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An unusually tense and intelligent political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate was a film far ahead of its time. Its themes of thought control, political assassination, and multinational conspiracy w... read more read more...ere hardly common currency in 1962, and while its outlook is sometimes informed by Cold War paranoia, the film seemed nearly as timely when it was reissued in 1987 as it did on its original release. It opens with a group of soldiers whooping it up in a bar in Korea as their commander, Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), arrives to inform them that they're back on duty. These men obviously have no fondness for Shaw, and he feels no empathy for them. While on patrol, Shaw and his platoon are ambushed by Korean troops. Months later, Shaw is receiving a hero's welcome as he returns to the United States to accept the Congressional Medal of Honor, and several of the soldiers who served under Shaw repeatedly refer to him as "the bravest, finest, most lovable man I ever met." It soon becomes evident that after their capture by the Koreans, Shaw and his men were subjected to an intense program of brainwashing prior to their release. While several are troubled by bad dreams and inexplicable behavior, it's Capt. Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) who seems the most haunted by the experience. In time, Marco is able to piece together what happened; it seems Raymond Shaw was programmed by a shadowy cadre of Russian and Chinese agents into a killing machine who will assassinate anyone, even a close friend, when given the proper commands. On the other side of the coin, Shaw is also used for political gain by his harridan mother (Angela Lansbury), who guides the career of her second husband, John Iselin (James Gregory), a bone-headed congressman hoping to win the vice-presidential nomination through a campaign of anti-Communist hysteria. The Manchurian Candidate features a host of remarkable performances, several from actors cast cleverly against type. Frank Sinatra's edgy, aggressive turn as Marco may be the finest dramatic work of his career; Laurence Harvey's chilly onscreen demeanor was rarely used to s better advantage than as Raymond Shaw; James Gregory is great as the oft-befuddled Senator Iselin; and Angela Lansbury's ultimate bad mom will be a shock to those who know her as the lovable mystery writer from Murder, She Wrote. George Axelrod's screenplay (based on Richard Condon's novel) is by turns compelling, witty, and horrifying in its implications, and John Frankenheimer's direction milks it for all the tension it can muster. While Frankenheimer's career has had its ups and downs, The Manchurian Candidate and Seconds (1966) suggest that he deserves to be recognized as one of the most brilliantly paranoid American filmmakers of the '60s. Entertaining yet unsettling, both films indicate that things in the '60s were not what they seemed, with a resonance that still echoes uncomfortably in the present. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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PG-13, 2 hr. 6 min.

Directed by: John Frankenheimer

Release Date: October 24, 1962

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DVD Release Date: May 15, 2001

Stats: 1,607 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,607)

  • FrizzDrop
    April 30, 2013
    FrizzDrop
    Beyond its subject matter this terse political thriller still holds up even fifty years later, surrounded in secrecy, with some outstanding and unparalleled performances. Set in the midst of the Cold War, this film is much less about the political and sociological aspects of its ... read moreinfamy and much more about the contemplative and cruel nature of an overseer in control of a single man. Instead of being about the threat of the "Oriental" this film delves into the political thrills of mind control, brainwashing, and assassination. A contingent of soldiers in the Korean War is captured by the enemy, and one of their leaders is made into a ticking time bomb. The rest of the soldiers are also brainwashed, and as their training comes back to them in a series of horrific dreams the threat from zombified Shaw (Harvey) becomes ever present. Shaw is lauded as a war hero, but his commanding officer Marco (Sinatra) knows the truth, and though he can't confront the ticking time bomb, he knows how powerful and dangerous he is. For a film made before Watergate it expertly addresses government intervention, conspiracies, and the threat overseas. That is also not to say that there isn't any Cold War paranoia attributed to this iconic film, but it's much more about the relationships that are built around Shaw, and how the bossy commanding officer eventually thaws under his nosy mother's gaze; and in memory of his former love. Both he and Marco try to foil the plan to use him as a weapon, but the film is more about Shaw pushing against his fate and finally being happy, and the conniving evil wrong doings of his mother. His mother, by the way, is played by Angela Lansbury, at the time only six years older than Laurence Harvey. In this role Lansbury plays the most diabolical, politically conniving villain in film history, and she is completely unapologetic about her crimes against the government, and even her own son, who she uses as a pawn in her elaborate game of political chess. Not only does this film address Cold War tensions, but also speaks on McCarthyism just ten years prior and on the type of people who would make such baseless accusations. This film is not only a timely political thriller but also a satire on our history and the bonds of anti-Communist propaganda that landed the US into the Cold War in the first place, a risky choice in a time when tensions were high.
  • Saxia
    December 5, 2012
    Saxia
    Not my cup of tea, classic-movie wise.
  • clintervin
    October 18, 2012
    clintervin
    The Manchurian Candidate may be the greatest movie I've ever seen, and I'm prompted to review it due to its rating in newspapers of 3 and-a-half out of 4 stars. That's simply unsatisfactory, so I'll do my best to justify a perfect score. Maybe most significant for me, the brainwa... read moreshing plot in which the far right becomes a tool of the far left, was utterly fantastic yet made to be believable in 1962 and remains so today. Though the cold war is long over, The Manchurian Candidate remains fresh, vibrant, and relevant in today's geopolitical world. The performances by Angela Lansbury, Laurence Harvey, and Frank Sinatra are some of the most riveting ever, particularly Lansbury's. She must be the most evil mother in cinematic history. Its a nightmare fantasy, shared in the movie by Sinatra's character and fellow soldier James Edwards' Corporal Melvin, which nearly succeeds in in a communist coup d'état in America.

