The Manchurian Candidate

This intelligent, deeply engrossing and utterly nightmarish Cold War suspense thriller rightly gained numerous awards upon its initial 1962 release. Fancy playing a game of Solitaire? Careful, you might just end up getting brainwashed!

When the Russians capture a U.S. platoon during the Korean War and take the prisoners to a camp in Manchuria, Communist China, the situation looks bleak for the soldiers. Surprisingly though, all captured soldiers with the exception of two safely return to the USA only a short time later. It is young Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) who is hailed a hero for saving the men. Indeed, the platoon’s commander Captain Marco (Frank Sinatra) recommends that Sergeant Shaw should receive the ‘Medal Of Honour’ for his actions… and that’s precisely what Shaw receives. Naturally this is music to the ears of Shaw’s manipulative mother Eleanor (Angela Lansbury), who has no qualms about using her son’s achievement to promote her own political interests and above all, the political ambitions of her husband – Raymond’s stepfather – Senator Yerkes Iselin (James Gregory). Iselin is a candidate right out of the anti-Communist McCarthy era and dismissed as a right-wing dreamer by his forward thinking rivals.

Meanwhile Captain Marco, who has been promoted to the status of a Major, experiences the same reoccurring nightmare in which a hypnotized Sergeant Shaw kills the two US soldiers who did not return home in the presence of various military leaders from Communist nations. It’s because Major Marco’s nightmares frequently occur that he feels inclined to find the root cause of his nightly visions of terror, but he receives little support and understanding except from Eugenie Rose (Janet Leigh), a young woman he met on a train. Deep down though he simply knows that things are not what they seem with our Sergeant Shaw, a man whom everyone including Marco describes as “kind, brave, warm… a wonderful human being.”
It is only when Marco realizes that another soldier from the freed platoon suffers the same nightmare that he insists on continuing to investigate Shaw. His suspicions are confirmed when he learns that Shaw recently employed a domestic help named Chunjin (Henry Silva) who in fact is a North Korean agent…

On the other hand, Shaw makes no secret of the fact that he loathes his mother and stepfather for their manipulative ways. That’s just one way of describing his mum Eleanor, who is hell-bent on making sure that hubby will win the looming presidential election no matter what! Only when the romance with Shaw’s former flame Jocelyn (Leslie Parrish) is re-kindled does the troubled young man find some happiness. Of course, mother dearest is anything but pleased, not least because her husband previously had a run-in in with Jocelyn’s father, the liberal orientated Senator Jordan (John McGyver).

As Major Marco’s doubts about Shaw deepen he makes the shocking discovery that Shaw’s mother is also not what she seems to be… in fact, she is a Communist agent who, without the slightest scruples, has trained her son to be an assassin. That is to say that Shaw has no recollection of him being a killing machine, for it is via means of hypnotisation that he carries out his orders. When Marco realises that the root of all evil lies in a deck of Solitaire, specifically the Queen Of Diamonds playing card, a race against time starts to prevent further drama and more killings – leading up to the film’s high-octane climax!

Based on the novel by Richard Condon, The Manchurian Candidate is superbly acted by its stellar cast (Angela Lansbury won an Award for her portrayal as the mother from hell) and exquisitely directed by John Frankenheimer.

The Dual Format Edition hosts the following SPECIAL FEATURES:

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the main feature, transferred from original elements by MGM
• Uncompressed 1.0 mono PCM soundtrack
• Optional English SDH subtitles
• Audio commentary by director John Frankenheimer
• The Directors: John Frankenheimer, an hour-long portrait from 2003, including interviews with Frankenheimer, Kirk Douglas, Samuel L. Jackson, Roy Scheider, Rod Steiger and many others
• Interview with John Frankenheimer, Frank Sinatra and screenwriter George Axelrod from the film’s 1988 revival
• Queen of Diamonds: an interview with Angela Lansbury
• A Little Solitaire: an appreciation of the film by director William Friedkin (The Exorcist)
• Theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw
• Collector’s booklet containing new writing by Peter Knight (Conspiracy Culture) and Neil Sanders (Your Thoughts Are Not Your Own), illustrated with original production stills