The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Based on The Manchurian Candidate, by Richard Condon, this film adaptation is directed by John Frankenheimer from a script by George Axelrod. It takes a different approach to the idea of political infiltration of a sovereign nation by outside aggressors, by focusing on the concept of brainwashing as a weapon of war. Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, and James Gregory fill out the cast.
A U.S Army platoon is captured by Soviet forces during the Korean War, and is held for a number of days in Manchuria, Communist China. All but two of the platoon members are returned to the U.S, and repeat the same story – praising Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) for saving their lives. Captain Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) recommends Shaw for the Medal Of Honor, but soon begins experiencing recurring nightmares that seem to indicate something very different actually happened in Manchuria.
It transpires that Shaw was brainwashed and is controlled by the Queen Of Diamonds playing card. His politically influential mother (and wife of a U.S senator), Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury), is actually an ambitious Communist agent who seeks to install a U.S Presidency that progresses under Communist influence. She manipulates her son into committing a political assassination with a view to having her husband take the Oval Office. However, with Captain Marco having discovered her plan and adjusted Shaw’s brainwashing, Shaw takes matters into his own hands and prevents her from succeeding.
