The Film Fan Man at BuzzFlash.com

"The Manchurian Candidate" (Original 1962 Version)

Review by The Film Fan Man

---> GET YOUR COPY OF THE DVD HERE <---

Denzel Washington and director Jonathan Demme had a box office hit this summer with The Manchurian Candidate, not so much a remake but a re-imagining of the 1962 film. Now you can see the original for yourself on DVD, and in the process understand why John Frankenheimer’s film is a cinema classic.

Shot in beautiful black and white, The Manchurian Candidate stars Frank Sinatra as Major Ben Marco, one of a platoon of men ambushed and captured in 1952 during the Korean War. Among the group is their leader, Staff Sgt. Raymond Shaw. He is universally disliked by his men, a fact he is painfully aware of.

Following their release, Shaw is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery during combat. He scoffs at the honor, but is even more appalled that his mother uses the occasion as a photo op for her husband (and Raymond’s stepfather), Senator John Iselin. As she hustles through the crowd of well-wishers to set up the shot -- complete with a banner proclaiming Shaw "Johnny Iselin's Boy!" -- we get our first inkling of just how conniving and manipulative she is.

Marco is having his own type of post-war discomfort, in the form of recurring dreams about what happened while he was a POW. In one of many unforgettable shots in the film, the camera does a 360º pan of the men as they listen to a group of Garden Club women discuss hydrangeas. As the camera completes its pan, the lecturer is shown to be not a gardener, but a mustachioed bald man. In Marco’s dream, the soldiers are being brainwashed, although it’s not clear why. Shaw figures prominently in the dream as well.

And all this is in the film’s first 15 minutes.

With the stage set, The Manchurian Candidate proceeds to spin a tale of undercover operations, political assassination (note all the references to Abraham Lincoln), and absolute power corrupting absolutely. Equal parts whodunit, psychological thriller and social satire, the film deserves its place among great American movies on several levels. It’s one of Sinatra’s best performances as an actor, and it’s clear why Angela Lansbury earned a Best Supporting Actress nod for her role as Shaw’s coldly calculating mother. Frankenheimer controls the pacing and tension with a confidence and maturity that belied his television background. And George Alexrod’s screenplay (from the Richard Condon novel) is both wickedly funny and edge-of-your-seat suspenseful.

For that matter, all of the performances are superb. Laurence Harvey matches Sinatra and Lansbury in every scene they share (no small feat), and James Gregory perfectly channels Senator Joe McCarthy and his "I have a list of 212 known Communists in the State Department!" rants that BuzzFlash readers of, ahem, a certain age will recall quite clearly. Even Janet Leigh, who earned above-the-title billing, makes the most of what could charitably be referred to in lesser films as the role of "the girl." She and Marco meet as strangers on a train, but their relationship quickly develops. Leigh’s scenes with Sinatra nearly leap off the screen with just the right mix of playfulness and intensity.

DVD extras include an interview with Sinatra, Frankenheimer and Axelrod (all deceased); featurettes with Lansbury and director William Friedkin; and audio commentary by Frankenheimer.

But the real star is the story. As fresh and relevant as it was two score and a couple of years ago, The Manchurian Candidate deserves to be in the permanent collection of anyone who loves great movies. And those who agree are among the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human beings I have ever known in my life.

---> GET YOUR COPY OF THE DVD HERE <---