    The movie lampoons McCarthyism, displaying a wry humor, while ramping up the dramatic tension to a terrific climax. The comedy is supplied by James Gregory as the cartoonish husband/senator John Iselin and the KGB operative in New York. His interaction with the Chinese doctor is priceless. There's nothing funny about Lansbury's mother character or Harvey's Raymond Shaw, who is transformed into a brutally efficient killing machine. Sinatra, though as Maj.Marco, is the glue who holds the story together. In my opinion, this is his finest acting role. As a side note, in the karate fight between Sinatra and Henry Silva, Sinatra broke his hand leading to years of complications. Flawless in every aspect, The Manchurian Candidate sets the standard for political drama.
  • fb619846742
    September 17, 2012
    fb619846742
    An expertly woven together tale of politics, family, and guilt concerning a decorated war hero (Laurence Harvey) who comes back brainwashed by the Koreans during his time fighting the war, and how he is groomed by his overbearing mother (Angela Lansbury) to help her second husban... read mored lock up the vice presidential nomination through being a political assassin. While Jonathan Demme's 2004 re-boot was ultimately a success, it comes nowhere close to the atmosphere that director John Frankenheimer harnesses in this film. This is a film loaded with darkness, dread, and paranoia around its every corner, and the result is a fascinating story concerning an intriguing plot that was really far ahead of its time. Harvey's performance is masterful, and while Frank Sinatra as the army man tracking him down is less than stellar, this whole thing is really Harvey's show, complemented by a superb supporting turn from the veteran Lansbury. The ending ratchets up the tension to an almost unbearable high, with a script that virtually nails just about everything it is aiming to tackle.
  • JonathanHutchings
    April 16, 2012
    JonathanHutchings
    It's both exciting and disheartening that a 42 year-old satire like this still works as pointedly as it does. Even crazier to think that The Manchurian Candidate probably wouldn't have gotten made at all if it weren't for its star, Frank Sinatra. Studios were reluctant to touch t... read morehe politically sensitive book, dealing as it does with the Soviet brainwashing of an American citizen into becoming an instant assassin, studios fearing it might interfere with the U.S. Government's relations with Russia at a crucial period in history. But Sinatra was a friend of then-President John F. Kennedy, and when he asked the President what he thought about the idea of making the movie, Kennedy said to go for it. Ironically, when Kennedy was shot a year or so later, the studio and Sinatra insisted the movie be removed from circulation, and for over a quarter of a century it remained withdrawn, not appearing again until its rerelease in 1988. In any case, its MIA years only enhanced its reputation. When it resurfaced, it was a legitimate, concrete classic. Not to mention that 1987 audiences, inundated with Beverly Hills Cop II, Three Men and a Baby, etc., realized that nothing currently playing quite packed the punch of this 25 year-old relic. What's more, its story -- centered around a Joseph McCarthy-like senator attempting to shake up the American public via fear of Communism and a coup to steal the presidency -- easily translated to modern-day, post-Nixon political paranoia.

