The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
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A Korean War veteran returns to the United States as a sleeper agent in a communist conspiracy.
The story
The plot centers on Korean War veteran Raymond Shaw, part of a prominent political family. Shaw is brainwashed by communists after his Army platoon is captured. He returns to civilian life in the United States, where he becomes an unwitting assassin in an international communist conspiracy. The group, which includes representatives of the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union, plans to assassinate the presidential nominee of an American political party, with the death leading to the overthrow of the U.S. government.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
During the Korean War, Shaw is captured and brainwashed by communist forces, becoming a sleeper agent who performs assassinations and forgets them. He returns to the U.S. as a decorated hero, while his mother, Eleanor, uses his status to advance her husband's political career. His friend, Major Marco, begins to suspect Shaw's condition after experiencing shared nightmares of the brainwashing process. As the plot unfolds, Eleanor plans for Shaw to assassinate the presidential nominee during a convention to allow her husband to seize power. Marco attempts to deprogram Shaw, but the conspiracy deepens as they discover the extent of the communist plot. In the climax at Madison Square Garden, Shaw is tasked with the assassination. However, he ultimately turns on his handlers, killing his mother and step-father before taking his own life, ending the cycle of manipulation.
- First release year
- 1962
- Runtime (minutes)
- 126
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- John Frankenheimer
- Writers
- George Axelrod · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Frank Sinatra · Bennett "Ben" Marco; Laurence Harvey · Raymond Shaw; Janet Leigh · Rosie; Angela Lansbury · Eleanor Iselin; Henry Silva · Chunjin; James Gregory · not specified
- Genres
- neo-noir; political thriller
- Themes
- mind-control; Cold War paranoia; human autonomy
- Tone and mood
- tense; suspenseful
- Premise and plot tags
- political conspiracy; brainwashing; espionage
- Source material / true-story basis
- The Manchurian Candidate (1959 novel by Richard Condon)
- Reception
- The film was widely acclaimed by Western critics and is considered an iconic film of the Cold War period.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 94 · scale: 100 · review count: 20
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Supporting Actress · Nomination; Academy Award · Best Editing · Nomination; Golden Globe Award · Best Supporting Actress · Win
- Production trivia
- The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1994.; The film's fight scene is noted as one of the earliest depictions of East Asian martial arts in a mainstream Hollywood film.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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