Manchurian Candidate (The)

Genre: political suspense (in black and white)

With: Laurence Harvey (Sgt. Raymond Shaw), Angela Lansbury (his mother Eleanor Shaw Iselin), James Gregory (his stepfather, Senator John Iselin), Frank Sinatra (Capt. Bennett Marco), Lloyd Corrigan (Holborn Gaines), James Edwards (Cpl. Allen Melvin), Janet Leigh (Eugenie), Henry Silva (Chunjin), Leslie Parrish (Jocie Jordan), John McGiver (Senator Jordan)

Director: John Frankenheimer

Screenplay: George Axelrod and John Frankenheimer (based on a novel by Richard Condon)

Release: 1962

Studio: M.C. Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Rating: PG-13

MBiS score: 8.5/10

A Queen of Diamonds in Every Deck

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Story-line: in 1952, during the Korean War, Sgt. Shaw, Capt. Marco and other GIs are captured by communist forces but Shaw manages to free himself and most of his comrades. On their return home, Shaw is welcomed as a hero, decorated in Washington and quickly hired by an influential New York journalist. For his part, Marco becomes a Major and is given a job at Army Intelligence… but keeps making this odd nightmare about a horticultural conference in New Jersey.   

Pluses: a crackerjack cast led by Angela Lansbury, Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, James Gregory and Janet Leigh, John Frankenheimer’s daring, smartly paced direction that sustains tension and mystery, a logical, complex and orderly screenplay that features lots of drama and several LOL moments (the catsup scene!), Lionel Lindon’s inspired cinematography, able editing by Ferris Webster, David Amram’s austerely beautiful score and a nail-biting ending.

Minuses: one camera shot at the convention may be considered manipulative. Marco’s apartment is a mess and, apparently, he doesn’t bother to empty his ashtrays.

Comments: this version of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (not the 2004 remake) is wide-ranging, excellent and thrilling. Spectacle aside, it raises crucial and sensitive issues while its depiction of politics borders on cynicism. With the benefit of hindsight, John Frankenheimer’s film was both provocative and premonitory on its release in 1962. Today, it remains chilling and topical in our world of fake news and international political interference.  

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