    Sinatra does his bes as the heroic but tortured Major Marco, a man who first thinks he might be going mad and then slowly catches on that something outside himself is amiss. Laurence Harvey is good as the seemingly indomitable Shaw, a hardnose with few or no friends, who seems tough and self composed on the outside yet is easily twisted around his mother's clinging finger as well as the Communists'. Harvey portrays a character of strength and weakness simultaneously, a neat accomplishment.

    But the real standout in the show is Angela Lansbury, who was nominated for, but did not win, a Best-Supporting Actress Oscar. (She did win a Golden Globe, but who remembers?) Lansbury is brilliant as the nasty, evil, sinister, conniving mother who has her own personal plans for her son as well as for her lamebrain senator husband. Her son constantly resents her, yet he ceaselessly complies with her will. It's only toward the end of the film, when we see the mother plant a big wet one on the son's lips, that we begin to understand the full import of the situation.

    Yet another part of the film's fine madness is that Ms. Lansbury was only three years older than Laurence Harvey when she played his mother, and nobody seems to notice! Still, Hitchcock beat Frankenheimer on that front a few years earlier by casting Jessie Royce Landis as Cary Grant's mother in "North By Northwest." Landis and Grant were the same age.

    All that said, the film isn't without its flaws. The karate fight between Marco and Henry Silva is ridiculous and sluggish, with no tension to be found, and Janet Leigh's character adds nothing to the plot. Of course, none of the film makes the least bit of logical sense. It's not meant to. But while it's happening, it seems rational enough. One of the beauties of the script is that no matter how high it's piled, we go along with it. But, really, a whole patrol is completely brainwashed in only a few days? Shaw is programmed to obey any command he's given to murder at any time? The mother is Lady Macbeth? The stepfather senator is an idiot? Within the same political party there is an ultraconservative right-winger and an ultraliberal left-winger?

    Yet as a symbolic fable and lampoon, it all works. Frankenheimer and company actually have us believing that Shaw is not only ready to murder on command, but as the movie moves forward that he is able to do so in brutally efficient fashion. Yes, there are events that are perhaps a tad too easy to see coming. Yes, there is perhaps too much given away at the beginning that might have served to build the suspense a bit more if saved for later. And, yes, there is a subplot concerning Major Marco's meeting and falling in love with a beautiful young woman (Janet Leigh) that seems almost wholly extraneous. But, overall, the film has as much impact today as it had when it was made. Probably more impact today, since much of the film's hyperbole has turned out to be at least in part intriguingly possible. Let us not forget Lee Harvey Oswald and company.
  • rayman0071
    April 24, 2011
    rayman0071
    "Raymond Shaw is the kindest,bravest,warmest,most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." Strange,thrilling and at times hilarious,there's never quite been a top notch thriller like 1962's "The Manchurian Candidate".....not even the 2004 remake with Denzel Washington d... read moreoesn't even come close. At the height of its 1962 theatrical release,the film was hugely controversial at the time;rumors have long circulated that star-producer Frank Sinatra had it withdrawn from circulation for years because of its subsequent echoes of the Kennedy assassination.
    But it wasn't until 1987,when Sinatra had it reinstated back in theatres giving it a newly restored print and to have audiences see it for the first time since it was theatrically released in 1962. The unfortunate Raymond Shaw(Laurence Harvey),is a loner who arrives home in the U.S. a hero after being captured by the Koreans...though his fellow soldier Bennett Marco(Frank Sinatra)can't help but feel something's up. The witty screenplay by George Axelrod contains dozens of quotable lines while John Frankenheimer's direction creates a wonderfully tense yet surreal tone,including a hallucinated flashback involving mad scientists and multiple garden parties and one of the most nail-biting climaxes in cinema. Not to mention Angela Lansbury as Raymond's sadistic evil-intent mom. Weirdly,though this film is a product of the Cold War and infinitely more powerful political thriller than what passes for thrillers today,the original still stands.
  • gokhale1
    October 12, 2010
    gokhale1
    "The Manchurian Candidate", based on a novel of the same name (written by Richard Condon) is one of the finest political thrillers out there.

