In 1962, the director John Frankenheimer released both “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Birdman of Alcatraz.” A theme emerges. 
In 1964, two years after “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Birdman of Alcatraz,” John Frankenheimer released “Seven Days in May,” about a military coup d’etat against our democracy:
On June 4, 1968, the day of the California Democratic Presidential primary, Robert Kennedy stayed at the Malibu home of his friend, the director John Frankenheimer, and was driven by Frankenheimer to the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles:
After driving Robert Kennedy from his Malibu house to the Ambassador Hotel, where he was assassinated, the brilliant John Frankenheimer, director of “The Manchurian Candidate,” suffered what he called a “nervous breakdown” and left the United States for six years.
In John Frankenheimer’s “Seven Days in May” (1964), Burt Lancaster played the leader of a military coup against a sitting President. In Frankenheimer’s “Birdman of Alcatraz” (1962), Lancaster played the part of a federal prisoner.
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