Editing John Frankenheimer (section)

===1980s===
In 1981, Frankenheimer travelled to Japan to shoot the cult martial-arts action film ''[[The Challenge (1982 film)|The Challenge]]'', with Scott Glenn and Japanese actor [[Toshiro Mifune]]. He told Champlin that his drinking became so severe while shooting in Japan that he actually drank on set, which he had never done before, and as a result he entered [[Drug rehabilitation|rehab]] on returning to America. The film was released in 1982, along with his [[HBO]] television adaptation of the acclaimed play ''[[The Rainmaker (play)|The Rainmaker]]''.

In 1985, Frankenheimer directed an adaptation of the [[Robert Ludlum]] bestseller ''[[The Holcroft Covenant (film)|The Holcroft Covenant]]'', starring [[Michael Caine]]. That was followed the next year with another adaptation, ''[[52 Pick-Up]]'', from the novel by [[Elmore Leonard]]. ''[[Dead Bang]]'' (1989) followed [[Don Johnson]] as he infiltrated a group of [[white supremacists]]. In 1990, he returned to the Cold War political thriller genre with ''[[The Fourth War]]'' with [[Roy Scheider]] (with whom Frankenheimer had worked previously on ''[[52 Pick-Up]]'') as a loose cannon Army colonel drawn into a dangerous personal war with a Soviet officer. It was not a commercial success.