The Manchurian Candidate

< Previous Trailer  |   Add to My Scrapbook  |   Next Trailer >
The Manchurian Candidate

90% Liked It
liked it

The Manchurian Candidate

Angela Lansbury, Frank Sinatra, Henry Silva, James Gregory, Janet Leigh, John McGyver, Laurence Harvey

A US Army hero returns to New York from Korea, but has been mysteriously programmed by Communists to assassinate a presidential nominee, but when his Army buddy becomes suspicious of the goings on, he...( read more  read more... ) is on the trail to stop him.

Id: 10904018

Do you want to see this movie?

My Friends Said...

The Manchurian Candidate Recent Reviews

Register or sign-in to see your friends' reviews !

Recent Reviews

The Manchurian Candidate Recent Reviews
  • 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.
  • bradwest
    February 1, 2009
    bradwest
    Awesome cold war/communist paranoia film. Everyone gives great performances and this has some great character subtext (surprisiingly mature) and violence (surprisingly graphic) that bellies its time period. Once thought of as a lost treasure after the film disappeared for a time ...( read more)post Kennedy assassination; it's well worth looking up and soaking in the directorial techniques, the crisp script and the fine characterizations. You might want to try to bring some of that back. You won't find it in the remake (felt a bit neutured) and you certainly won't find it in Frankenheimer's kid's (Michael Bay) films.
  • dooritor1
    April 20, 2008
    dooritor1
    best story line. best casting. so amazing.
  • kenstachnik
    March 25, 2008
    kenstachnik
    One of the all time great thrillers and Frank Sinatra's finest performance
  • DrZeek
    February 18, 2008
    DrZeek
    Mrs. Iselin: Why don't you pass the time with a game of solitaire?

    A political thriller, set during the 50s involving an assassin who is trained to forget what he is doing, serving as a pawn for communists.

    A group of soldiers in Korea are suddenly kidnapped by a mysterious gr...( read more)oup. Things suddenly switch gears, as this group then turns up a few days later having returned home, with one of the men Raymond Shaw, played by Lawrence Harvey, being celebrated as a war hero, being given the medal of honor.

    This is all well and good, but something does not sit right with Maj. Ben Marco, played by Frank Sinatra. He keeps having a reoccurring dream involving him and his men stuck in some facility, witnessing a calm Shaw murder two of his fellow men with no remorse.

    It is in fact a true dream. All of these men have been brainwashed, with Shaw serving as a political assassin, who should be suspected by no one and is triggered by a certain playing card when the time is right.

    To make matters worse, Shaw's mother, played by Angela Lansbury, is a cold, calculating monster, who dictates to her senator husband exactly what is to be done in order to serve her own mysterious purposes.

    Eventually Marco becomes tasked with finding out the truth of the matters, and hopefully stopping whatever it is that is going on.

    Janet Leigh, looking very good, also shows up as a companion for Marco, and while the movie doesn't explicitly go into it, she too, may have an ulterior motive.

    The movie was directed by John Frankenheimer, who knows a thing or two about making thrillers. This is a very well made movie that works well due to the sustained atmosphere containing both a subtle espionage aspect and an ironic sense of humor throughout.

    The performers are also very game to make this work. Sinatra is a cool guy, who you don't want to see become so distressed. Lansbury is just plain evil. And Harvey, playing my favorite character in this film is tricky enough by having to go in and out of his killer trans.

    The score is also somewhat haunting and fitting with the rest of the film.

    This is a very good movie, one of the best political thrillers I have seen.

    Dr. Yen Lo: His brain has not only been washed, as they say... It has been dry cleaned.
  • onomatopee
    October 8, 2009
    onomatopee
    I'm a bit ashamed to say that I saw the remake before seeing the original version. But considering I was only born in the late 80s, it may also be a normal thing. Anyway, I must admit I loved it. The script is excellent and the cast is all amazing.
  • samanthaseaotter
    October 7, 2009
    samanthaseaotter
    Brilliant. Well played all around.
  • buffyjunkie1
    September 24, 2009
    buffyjunkie1
    i have the denzel version of this film
  • hossein13
    September 15, 2009
    hossein13
    September 2009 - A very interesting psychological thriller. The story is a bit lousy but to me is a good example of when the surrealist features of a movie make it stand out more significantly than the realistic parts. The dream is fantastic and unconventional for such thrillers.
  • ElCochran90
    September 11, 2009
    ElCochran90
    Review coming someday...

    99/100
View All Reviews

Opening This Week

Top Box Office

Upcoming Movies

New on DVD