The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 Cold War political thriller film starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury and featuring Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver. It was directed by John Frankenheimer from an adaption by George Axelrod of Richard Condon's 1959 novel.

The central concept of the film is that the son of a prominent, right-wing political family has been brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy. The Manchurian Candidate was nationally released on Wednesday, October 24, 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

During the Korean War, the Soviets capture an American platoon and take them to the region of Manchuria in Communist China. There, communists implant false memories in the soldiers' minds. Brainwashed, the soldiers are covertly returned to action, unaware of their ordeal, and under the belief that one of their own, Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), saved their lives in combat. Upon the recommendation of the platoon's commander, Captain Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra), Shaw is awarded the Medal of Honor for his supposed actions. In addition, when asked to describe him, Marco and the other soldiers automatically respond, "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." Deep down, however, they know that Shaw is a cold, sad, unsociable loner. As Marco puts it: "It isn't as if Raymond is hard to like. He's impossible to like!"

After the war, Marco — who has since been promoted to Major — suffers from the same recurring nightmare, in which a hypnotized Shaw kills two of his fellow soldiers before assembled Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean brass during a practical demonstration of the communists' brainwashing technique. Marco wants to investigate, but receives no support from his superior officers at Army Intelligence, because he has no proof. This changes when he learns that another soldier from the platoon, Allen Melvin (James Edwards), has been suffering the same nightmare and has identified the same specific communists in a photo lineup. Deciding that this is too much of a coincidence, Army Intelligence agrees to help Marco set up a task force to investigate.

It is revealed that Shaw, as a result of his conditioning in Manchuria, is an unwitting assassin whose actions are triggered by a Queen of Diamonds playing card. When he sees it, he will obey the next suggestion or order given to him. His intended role is that of a killer who, while carrying out his assignments, must also kill any witnesses and then forget his actions.

Raymond's mother, Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury), is the driving force behind her husband Senator John Yerkes Iselin (James Gregory), a bombastic demagogue in the style of Joseph McCarthy, who is dismissed by many people as a fool. He is also Raymond's stepfather. Raymond hates them both, especially his domineering mother. Sen. Iselin's political stature is established when (per his wife's orders) he interrupts a televised Congressional briefing of the Secretary of Defense and accuses him of knowing that some 207 Defense Department employees are Communist agents. This provokes a chaotic reaction among journalists and an enraged reaction from the Secretary.

However, unknown to everyone, even Raymond, the Iselins are actually Communist agents with a plan that could take them to the White House. His own mother is also the American operative for whom Raymond is the instrument with which to effect the operation's final step.

Raymond briefly finds happiness when he rekindles a youthful romance with Jocelyn Jordan (Leslie Parrish), the daughter of Senator Thomas Jordan (John McGiver), one of his step-father's political rivals. Raymond previously courted Jocelyn in order to get at his parents in a Romeo and Juliet-style romance, but they then genuinely fell in love, both she and her father being the nearest thing Raymond has ever had to having friends. The couple are reunited as part of a plan by Mrs. Iselin to get Senator Jordan to support her husband's vice presidential bid. They even elope and get married. Although pleased with the match, Senator Jordan tells Mrs. Iselin that he will move for Senator Iselin's impeachment if he makes a bid to become their party's vice-presidential candidate. Mrs. Iselin "triggers" Raymond and has him assassinate Senator Jordan, as well as Jocelyn, who witnessed the event. Raymond has no recollection of doing this and is grief-stricken when he hears of the murders.

In the course of Marco's investigation, he discovers the role of the Queen of Diamonds card in putting Raymond in an hypnotic state for his assignments. Marco meets Raymond and, using a trick deck composed entirely of such cards, gets the full story from Raymond and instructs him not to carry out further orders. Later, Mrs. Iselin primes Raymond to assassinate their party's presidential candidate at the nomination convention so that Senator Iselin, as the vice-presidential candidate, will become the presidential candidate by default and give an inflammatory anti-communist speech (written by the communists themselves). This will cause mass hysteria that will get Iselin elected and justify him taking on presidential emergency powers that, in Mrs. Iselin's words, "will make martial law seem like anarchy." Thereby President Iselin — the "Manchurian Candidate" — will rule America on behalf of the communists.

In a cynically moving scene, Raymond's mother admits to the activated Raymond that she has been a Communist agent for years. She needed an assassin to complete her plan and regrets that he is involved. After all, the world is full of killers who do not require brainwashing to do the job. The International Communist Conspiracy chose Sergeant Raymond Shaw as the assassin because it solidified their hold and control over his mother, and she intends to strike back at them once in power.

Marco's attempt to free Raymond from Mrs. Iselin's control appears to fail. Raymond enters the convention hall disguised as a Catholic priest and takes up a position to carry out the assassination. Marco and his supervisor, Colonel Milt (Douglas Henderson), arrive at the convention to stop him. As the Presidential nominee (Robert Riordan) makes his speech, Raymond instead takes his revenge by killing his stepfather and mother. He then commits suicide in front of Marco, while wearing his Medal of Honor.

For Raymond's mother, Sinatra had wanted Lucille Ball, but Frankenheimer, who had worked with Lansbury in a mother role in All Fall Down, suggested having her for the part and insisted that Sinatra watch the film before decisions were made.