The Manchurian Candidate (1962) | |
| Director(s) | John Frankenheimer |
| Producer(s) | George Axelrod, John Frankenheimer, Howard W. Koch (executive) |
| Top Genres | Drama, Film Adaptation, Mystery, Thriller/Suspense, War |
| Top Topics | Army, Book-Based, Korean War, Mother/Son, Politics |
Featured Cast:
The Manchurian Candidate Overview:
The Manchurian Candidate (1962) was a Drama - Mystery Film directed by John Frankenheimer and produced by John Frankenheimer, George Axelrod and Howard W. Koch.
The film was based on the novel of the same name written by Richard Condon published in 1959.
SYNOPSIS
Among the most lauded political thrillers of all time, this film was amazingly prescient in light of the recent attraction of conspiracy theories. Korean War hero Harvey is a brainwashed human time bomb engineered to further a hidden Communist takeover, with Sinatra the one man who stands in his way. A mix of black-comic political satire (Gregory, in his finest performance as a Joe McCarthy-like demagogue) and an energetic, violent, and disturbing exercise in suspense, the film has resonance like few others of its time. Perhaps the finest work by Frankenheimer, featuring an outstanding cast (Lansbury, in the role of her career as Harvey's scheming mother) and one of the saddest scores of all time by Amram. Not to be missed. Based on Richard Condon's harrowing novel. The laserdisc collector's edition is digitally remastered and includes the original theatrical trailer.
(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).
.The Manchurian Candidate was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1994.
Academy Awards 1962 --- Ceremony Number 35 (source: AMPAS)
| Award | Recipient | Result |
| Best Supporting Actress | Angela Lansbury | Nominated |
| Best Film Editing | Ferris Webster | Nominated |
BlogHub Articles:
More than “just a film”: The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
By Virginie Pronovost on Jul 5, 2019 From The Wonderful World of CinemaJohn Frankenheimer is one of those movie directors whose films, I feel, are so unique, that I couldn’t compare them with the work of anybody else. He fits, I believe,? in the category of those “authors”. But it’s subtle and you have to look at them with a lot of reflexions. T... Read full article
1001 Classic Movies: The Manchurian Candidate
By Amanda Garrett on Sep 8, 2017 From Old Hollywood FilmsThe Manchurian Candidate (1962) is one of the 1001 classic movies you should see. The political thriller stars Laurence Harvey as a disturbed Korean War veteran and Angela Lansbury as his domineering mother. Each week, I'm going to recommend a classic movie you should see (for the reasons behind ... Read full article
The Manchurian Candidate
By Beatrice on Jul 26, 2017 From Flickers in TimeThe Manchurian Candidate Directed by John Frankenheimer Written by George Axelrod from a novel by Richard Conden 1962/USA M.C. Productions Repeat viewing/My DVD collection One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die I consider this the best conspiracy movie ever made. ?Pity about Janet Leigh&#... Read full article
CCU38: The Manchurian Candidate
By Aaron West on May 22, 2016 From Criterion BluesMay 22 Posted by aaronwest Mark, Aaron and Paul Cobb look at John Frankenheimer’s political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate. We explore the originality and how it influenced other paranoia films, how it spoke to the spirit of the 1960s, as a satire towards McCarthyism, and how it has remai... Read full article
CCU38: The Manchurian Candidate
By Aaron West on May 22, 2016 From Criterion BluesMay 22 Posted by aaronwest Mark, Aaron and Paul Cobb look at John Frankenheimer’s political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate. We explore the originality and how it influenced other paranoia films, how it spoke to the spirit of the 1960s, as a satire towards McCarthyism, and how it has remai... Read full article
See all The Manchurian Candidate articles
Quotes from
Mrs. Iselin: [to her husband] I keep telling you not to think! You're very, very good at a great many things, but thinking, hon', just simply isn't one of them.
Mrs. Iselin: I know you will never entirely comprehend this, Raymond, but you must believe I did not know it would be you. I served them. I fought for them. I'm on the point of winning for them the greatest foothold they would ever have in this country. And they paid me back by taking your soul away from you. I told them to build me an assassin. I wanted a killer from a world filled with killers and they chose you because they thought it would bind me closer to them.
[Puts her hands on Raymond's face]
Mrs. Iselin: But now, we have come almost to the end. One last step. And then when I take power, they will be pulled down and ground into dirt for what they did to you. And what they did in so contemptuously underestimating me.
[Kisses Raymond on the forehead, then his cheek, then on his lips]
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Facts about
It took a full week to film the opening dream sequence. Director John Frankenheimer rushed a rough edit of the sequence to Frank Sinatra, then decided to keep the cut in the final movie unchanged.
The topic of the movie was considered politically so highly sensitive it was censored and prohibited just before its theatrical release in many of the former 'Iron Curtain' countries, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria - and even in neutral countries such as Finland and Sweden. The theatrical premiere for most of those countries was held after the collapse of Soviet Union in 1993.
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