I recently saw this movie on TV after reading various enthusiastic reviews and trying to find the DVD for over a year. I have to say it was worth waiting a year to see this particular, amazing film. John Frankenheimer made what is with no doubt one of the finest thrillers in cinema history: Ben Marco (Frank Sinatra) has recurring nightmares about a mission in Korea two years earlier. But what happened during that mission? And what's all that got to do with war hero Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), his mother (Angela Lansbury) and some political murders?
Like Alfred Hitchcock, Frankenheimer manages to create tension with everyday stuff (a solitaire game has never looked so unsettling), depicting a bizarre yet utterly realistic conspiracy (the nightmare sequence and the shocking climax are breathtaking and impossible to forget). He also directs an amazing actor-threesome: Sinatra is perfectly convincing as Marco, and Angela Lansbury is... well, just perfect! But it's Harvey who deserves more attention: he's chillingly superb as the conflicted, almost android-like Raymond...
New to Frankenheimer, conspiracy flicks or great '60s thrillers? The Manchurian Candidate is an excellent way to begin the acquaintance.
Like Alfred Hitchcock, Frankenheimer manages to create tension with everyday stuff (a solitaire game has never looked so unsettling), depicting a bizarre yet utterly realistic conspiracy (the nightmare sequence and the shocking climax are breathtaking and impossible to forget). He also directs an amazing actor-threesome: Sinatra is perfectly convincing as Marco, and Angela Lansbury is... well, just perfect! But it's Harvey who deserves more attention: he's chillingly superb as the conflicted, almost android-like Raymond...
New to Frankenheimer, conspiracy flicks or great '60s thrillers? The Manchurian Candidate is an excellent way to begin the acquaintance.