    An American Platoon is captured by the Soviets. They are all taken to Manchuria in Communist China and are subjected to a series of 'b... read morerainwashing' experiments for some political motive, the nature of which is made clear only as the film progresses. Revealing anything more would be sacrilege. This shocking picture has to be seen to be believed.

    Laurence Harvey stars as Raymond Shaw, the central character who is the 'chosen one' in this political conspiracy. Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury star in supporting roles along with some others. All of them deliver fine performances in this tragic tale of deceit and corruption.

    John Frankenheimer does a brilliant job of directing and makes sure there is not a single dull moment, gets some of the best acting done from his cast, shoots some of the most memorable sequences ever filmed in cinema and takes the movie to a very satisfying conclusion.

    This unique film deserves to be seen over and over again and holds tremendous repeat value. Do not miss...it's a mind-blowing experience!
  • smith44
    March 2, 2010
    smith44
    The greatest Suspense thriller. With Sinatra who should have stuck to singing, and the perfect Angela Lansby. Programmed by the red under the bed Communists with the clever Queen of Hearts device. Notable for its political satire, visual inventiveness, and Lansbury's best perform... read moreance as a scheming mother. The final scene is so suspenseful I could scarsely keep still.
  • stormyweather980
    October 14, 2009
    stormyweather980
    Had to watch this for Contemporary History class in college and...meh.
  • flixsterman
    April 30, 2009
    flixsterman
    John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate, based on Richard Condon's novel, follows the lives of a group of Korean War veterans as they discover that their subconscious has been 'altered' in a covert mind-control experiment. Using a fictitious U.S. Senator (played by... read more James Gregory) as an obvious stand-in for the fanatical Senator Joseph McCarthy, Frankenheimer is able to turn 'the communist threat' inside-out and use it to show that American's have as much to fear from their own politicians as they do from their cold war antagonists.

    All politics aside, this one is worth seeing just for Angela Lansbury alone. She's arguably cemented herself as one of the most despicable screen villains of all time with her performance as the cold-hearted (and incestuous) mother-from-hell.

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Critic Reviews

Jonathan Rosenbaum
May 7, 2008
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

powerful experience, alternately corrosive with dark parodic humor, suspenseful, moving, and terrifying. Full Review

Variety Staff
May 7, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

Every once in a rare while a film comes along that works in all departments, with story, production and performance so well blended that the end effect is one of nearly complete satisfaction. Such is ... Full Review

June 24, 2006
Time Out

A masterpiece. Full Review

Bosley Crowther
May 20, 2003
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

The Manchurian Candidate pops up with a rash supposition that could serve to scare some viewers half to death -- that is, if they should be dupes enough to believe it, which we solemnly trust they won't. Full Review

Hal Hinson
January 1, 2000
Hal Hinson, Washington Post

Has an excoriating, destabilizing wit that seems as knowingly sophisticated today as it must have then. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Not a moment of The Manchurian Candidate lacks edge and tension and a cynical spin. Full Review

Desson Thomson
January 1, 2000
Desson Thomson, Washington Post

Its story of Cold War intrigue, murky East-West dealings, assassination, brainwashing -- and the idea of a glorified cue-card reader playing president -- resonates today like never before. Full Review

Brian Costello
May 23, 2013
Brian Costello, Common Sense Media

Classic Cold War satirical thriller stands test of time. Full Review

Cole Smithey
September 30, 2012
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com

John Frankenheimer directs with a distinctive complexity of visual depth and a surreal tone of lurking menace. Full Review

Peter Canavese
July 19, 2011
Peter Canavese, Groucho Reviews

Set the standard for cinematic paranoid thrillers and stands as the quintessential John Frankenheimer film. [Blu-ray] Full Review

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  • At the beginning of the movie Domino, what '62 Sinatra flick is Domino watching?  Answer »
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  • "Raymond, why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?" is a quote from...  Answer »
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