The Manchurian Candidate

PG-13

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2 hr. 6 min.

Mystery & Thriller

Drama

List

97%

64 Reviews

Tomatometer

90%

25,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra), finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and, together with fellow soldier Allen Melvin (James Edwards), races to uncover a terrible plot.

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Critics Consensus

A classic blend of satire and political thriller that was uncomfortably prescient in its own time, The Manchurian Candidate remains distressingly relevant today.

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Tony T

Yes the 2004 version was a masterpiece with Meryl Streep, Denzel, Liev as well and a great cast. Astounding to watch wow class

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/13/24

Full Review

nick s

An interesting premise. I found it took a while to get going. My interest was really waning half way through, especially with all the aimless dream sequences. But it finished well.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

10/31/23

Full Review

Matthew B

Few movie directors have devoted as much time to putting conspiracies on screen as John Frankenheimer, whose career peaked in the 1960s. Frankenheimer's films often involve an individual or small group of people desperately seeking to take on a faceless organisation that is more powerful than they are. The chances of defeating the conspiracy seem overwhelming, and any victory that is attained is hard-won and at great cost. In The Manchurian Candidate, Frankenheimer's best work, it is the armies who are the heroes, and the politicians who are to be feared. John Frankenheimer was able to take advantage of a newfound hostility and suspicion towards government that was beginning to spread through nations across the world, and which has remained to this day. The Manchurian candidate is John Iselin (James Gregory), a weak and buffoonish politician with a drink problem and a sinister, controlling wife (Angela Lansbury). The Iselins have a hatred for communism that is just as irrational as that of the McCarthyites, and probably more dangerous since their veiled intention is use the communist scare to instigate a fascist takeover of the White House. This makes Isselin's bid for power even scarier. This mixture of buffoonery and dangerous demagoguery is one that has become familiar in our own time, and the idea that an idiot like Johnny Iselin might one day become President of the United States no longer looks far-fetched. The movie opens with a pre-credits sequence set during America's intervention in North Korea. A platoon of soldiers including Major Bennet Marco (Frank Sinatra) and Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) are captured by the enemy and their bodies are taken and flown out of the country. The situation has abruptly changed after the opening credits. Now the soldiers have made it home. The men escaped with only the loss of two of their number, and the hero is Raymond Shaw. He is receiving a Medal of Honor, and two of his colleagues describe him in eerily identical words: "Raymond Shaw is the bravest, kindest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known". All this in spite of the fact that the men seemed to despise ‘Saint Raymond' in the pre-credit sequence. What is going on? Raymond Shaw is not brave, kind or warm. He is a repellent man, sarcastic and cynical, and with a slavish attitude towards authority figures. When Marco expresses his real opinion of Raymond, it is very different: "It isn't as if Raymond's hard to like. He's impossible to like! In fact, he's probably one of the most repulsive human beings I've ever known in my whole…life." By the end of the movie Marco will relent a little and feel sorry for "Poor friendless Raymond." All is not as it seems, and soon some of the men who returned from the platoon begin to have bizarre nightmares, including Marco. In Marco's dream, he and the soldiers are sitting in a Lady's Garden Club listening to demure ladies discussing flowers. The camera rotates woozily around the room. As it turns the respectable old dears are replaced by sinister men in military uniforms and dark glasses. The hotel lobby turns into a lecture theatre with pictures of dictators around the walls. In fact Raymond has become an unconscious sleeper agent for the communists. Due to being unaware of his actions, he can kill people without guilt or fear because he has no memory. While under their influence, he is a willing automaton, unemotionally polite , even to the victims he kills. The trigger for his control is the card game, solitaire. Raymond must play the game when requested, and the Queen of Hearts is the card that puts him totally under the spell of his masters. Needless to say, the Queen of Hearts is a symbol for his terrible mother. As brainwashing plays an important part in his movie, John Frankenheimer uses a number of camera effects to give the movie a disorienting feel. People speak in the foreground while other actions take place behind them. Some of the shots are taken with hand-held cameras. Other shots are tilted or filmed at odd angles. Some of the other visuals in the movie may be serendipitous accidents – the shot of Major Marco slightly out of focus when he seeks to de-programme Raymond, or the perspiration on the two leading actors' brows in the later parts of the movie. The Manchurian Candidate would seem to be targeting both sides of the political spectrum. Where then does the movie stand? Is it attacking the right wing or the left wing? The answer is both and neither. The real enemy in the story is not moderate conservatives such as Holborn Gaines or kind liberals such as Thomas Jordan. It is those on left or right who seek total control over others and perform appalling deeds in order to gain domination. In that sense, there is a meeting place between the malevolent communists and the hateful Iselins who wish to exercise the same despotic powers. The Manchurian Candidate is a superior political thriller and one of the best espionage stories ever made. It provided a barometer for growing cynicism about the establishment, and did what all the best movies should do – capture something of the hopes and fears of the age in which it was made. I wrote a longer appreciation (with spoilers) on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2018/06/30/the-manchurian-candidate-1962/

