The Manchurian Candidate (The Original)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Runtime: 126 minutes

Directed by: John Frankenheimer

Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh, Henry Silva

From: United Artists

Starring John Wayne… er, I mean Frank Sinatra! I am referencing a statement made last month in a messageboard thread discussing Wayne’s films. Someone brought up this movie, which inspired much confusion on my part. He then mentioned that he was discombobulated and somehow misremembered Manchurian as starring The Duke instead of The Chairman of the Board. Imagine Wayne in the part-it’s especially amusing given how patriotic he was.

To address the elephant in the room, of course I did know the main plot point and how that made this fascinating after what happened in Pennsylvania several weeks ago… many people by now likely know the general idea, but in brief: during the Korean War, an Army platoon was kidnapped & shipped to Red China, where brainwashing occurs. Sinatra is among those who has reoccurring nightmares and I’ll say little more, except that the movie is a great Cold War paranoia thriller surrounding legitimate fears of the time-including brainwashing and fears of Communist infiltration in the United States.

It was a gripping thriller throughout where there are many highlights… from the conclusion and how the nightmares were presented on screen to the brawl between Sinatra and the North Korean Henry Silva (yeah, it was a little ludicrous but the performance itself was fine) to the “terrible, terrible woman” that Angela Lansbury portrayed. The reasons why she was so vile won’t be revealed but how nasty she was became apparent in her opening scene.

Those that like the paranoid conspiracy/political thrillers of the 70’s NEED to check out The Manchurian Candidate. The cast (everyone delivers; Laurence Harvey needs to be mentioned as he was the focus of the film, as does the likes of Janet Leigh as Sinatra’s girl and Khigh Dheigh as a heel was memorable in his few scenes), the direction, the cinematography, the music… even with the talent involved w/ the 2004 remake, presumably that does not fully live up to the high standards of the original.