'The Manchurian Candidate' 1962

Angela Lansbury as the monstrous mother in "The Manchurian Candidate."
With Laurence Harvey as her son, who was just three years younger than Lansbury!

The Manchurian Candidate was considered a provocative political shocker when first released November 24, 1962. Like A Face in the Crowd five years before and Network 14 years after, The Manchurian Candidate, while applauded as audacious, was also considered a farfetched political scenario. However, the new political reality emerged swiftly, when the controversial Kennedy assassination shattered the United States on November 22, 1963. From then on, assassinations, unending scandals, and the ever-polarizing politics of the last six decades have left this country cynical.

Larry and Frank pass the time by playing a little solitaire.

Aside from satirical targets that are current as ever—campaign mudslinging, faux-patriotism, commie-baiting, politicized torture, controlled-pawn candidates, strange political bedfellows—The Manchurian Candidate remains relevant because of its lean storytelling and almost documentary style black and white filming. For that, credit goes to television-trained director John Frankenheimer, faithfully following Richard Condon’s satiric and prophetic novel.

While The Manchurian Candidate works as a suspense melodrama or political drama, it’s really a black comedy, though the humor admittedly is the gallows variety. It’s no accident that George Axelrod, famed for sexy comedies like The Seven Year Itch, wrote the script. But then, some people don’t get the nightmare humor of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, either.

Director John Frankenheimer in '62.

I’d like to do my part to dispel the myth that Frank Sinatra had The Manchurian Candidate pulled from distribution after the Kennedy assassination, so disturbed was he by the film’s echoes of the actual tragedy. I watched it on TV as a child of the ‘70s. I watched it on VHS in the ‘80s. And I have watched it on DVD ever after. It’s been said there was a distribution rights tangle somewhere between TV showings and the advent of home video. To Sinatra’s credit, the often irascible singer was full of praise for the film’s story and director. When it first came out on video, Sinatra even sat for an interview, to discuss The Manchurian Candidate.

The plot of The Manchurian Candidate has many truly twisted turns, which I’ll try not to reveal too much about, for those who haven’t seen this cult classic turned true film classic.

During the Korean War, a group of American soldiers are captured by Soviets and taken to Manchuria. Let’s just say that part of their stay at the Hotel Manchuria includes free brainwashing. Cut to the film’s present—very early ‘60s USA—the soldiers who returned are experiencing horrifying dreams and display inexplicable behavior. Major Marco Bennett, deeply affected, is determined to figure out why these nightmares are occurring and how it is tied to Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw. He is a fellow soldier that the regiment feels compelled to automatically express admiration for, though he was universally despised by them.

Raymond is a priggish rich kid, determined to break away from his mother, Eleanor Shaw Iselin, and her political tool of a husband, Johnny Iselin. Eleanor’s ambition is to get Johnny on the ticket as the vice-president nominee at that summer’s presidential convention. The political wife from hell is willing to use any means necessary, including using her son’s war hero status, and oh, so much more. The film is a hair-raising race for Ben Marco to get to the bottom of what happened in Manchuria and what it is currently doing to Raymond Shaw.

Despite appearances, Frank Sinatra's aces as Bennett Marco.

The Manchurian Candidate features one of the most eclectic ensemble film casts ever. Frank Sinatra gives one of his strongest dramatic performances as the troubled but determined Ben Marco. Two older friends in my life have told me that they preferred Sinatra as an actor rather than a singer! At first, I thought that was absurd, but came to see why, watching his movies over the years. Sinatra at his best is naturalistic, low-key but charismatic, much like his friend and idol, Humphrey Bogart. Also, like some of the great actors of that era, Sinatra has a marvelous speaking voice. John Frankenheimer, a young hot shot director from TV’s “golden era,” knew how to work fast, and that Sinatra gave his best in the first couple takes. At this point in his career, the ‘Rat Pack’ image was rapidly taking over, and this was one of the last serious movies Frank Sinatra made. 

