Year of Release: 1962
Director: John Frankenheimer
Screenplay: George Axelrod, based on the novel The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, James Gregory
Running Time: 126 minutes
Genre: Thriller
Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Harvey) returns from the Korean War with the Medal of Honor and finds himself hailed as a hero, a position which his ruthless mother (Lansbury) and stepfather (Gregory), an ambitious politician, proceed to take full advantage of. However Shaw and other members of his former platoon, including Captain Bennett Marco (Sinatra), suffer the same recurring nightmare. Marco becomes convinced that something happened to them in Korea, and his investigation proceeds to uncover a disturbing conspiracy.
This is one of the classic Cold War thrillers. Despite being made 60 years ago, and being very much a product of it's time, this still feels relevant today, with the central premise of a hostile power influencing democracy is disturbingly prescient, particularly when the chosen candidate is a populist rightwing fool. Laurence Harvey turns in a great performance as the tormented, brainwashed Raymond Shaw, and Frank Sinatra, who really was a great actor, is fantastic as the haunted Captain Marco. Janet Leigh doesn't really have anything to do, in her few scenes as Sinatra's love interest, but Angela Lansbury turns in a terrifying performance as the utterly ruthless Eleanor Iselin, who will do anything to gain political power, and seems to have a very unhealthy relationship with her son (which apparently was toned down from the book). Directed by John Frankenheimer, the film uses skewed camera angles, reflective of Shaw's distorted frame of mind. The brainwashing itself is played out in almost surrealistic dream sequences. While it drags in places, this still holds up as a disturbing, paranoid thriller, and for a big studio film from 1962, it does get quite surprisingly dark. The film was remade in 2004, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Denzel Washington.
Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian candidate
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