The Manchurian Candidate

1962

Action / Drama / Thriller

57
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 90% · 67 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 90% · 25K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.9/10 10 84157 84.2K

cold war communist korean war (1950-53) korean war stepparents conspiracy

Plot summary

Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco, finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and soon races to uncover a terrible plot.

Director

John Frankenheimer Photo
John Frankenheimer

Top cast

Michael Masters Photo
Michael Masters as FBI Agent
John Indrisano Photo
John Indrisano as Reporter
Lloyd Corrigan Photo
Lloyd Corrigan as Holborn Gaines
Kenneth Gibson Photo
Kenneth Gibson as Delegate
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay 2160p.WEB
1.02 GB
1268*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   ar   bg   cn   cz   dk   gr   es   et   fi   fr   hu   id   lt   lv   ms   nl   no   pt   sv   th   vi  
23.976 fps
2 hr 6 min
Seeds 32
2 GB
1888*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us   ar   bg   cn   cz   dk   gr   es   et   fi   fr   hu   id   lt   lv   ms   nl   no   pt   sv   th   vi  
23.976 fps
2 hr 6 min
Seeds 55
5.79 GB
3840*2160
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 6 min
Seeds 22

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by poetcomic1 9 / 10

Ferris Webster, Editor Extraordinaire

As a long time fan of this film I note there is little that has gone unmentioned in the positive reviews - except this. I would like to put in a word of praise for the academy award winning editor Ferris Webster. Webster's crowning achievement was the famed 'garden party' sequence in which the malevolent communist agents are transformed into ladies at a garden club and back again, the vertigo of the circling camera draws us into the actual mental state of the brainwashed captives. Each camera movement, each shot was so exquisitely timed and placed that this is almost equal to the shower-bath scene in Psycho as a classic of modern editing. This scene is still studied in film schools by future editors. Also, the cutting in the finale scene at the convention expertly creates a Hitchcockian suspense totally dependent on the editing.Another aside, Angela Lansbury 'cut her teeth' for this role playing the ruthless newspaper owner in the Tracy-Hepburn film State of the Union. In that film she managed to upstage Hepburn herself! And it was obvious that she should play the 'biggest, baddest mother of all'.
Reviewed by evanston_dad 10 / 10

I Never Get Tired of Watching This Superb Thriller

Is there one word to describe "The Manchurian Candidate?" Certainly there are several contenders: audacious, macabre, stark, gripping, pulpy, morbid, dark, hilarious. The film so stubbornly resists categorization that it's all of these things at one point or another, and frequently several of these things all at once.I don't know what audiences made of this film at the time of its release, though, according to accounts, it bombed at the box office, primarily because it was pulled from theatres when life (the assassination of JFK) too closely imitated art. Add its prophetic quality to the list of reasons that "The Manchurian Candidate" deserves its unique place in cinema history and should be seen by everyone.Director John Frankenheimer was at the top of his game here. His genius with this film resulted from his realization that the source material was pure camp, so he treats it as such. This same story played straight would have landed with a bone-crunching thud (as it did in the 2004 remake). But Frankenheimer injects the film with liberal doses of ghoulish humor, so the film ends up being grotesque and funny at the same time. For a premier example of this, refer to the brainwashing flashbacks sprinkled throughout the first half of the film, that through some of the most cracker jack editing ever done on screen juxtapose a deadly demonstration and a convention of female botanists to nightmarish and shocking effect.And of course, no review of "Candidate" would be complete without mentioning the supremely harrowing performance of Angela Lansbury, who lords magisterially over the film and will drive all memories of Jessica Fletcher right out your head. If this film were a deck of cards, she'd be all four queens rolled into one.Grade: A+
Reviewed by SmileysWorld 9 / 10

One of the best thrillers ever made.

To know that the human mind can be manipulated so easily is indeed a scary thing.The Manchurian Candidate is a thriller so intense it can almost be considered a horror film.If,in fact,things such as those depicted here really did occur,I imagine it did step on some pretty sensitive toes.Bravo to all of those involved in front of the camera and behind it.In particular,Angela Lansbury,whose versatility as an actress is proved here as she plays against the nice lady type roles that we know her for.Among all the film's from the era of the 1960's that I have viewed,I would definitely place this in my top 5.One of the best thrillers ever.
Read more IMDb reviews

41 Comments

Be the first to leave a comment