A former prisoner of war is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy. With Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury. Sinatra suggested Lucille Ball for the role of Eleanor Iselin, but Frankenheimer, who had worked with Lansbury in All Fall Down, insisted that Sinatra watch her. Read reviews, check member ratings, watch trailer of The Manchurian Candidate movie.
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But stealing the show is Oscar-nominated Angela Lansbury as Harvey's mother (though she was just 37 to Harvey's 34) - monstrous, manipulative and completely power-crazed, she is an unforgettable creation. The Manchurian Candidate: Directed by John Frankenheimer. Rent The Manchurian Candidate (1962) film for FREE as part of our trial offer. Harvey is perfectly cast, while Sinatra has one of his very best roles as the tormented officer. Why, then, is his former commanding officer (Frank Sinatra) plagued by nightmares in which the repressed Harvey coolly kills one of his comrades under the orders of a Chinese general? Exploiting contemporary fears about Communist brainwashing while cleverly exposing the hysterical anti-Communist lobby (the McCarthyist Senator Iselin makes for a superb stooge), this is a dazzling critique of its times that functions first and foremost as a superbly constructed and almost unbearably tense thriller. Laurence Harvey has returned from the Korean War a hero, recipient of the Medal of Honor and saviour of his platoon. More than 50 years on, it has lost none of its ability to thrill and provoke. Director John Frankenheimer's masterpiece of Cold War paranoia was withdrawn from circulation in the wake of the death of JFK, its assassination plot a chilling mirror to contemporary events.