling suspense thriller about a terrorist plot to bomb the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

“Black Sunday” was a page-turner unlike any other. I devoured the book quickly in the fall of 1975 during my one-hour commute after school aboard a series of New Orleans public busses.

So, when veteran film maker John Frankenheimer jumped on board to direct the movie version, I knew it had to be good.

Frankenheimer helmed such important political thrillers as “The Machurian Candidate” and “Seven Days in May.” Frankenheimer even directed the underrated sequel to “The French Connection” in which Gene Hackman reprised his role of Popeye Doyle.

Frankenheimer, to me, seemed a great choice for “Black Sunday.” I was right.

Frankenheimer crafted a well-paced international thriller that literally keeps you on the edge of your seat. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman, who wrote the classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North by Northwest,” does a great job of faithfully adapting Harris’ novel for the screen; the biggest change was switching the locale of the Super Bowl from New Orleans to Miami.

“Black Sunday” finds a mentally ill Vietnam War veteran, played by Bruce Dern, joining forces with a Palestinian organization, Black September, and its chief operative, the beautiful actress Marthe Kellar, in a plot to explode a bomb of plastique and steel darts above Super Bowl X.

BLACK SUNDAY ALTERNATE POSTER

Along for the ride is Robert Shaw, Quint in “Jaws,” as an Israeli Mossad agent. This was one of his last roles before his death.

Even though it’s been 34 years since “Black Sunday” played at theaters, it still resonates today – especially as out nation moves closer to the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“Black Sunday” is such a total success that it tested incredibly well with preview audiences, collecting some of the highest scores in test screenings. Paramount, producer Robert Evans and other executives thought they quite possibly had another film on the caliber of “Jaws.”

Then they ran into problems with the Motion Picture Association of America.

“Black Sunday” initially received an “R” rating rather a “PG,” limiting the audience that could see the film. When Frankenheimer re-edited the film and tried to appease the rating board, it still remained an “R.” In the end, “Black Sunday” kept its “R” rating.

If that wasn’t enough, Paramount released the film to theaters in the spring, bypassing the larger, summertime audience that fueled the phenomenal box office grosses of “Jaws.” So it’s not surprising that the film seriously underperformed in theaters.

And that’s a shame because “Black Sunday” delivers a suspenseful, white-knuckle that ranks with the best of Frankenheimer. After “Black Sunday,” Frankenheimer didn’t make a memorable film again until 1994 when he directed a small film for Home Box Office about the Attica prison riots, “Against the Wall.”


“Black Sunday” is available for rent or purchase on DVD. Click here to purchase the DVD from Amazon.com. The film is rated R for language and violence.

















# # #