The Manchurian Candidate, 1962

The Manchurian Candidate is an adaptation of the book by the same name. The movie tells the story of a troop of soldiers that returns after being kidnapped and brainwashed. Only the soldiers don’t remember this. They all believe that their leader, Staff Sergeant Robert Shaw, saved all their lives. The problem is that the soldiers all know that Shaw is cold-hearted.

After having recurring nightmares, Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) suspects something is not quite right. After convincing Army Intelligence to investigate the kidnapping, it’s discovered that the Communists have brainwashed the soldiers. Even more alarming than this, they have hypnotized a killer. But can the scheme be stopped before it’s too late?

The Manchurian Candidate of 1962 (there was a remake in 2004) is an on-the-edge of your seat suspense filled movie. The movie moves at a good pace and doesn’t leave viewers confused about the details. Sinatra was excellent and his performance was convincing as the soldier who solves it all. Angela Lansbury also stars in the movie and performs equally as well. Having seen her in roles that mostly cast her in a good light it was a nice change of pace to see her in an evil role.

The movie also followed the book fairly well with only a few minor changes. What was a nice surprise though is that the movie does have some comedic value to it. Granted the comedy is on the black side but nonetheless, it added to the movie and made it more entertaining.