The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

8/10

Starring

Frank Sinatra

Laurence Harvey

Janet Leigh

Angela Lansbury

Directed by John Frankenheimer

The Manchurian Candidate’s pace is very tasteful and gentle; it keeps you on the edge and then spins you out of sync when some unforeseen and probably unexplainable scenes pop up, but then the events pull you back in, in a most masterful and surreal way as you wait to see all the events matchup. The Manchurian Candidate is a mix of suspense, thriller and the dialogues are very intense and to some, it could be seen to possess some dark humor.

The unveiling of the mastermind behind the whole plot in the movie, or better still the mastermind behind the control of Raymond Shaw makes you the viewer raise an eye lid of the depth many will go for power. The movies conspiracy theory and mix of some kind of Sci-Fi in the whole brainwashing and mind control aspect of the film, makes The Manchurian Candidate more appealing to a variety of audience.

The plot is about a squad in the Korean War, where the Major, Ben Marco (Frank Sinatra) and his Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), returned home to be well received and Shaw even got a medal of honor for his exploits of saving his squad during the war.

As Shaw grew to be in the public eye driven by his ever bearing mother Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin (Angela Lansbury), Marco starts having recurring nightmares, where he sees Shaw kill two of his squad members and the nightmare led him to believe that the whole story he knows to have happened in Korea may not be real.

John Frankenheimer the director and also the producer did a fine job on the screenplay based on a Richard Condon’s 1959 novel of the same name, both film and novel are about the cold war and the acting by star actor and musician Frank Sinatra is one that needs to be seen. Angela Lansbury (Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks in 1971) who plays the role of the mother of Raymond Shaw got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, for her wonderful portrayal of Mrs Iselin.

The Manchurian Candidate was both a critical and financial success one that many should see, including you. Every moment you spend watching this film you will love and remember. The suspense keeps you glued.

A remake of this 1962 classic was done by Jonathan Demme (Oscar winner of Best Director for the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs and the critical acclaimed Philadelphia in 1993 also starring Denzel Washington)in 2004, and it starred Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep and Liev Schreiber, it was a critical success but not much of a box office success like it’s 1962 predecessor.