One of those “everyone has seen it” movies that managed to evade me till last night.* Yow!* I kind of suspected what Laurence Harvey was going to do at the very end–who he was going to shoot–but I can’t remember a film that had so many surprises and unexpected twists and turns. Some of the humor was intentional (“Go jump in the lake”) and some unintentional (I *howled *when his girlfriend came dressed as The Queen of Diamonds).
Great casting, even too-young Angela Lansbury was perfect, and Laurence Harvey was brilliant. The Janet Leigh character was creepy, though–and I think she was supposed to be endearing. I kept expecting *her *to be a Commie agent, too.
I haven’t seen the remake, of course; was it awful?
I love the opening brainwashing scene, and the humor (there is a surprising amount of humor) of the proper garden party ladies spouting commie rhetoric. Great movie. (Nope, haven’t seen the remake either).
There’s one scene where Sinatra goes to confront Lawrence Harvey about what’s going on. He’s happens to be holding a newspaper, and the front page headline (which is not relvant to the story) is something like: “Major Hurricane Smashes the Midwest”.
I thought that was a funny little tidbit to slip into the background as an in-joke.
I watched it for the first time about a year or two ago. I found it absolutely ridiculous that they could turn an entire group of Army men into sleeper agents over a three day weekend. But, I can also imagine that to be the scariest part of the whole movie when it first came out. My god…what if those Commies really could do that? Why, anybody could be a killer with just a simple word. My best friend might be a trained assassin and not even know it!
It took me a few moments to see what was funny about the headline. Need more coffee.
As I understand it, in the remake, the assassin’s programming is generated by a chip implanted in his brain, rather than brainwashing. Which says something about how our fears have changed in the intervening 40+ years.
I thought the remake dire, maybe because I’m such a lover of the original movie. It had none of the satirical edge or directorial flair of the Frankenheimer classic. I think that the Manchurian Candidate was very much a story of its time (the Cold War, the Communist Menace, the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, etc) and transplanted into another era it just falls flat.
I thought the remake was pretty good. Not as good as the original, but still a taut thriller. It was especially interesting seeing what was carried over from the original, what was discarded, and what had to be morphed to bring it up to date. In particular, I liked how they managed to keep the word “Manchurian” involved.
Or someone in the employ of Army Intelligence to keep an eye on Marco. Either way, their initial conversation on the train is mondo bizarro! The exact opposite of “meet cute!”
People have found her character weird enough that similar theories have been advanced almost since the day it came out. Roger Ebert, among others, theorizes that Marco is also brainwashed like Raymond Shaw, and that Rosie is his controller.
Yeah, the script was so deftly written and detailed that there’s no way her creepy stalkery character is supposed to be anything but a red flag of some sort, even if a false one.
The killings of his wife and her father really were jaw-dropping, I did not see that coming–though of course I should have. Though really, if he was programmed to kill his father-in-law, wouldn’t the “above and beyond” killing of his wife be out of his brainwashed ability? Unless Mummy told him to do that, too.
I love the original. I am one of those few who saw it when it came out and then was young enough to not realize what happened to it or why when it was pulled. For a time I was not even certain that I had really seen it or had just dreamed it (I didn’t really think I was that good at dreaming stuff up - I would describe it to peers and they would look at me like I was on something).
I always felt it was delightfully anti-Mcarthy (Joe, of course, not Gene). At the time, I was so impressed with the Karate fight scene…I know, I know, it was heavy handed (pun intended) and overdone, but remember this was '62 and no fight scene like that had ever been done in a main-stream movie.
And the hint of an incestuous relationship just out of sight was so taboo. I think the age similarities of Landsbury and Harvey actually played to that well.
The brainwashing scene (with the killing of the youthful soldier by Harvey) was so breathtaking.
The remake like the remake of Pelkam 1, 2, 3. It was OK, but well short of the original.
She had to be to 1) even take interest in a sweaty borderline mental case like Marco and 2) for Marco to be interested in her. I thought they were a cute couple.
I’m sure that I saw this on TV in the mid-to-late 60’s, when I was a teenager. Maybe on “Saturday Night at the Movies” or something like that, where they did show relatively recent movies.
I remember being so shocked when Harvey’s character shot the Senator, and then shot the Senator’s daughter. These things just don’t happen! (and this was well after Kennedy’s assassination, I presume, but before the assassinations of '68).
Lansbury’s soliloquy where she talks about being swept into office “with powers that will make martial law look like anarchy” is still chilling. Because it’s plausible, I think.
The ending is perfect.
But I always wonder, what happened next to the political party and things in the country in general. This particular travesty has been averted, but what does the public get told about what happened? Assuming the truth is kept a secret, I mean.
I can see the headlines: War hero goes crazy, murders mother and step-father, then self. Do the conspiracy theorists grab onto this and ask awkward questions, like where he got the sniper rifle, how he got into the convention center and happened to find an unoccupied light booth, and so on? I don’t suppose there’s much after-market fan fiction on this movie.
Roddy
According to Wikipedia, it appeared on “the CBS Thursday Night Movie series on September 16, 1965 and once more later that season.” It was then shown on NBC in 1974 and 1975.
One of the very first DVDs I ever bought. Love it. On the DVD they mention that Sinatra actually broke his finger when he broke the table during his karate fight with Henry Silva, and he was never able to set it properly, so it bothered him for the rest of his life.
The only other thing I’ve ever seen Laurence Harvey in was an episode of Night Gallery where he was driven insane by a bug in his ear. He used some of the same crazy-hypnotized-freaking-out expressions in that one too.
One of my all-time favorite movies, though I wish a better actor was cast in Sinatra’s role – maybe Robert Mitchum or Burt Lancaster. Everyone else was perfect, especially James Gregory as the scumbag senator Iselin.
The remake wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t in the same league as the original.
I really like The Manchurian Candidate … a classic. I was lucky enough to play the role of Marco in a stage version of the script (updated somewhat to the first Iraq war … although the plot still followed the original and didn’t mix up the main characters’ fates like the remake did).
However, the first thing that pops in my mind whenever someone mentions the movie is a scene in a flashback montage where you see Laurence Harvey enjoying his time at the beach house with his girlfriend and family. One of the clips where they’re eating was apparently too short for the time they needed to fill … so halfway through it the clip they just reversed it. It’s weird to see Harvey remove a piece of food from his mouth and put it back on the plate.