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/30/23

Full Review

Joshua V

This is my goto movie when I'm having trouble falling asleep, the half drugged acting really helps on those sleepless nights. Murder she wrote steals every scene, Heinz 57=57 communists congress members. 😀

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

J W

Well acted, great story, and keeps you on your toes throughout the whole movie.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/07/23

Full Review

John Z

Terrifying suspense story with great directing by Frankenheimer and riveting acting by Harvey, Lansbury, and Sinatra.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/06/23

Full Review

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John Frankenheimer

Director

Frank Sinatra

Major Bennett Marco

Laurence Harvey

Raymond Shaw

Janet Leigh

Eugenie Rose Chaney

Angela Lansbury

Mrs. Iselin

Henry Silva

Chunjin

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The Manchurian Candidate: Official Clip - A Cold War

2:33

The Manchurian Candidate: Official Clip - I Wanted a Killer

3:43

The Manchurian Candidate: Official Clip - Rose Picks Up Marco

1:59

The Manchurian Candidate: Official Clip - Marco Fights Chunjin

1:42

The Manchurian Candidate: Official Clip - Killing Sen. Jordan and Jocie

2:12

The Manchurian Candidate: Official Clip - Marco's Nightmare

2:12

The Manchurian Candidate: Official Clip - 52 Red Queens Say Its Over

1:58

The Manchurian Candidate: Official Clip - The Red Queen

1:55

The Manchurian Candidate: Official Clip - Manchurian Garden Club

2:11

The Manchurian Candidate: Official Clip - Assassination

2:11

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Jay Scott

Globe and Mail

Gaudy, surreal, inexplicable, sensible.

Dec 7, 2022

Full Review

Peter John Dyer

Sight & Sound

Its unreal characters [are] essentially relevant to ourselves in the Cold War, its extravagant fears for the future rooted logically in the recent past.

Mar 6, 2020

Full Review

James Powers

Hollywood Reporter

The direction and acting are good, so interest is maintained. Frankeheimer's handling of the early sequences, in which he attempts and succeeds in creating on film the corruption of the mind, is imaginative filmmaking.

Mar 1, 2018

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Heady stuff in a nail-biting chiller that still has the power to make viewers perspire profusely.

Rated: 4/4

Jun 27, 2023

Full Review

Sarah Boslaugh

TheArtsStl

The Manchurian Candidate is an extremely disturbing film, a remarkable achievement given that you don’t see that much in terms of graphic violence or overt sexual behavior on the screen...

Rated: 9/10

Jun 20, 2023

Full Review

Wesley Lovell

Cinema Sight

“Manchurian” is one of the finest political intrigues in film history. It’s raw power and serpentine plot devices are terrific.

Rated: 4/4

Feb 6, 2023

Full Review

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Synopsis

Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra), finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and, together with fellow soldier Allen Melvin (James Edwards), races to uncover a terrible plot.

Director: John Frankenheimer
Executive Producer: Howard W. Koch
Screenwriter: George Axelrod
Distributor: United Artists, MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc.
Production Co: M.C. Productions
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 24, 1962, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $1.9M

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