Frank Sinatra as Ben Marco, fighting sleepless nights with some heavy reading!

That’s not to say there isn’t some fun “inside” Sinatra stuff in The Manchurian Candidate: There’s a scene where brainwashed Raymond is “set off” in a bar called Jilly’s, as in Jilly Rizzo, a friend of  Frank’s; that swanky‘60s plane the Iselins campaign in belonged to Sinatra. This was also the period when Frank was cultivating a “serious” side to offset his swinger image. So, when Ben Marco can’t sleep, he’s reading classic tomes the size of cement blocks. Sinatra also played a “serious” writer in Some Came Running, with the female lead exclaiming over his “exciting talent.” I’m sure many women did!

Laurence Harvey as the tortured Raymond Shaw.

I’ve always been confounded by Laurence Harvey. Off-screen, he was a boy toy to aging showbiz folk in his youth, the life of the party, and someone who didn’t seem to take acting too seriously. On-screen, however, Harvey was always cast as the heel or uptight jerk. In movie after movie, Laurence was always cold, snippy, humorless, stiff, wooden, glowering—I’m running out of adjectives—but let’s just say Larry made Charlton Heston look like Jerry Lewis in the cut-up department. As the boorish Raymond Shaw turned brainwashed, robotic assassin, Laurence Harvey is perfectly cast. This is the best role Harvey ever had. The character of Raymond is truly pathetic, with the hand he has literally been dealt, crushed by an overbearing mother at every turn. Harvey conveys this in the movie’s quiet moments quite well. Off-screen, Harvey was one of the most disliked actors in Hollywood, for being very difficult to work with. But Sinatra, like Elizabeth Taylor, always stood up for the underdog. Sinatra usually said it his way, too: direct, if politically incorrect. When Frank’s personal valet complained, saying that the actor kept hitting on him, Sinatra replied, “Larry has the handicaps of being a homo, a Jew, and a Polack, so people should go easy on him.” Awww, Frank!

Remember this actor from Hawaii Five-0? Scary here, too!

James Gregory, one of the most familiar character actors of his era, is a scene stealer as Johnny Iselin, the buffoon who is indeed the Manchurian candidate. An obvious take-off on mudslinging Joseph McCarthy, Gregory is a symbol for every cardboard cutout politician who has aspired to higher office by taking the low road every step of the way. Gregory is the satiric comedy relief as the boozy political hack, who can never remember how many commies he’s supposed to claim there are in the Defense Department.

John McGiver, another great familiar face, seemed to be in every TV show and movie of my childhood. Here, he plays Thomas Jordan, the Iselins’ political nemesis. McGiver is both slyly humorous, with that great, distinctive voice of his, and also the voice of decency, as he denounces the sleazy Iselins.

Leslie Parrish, an unfamiliar face to me, was a popular starlet in the early ‘60s. She is appealing as Jocelyn Jordan, Thomas’ daughter and Raymond’s true love. Parrish offers some rays of romantic light when Raymond rediscovers her, and some heartfelt tragedy with her fate.

Henry Silva and Frank Sinatra pulling some pretty smooth martial arts moves!

In typical Hollywood old-school style, Henry Silva, who is Italian and Spanish, was cast as Chunjin, a North Korean agent! Equally as dicey is Silva’s infamous martial arts scene with Sinatra’s Ben, busting up Raymond Shaw’s apartment in the process. Allegedly, they did their own stunts, but I’m not totally convinced. Still, as the commie agent posing as Raymond’s manservant, Silva is suitably unnerving with his intense gaze and soft-spoken voice. And Khigh Dheigh, famous as one of Hawaii Five-O’s best villains, is creepily humorous as the puppet master villain, Dr. Yen Lo.

Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh having some very awkward first date chat!

