A one-time experiment: The only directing credit of Tom Cruise’s career
It’s become an accepted part of the folklore surrounding Tom Cruise that he knows more about filmmaking than the majority of actors, experience and insight he’s shown himself happy to pass on to the next generation of aspiring A-listers.
Top Gun: Maverick co-star Glen Powell revealed that he sat alone in an empty cinema to watch a six-hour video recorded by Cruise that involves him digging deep into almost everything he’s learned during a career that’s spanned more than 40 years and made him one of Hollywood’s biggest-ever stars.
The list of actors to have tried their hand at directing grows longer by the year, but the Mission: Impossible frontman has only stepped behind the camera once. That was three decades ago, and for whatever reason he’s never felt the inkling to do it again.
There’s a laundry list of performers and auteurs alike who’ve marvelled at the way Cruise embraces and absorbs every aspect of the process from conception to release, so if he wanted to do it again it stands to reason that he wouldn’t be a rookie out of his depth with no idea what he’s doing or how to do it. And yet, a solitary episode of an anthology series marked the beginning and end of his directorial output, surprisingly lowkey for a man of his standing.
Executive produced by Sydney Pollack, anthology series Fallen Angels ran for two seasons and 15 episodes between August 1993 and November 1995, with Cruise far from the only big name to take part. Instalments were directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Tom Hanks, Steven Soderbergh, and Kiefer Sutherland to name just a few, with ‘The Frightening Frammis’ enduring as his one-and-done tilt at directing.
Peter Gallagher stars as grifter Mitch Allison, who reveals through flashback how he stole $25,000 from his con artist wife and then hopped on a train hoping to double his investment on a separate scam. Unfortunately, he gets more than he bargained for when he encounters Isabella Rossellini’s Babe, who gives as good as she gets.
Nobody – except maybe Cruise depending on how he felt when he called it a wrap – would have been able to guess at the time that his directorial debut doubled as his swansong. He remains as dedicated and passionate towards his craft as ever, and he’s got no issues flexing his muscles as a producer or daredevil purveyor of risky stunts, but for the last 30 years picking up that megaphone has been a bridge too far.
That’s not to say he would effortlessly become the next great actor-turned-director when he tends to make the best of whatever he turns his attention to, but it must have been something he discovered fairly sharpish wasn’t the best use of his time. As it stands, then, ‘The Frightening Frammis’ lives on as a fascinating curio.
