The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Although now somewhat dated, this melodrama pitting the ideals of the US against the Soviets early in the Cold War still has some startling and fascinating moments. The Manchurian Candidate takes the idea of brainwashing one step further than usual by presenting an American soldier programmed into a robot. Once given the prearranged codes, he will perform any action specified by his control force. Stellar acting by Laurence Harvey and, to some lesser degree, Frank Sinatra—provides the film with many memorable scenes.

A programmed hero Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) returns from the Korean War a superhero and holder of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but those in his platoon—including his own commanding officer Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra)—are vague about how Raymond actually won the medal. Marco and another soldier begin to have recurring nightmares about Korea, and when this is reported, Marco conducts an investigation into Raymond and his present activities. Piece by sinister piece, Marco and others put the story together. Marco learns that he, Raymond, and the entire platoon received mass brainwashing. As a result, they all came to believe Raymond was a hero when, in truth, he had been programmed as a killer.

Upon his return from service Raymond leaves his overly protective mother (Angela Lansbury) and her husband Sen. John Iselin (James Gregory), a right-wing senator who is modeled on the anti-Communist crusader Senator Joseph McCarthy. Raymond goes to work as a journalist, but when his control contacts him with the code, he becomes a robot, killing without guilt or memory of his crime. His boss, a liberal columnist-publisher becomes his first victim. Raymond, now married, is next sent to kill his own wife and his father-in-law, a liberal senator.

Marco's brainwashing wears off so that Marco is able to determine just how Raymond is controlled. It turns out that the controller is Raymond's mother, the top Communist spy in the US. She orders her robotlike son to kill the presidential nominee; her husband, who is the vice-presidential running mate, will then take control of the White House. Raymond climbs to a small room at the top of Madison Square Garden with a rifle—he's a crack shot—and, under the influence of his mother, aims at the presidential nominee on the stage where Raymond's mother and Sen. John Iselin also sit.

At the last moment, however, Raymond's clouded mind clears and he is able to see reality and the truth. With that realization, all the horrible murders he has committed come flooding with guilt into Raymond's mind as he stands there wearing the Congressional Medal of Honor around his neck and holding a long-range rifle in his hands. He nevertheless fires his weapon twice, killing not the presidential nominee but his own mother and Sen. John Iselin, who slump forward dead on the Garden stage. Abruptly he ameliorates "the disgrace" he has created for the medal and himself, and he turns the gun on himself and commits suicide.

The Manchurian Candidate is political fiction at its most forceful on the screen. Laurence Harvey's performance is so obsessive that he fascinates from beginning to end. Frank Sinatra, as the puzzled commander, is also topnotch, but James Gregory as the hen-pecked McCarthy-type politician and Angela Lansbury as the fanatical Communist mother are not much more than flamboyant clichés.

Sinatra reportedly invested considerable money in this production, which saw a huge box-office return. In addition, director John Frankenheimer, one of the first to indict the illogical and tyrannical witch-hunting of the McCarthy ties, became a real force in American cinema by virtue of this powerful film. The film earned distinction as one of the first of a genre that mixed reality, symbolism, and the fantastic, alternating caprice and grim fact so that the audiences viewpoint is jarred from one scene to the next. The film's stark and jolting half-real, half-surreal quality falters only in the so-called "dream sequences" which are as forced and blatant as prison camp sequences in another film about Korean War, Prisoner of War (1954). The Manchurian Candidate offers a very inaccurate theory of brainwashing, and Frankenheimer reportedly created the brainwashing scenes on the spot, having no specifications in the script for such sequences. He is only partially effective here in that he allows his cameras—with weird angles and fluid dolly and truck shots—to achieve what is not spoken, let alone explained, as the GIs are put through their paces by an unctuous Chinese military psychiatrist. Awards THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE received a nomination for Best Editing and Lansbury was nominated by the Academy for Best Supporting Actress.

Cast and Production Credits:

PERFORMER, CHARACTER

Frank Sinatra, Bennett Marco

Laurence Harvey, Raymond Shaw

Janet Leigh, Rosie Cheyney

Angela Lansbury, Raymond's Mother

Henry Silva, Chunjim

James Gregory, Sen. John Iselin

Leslie Parrish, Jocie Jordon

John McGiver, Sen. Thomas Jordon

Khigh Deigh, Yen Lo

PRODUCTION:

Producer George Axelrod, John Frankenheimer

Executive producer Howard W. Koch

Director John Frankenheimer

Screenwriter George Axelrod based on the novel by Richard Condon

Editor Ferris Webster

Cinematographer Lionel Lindon

Music director David Amram