"Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?"

Political thriller released in 1962. It was directed by John Frankenheimer and written by George Axelrod, based on the novel by Richard Condon. The stars included Laurence Harvey as Raymond Shaw, Frank Sinatra as Bennett Marco, Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Iselin, Janet Leigh as Rose Chaney, and James Gregory as Senator Iselin.

Harvey portrays a decorated Korean War veteran who has been secretly brainwashed by Communists--anytime he sees the Queen of Diamonds, he must obey any command given to him. Gregory is his politically ambitious father, and Lansbury is his even more ambitious mother. Sinatra is an old friend of Harvey's who is trying to save him...but is he also controlled by evil forces?

This is a beautiful, intense, terrifying, mind-trip movie. Made as a comment on the Cold War, it has not lost any of its power in the ensuing decades. Everyone turns in great performances, particularly Harvey, Sinatra, and Lansbury, who was nominated for an Oscar.

Unsurprisingly, the film's highly political nature caused it some problems. Before United Artists optioned Condon's book, Arthur Krim, who was the studio president and the finance chairman of the Democratic Party, worried that the subject matter was inappropriate. As a favor to Sinatra, who was helping to bankroll the project, President John F. Kennedy called Krim to tell him he didn't have a problem with UA making a film of the novel. And after Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Sinatra had the movie pulled from circulation. The movie was banned in Soviet Bloc nations like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, as well as in Finland and Sweden.

Marco: "This is me, Marco, talking. Fifty-two red queens and me are telling you... you know what we're telling you? It's over! The links, the beautifully conditioned links are smashed. They're smashed as of now because we say so, because we say they are to be smashed. We're busting up the joint, we're tearing out all the wires. We're busting it up so good all the queen's horses and all the queen's men will never put old Raymond back together again. You don't work any more! That's an order. Anybody invites you to a game of solitaire, you tell 'em sorry, buster, the ball game is over."

Some research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)

The Manchurian Candidate - 1962 - Directed by John Frankenheimer

Running Time: 129 minutes. Rated PG-13 by the MPAA. How this was rated PG-13, I don't know, since PG-13 started in the 1980s, and this movie is from 1962. Anyway, that's what it says.

Special Features:

• Interview with Frank Sinatra, George Axelrod, and John Frankenheimer
• Feature-Length Audio Commentary by Director John Frankenheimer
• Trivia and Production Notes
• Original Theatrical Trailer

Technical Features:

• Region 1
• Dolby Digital Sound - Mono
• English, French, and Spanish Audio Tracks
• English, French, and Spanish Subtitles
• Widescreen Ratio - 1.75:1
• Pan & Scan Format
• Black & White

This DVD isn't overly packed with features, but the interview's pretty cool, and the movie itself kicks ass.

More DVD Reviews

1962's The Manchurian Candidate

A lot–a lot–has been written and said about The Manchurian Candidate, the film that put John Frankenheimer on the map as a director. How effective you'll find the film today depends on your personal level of cynicism.

Candidate–a satire in the truest sense of the word–deliberately sets out to make the viewer uncertain as to whether or not it's supposed to funny. Admittedly, some of the scenes in the film have an aura of comedy about them which I think was intentional, while others–scenes obviously intended to be serious, unintentionally draw chuckles. Laurence Harvey's British accent seems ludicrously out of place for a veteran of the Korean War, especially since he's supposed to be American, but once you get past his voice, you cannot help but admire his rich, complex performance.

The final sequence, filmed in Madison Square Garden, remains one of the most beautifully edited and unbearably suspenseful ever put on film. (Many critics and film scholars credit Frankenheimer as having created the template for the modern political thriller; viewing such films as Candidate, Seven Days in May, Black Sunday, and the recent HBO film The Path to War–which is now Frankenheimer's swan song, and a great one, at that–this accolade seems almost understated.)

Movie Information

Running Time: 126 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Director: John Frankenheimer
Writers: Richard Condon (novel), George Axelrod (screenplay)
Cast:

Frank Sinatra: Capt./Maj. Bennett Marco
Laurence Harvey: Sgt. Raymond Shaw
Janet Leigh: Eugenie Rose Chaney
Angela Lansbury: Mrs. Iselin
Henry Silva: Chunjin
James Gregory: Sen. John Yerkes Iselin
Leslie Parrish: Jocelyn Jordan
John McGiver: Sen. Thomas Jordan
Khigh Dhiegh: Dr. Yen Lo
James Edwards: Cpl. Alvin Melvin
Douglas Henderson: Col. Milt
Albert Paulsen: Zilkov
Barry Kelley: Secretary of Defense
Lloyd Corrigan: Holborn Gaines
Madame Spivy: Female Berezovo

---

2004's The Manchurian Candidate

A remake of the 1962 classic was released in July 2004. It's directed by Jonathan Demme ("Silence of the Lambs") and stars Denzel Washington in Sinatra's role as Ben Marco, Liev Schreiber in the Laurence Harvey role as Raymond Shaw, and Meryl Streep as Eleanor Shaw.

In this version, U.S. soliders are kidnapped during the Gulf War and brainwashed. The brainwashers use the Manchurian Corporation as their front, thus justifying the retention of the title even though the Chinese are no longer the villains in this remake.

The movie is decent, not nearly as good as the original, but worth watching. Washington is particularly good; he plays Ben Marco as a man who's gradually falling apart, rather than as a square-jawed hero.

Movie Information

Running Time: 130 minutes
Rating: R
Director: Jonathan Demme
Cinematographer: Writers: Richard Condon (novel), George Axelrod (screenplay), Daniel Pyne,  Dean Georgaris
Cast:

Denzel Washington: Ben Marco
Meryl Streep: Eleanor Shaw
Liev Schreiber: Raymond Shaw
Kimberly Elise: Rosie
Vera Farmiga: Jocelyn Jordan
Jon Voight: Senator Thomas Jordan
David Keeley: Anderson
Jeffrey Wright: Al Melvin
Sakina Jaffrey: Mysterious Arabic Woman
Simon McBurney: Noyle
Paul Lazar: Gillespie
Alyson Renaldo: Mirella Freeman
Adam LeFevre: Congressman Healy
Robyn Hitchcock: Laurent Tokar