Janet Leigh is another breath of fresh air in this hot house atmosphere of villains and diabolical corruption. As Rosie, Leigh comes out of nowhere, to first offer Ben Marco comfort, and then falls in love with him at warp-speed. Their first scene together on a train is infamous for its bizarre dialogue. Some viewers believe that their conversation is so stilted as to be coded, and that Leigh’s Josie is an agent for the U.S., assigned to keep tabs on Marco. That doesn’t pan out as the film progresses, but it’s an interesting theory. My thought is that since movie dramas must always have a romantic interest, director Frankenheimer turned the classic “meet-cute” of the hero and leading lady on its ear. Whatever the case, Sinatra and Leigh have a warm rapport that off-sets the movie’s cool toughness. I once watched TCM’s Robert Osborne interview Janet Leigh. Janet recalled with great emotion, despite decades that had passed, how then-husband Tony Curtis announced that he was leaving her, the morning before she filmed the train scene. Leigh said that Frank was great, gently guiding her through that extended, dramatically tricky scene. When I watch Janet Leigh in movies from this era—warm, intelligent, no-nonsense, talented, lovely, with that crisp, unique voice—I wonder why the hell Hitchcock didn’t use her again after Psycho.

James Gregory as the doltish politician & Angela Lansbury as the scheming wife.
Why, that's never happened in real life!

I saved the best for last: the greatest performance in The Manchurian Candidate is Angela Lansbury as Eleanor Shaw Iselin. As the ultimate political wife, Lansbury got one of the great supporting actress roles ever—and Angela gives it everything she’s got. People who think of Angela Lansbury as kindly, owl-like Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote or Teapot in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast will be in for a surprise. Lansbury was only 37 when she played Laurence Harvey’s monster mommie—and only three years older than Larry! Movie and theater critics have always lamented that Lansbury should have been a big movie star, but frankly, I can see why she didn’t. Do I smell the Internet torches being lit? Here’s the deal: Angela always looked older and was not conventionally beautiful in golden age Hollywood, where youth and beauty were all. And is showbiz really all that different today? Lansbury always reminded me of Bette Davis, who fought a similar casting bias by sheer strength of personality and will. Angie was often cast older—she played Hedy Lamarr’s older sister in Samson and Delilah and had just played Elvis’ mother in Blue Hawaii the year before. Lansbury most definitely looks matronly and motherly in Manchurian, especially next to whippet-lean Laurence Harvey.

Lansbury checked her ego at the door when she played Larry's mother.

I’ve always been fascinated how women in Hollywood were cast in terms of age. By all rights, an older actress like Bette Davis would have been awesome as Harvey’s awful mother. But the surprise factor would have been nil, since Davis was renowned for playing villains. Sinatra suggested Lucille Ball—a fascinating thought, since Ball was domineering off-camera. But audiences only knew her as lovable Lucy, and such casting could have blown up in the Manchurian makers’ faces. Frankenheimer had already worked with Lansbury in All Fall Down and decided Angela’s acting would carry her.

The rest is showbiz history, as Lansbury gave an instantly legendary supporting actress performance. Angela surely would have won an Oscar that year, but like Bette Davis, was shut out by a performance from the screen version of The Miracle Worker—with Lansbury, it was for Patty Duke’s remarkable turn as young Helen Keller.

Angela Lansbury was 37 when she starred in 'The Manchurian Candidate.'

Lansbury is quoted as saying The Manchurian Candidate is the most important film in her career. Angela is brilliant, and like Bette, was great at being both villainous, yet riveting. As Eleanor, the power behind the politician, Angela Lansbury is ambitious, crass, loud, domineering, funny, and as the master plan is revealed, utterly chilling.

For me, The Manchurian Candidate is one of the best films of the 1960s. I’ve seen it at least a dozen times, always amazed at how this dark satire predicted our nation’s political future. Or perhaps The Manchurian Candidate just pulled back the curtain on what was already happening in the Cold War political scene. Either way, The Manchurian Candidate paints a scary picture, in the guise of satire, of what politicians will do for power.

Frank, Janet, Larry: The stars of 'The Manchurian Candidate.'

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