Due Not to Public Demand but MEMBER['s) Gracious Request Department:
Far from wanting to be The Mo'om Pitcher Thread monopolizer, everyone realizes we've no patent on this process, so it'd be Reel nifty if others gave their own appreciative spin on your favorite flicks (this caveat offered so as to make it clearly crystal this ain't gonna become a habit when we've still yet to view the subject under scope).
[ Still, that picking of nits aside ] - hailing frequencies now open for those who HAVE already seen, admire und positively prefer it to the remake's retrospective wayyyy down below ...
One of the most chilling and disturbing movies ever made. The notion of mind control was never more effectively conveyed on film (Triumph of the Will notwithstanding). Laurence Harvey's Raymond Shaw is one of the most pathetic and tragic characters.
And Angela Lansbury should have won the Academy Award.
It's a film I watched in a theater in 1987 during an official re-release in a cine-club. I bought the DVD—and listen to John Frankenheimer's commentary—and the soundtrack CD—I was never satisfied by the presentation by Premier Recording because it was fashioned like a big band album and not like a traditional orchestral soundtrack but the rare tracks recapture the bizarre harpsichord mood of the "dual" brainwashing scenes. One track from "The Manchurian Candidate" is recycled in "Seven Days In may" for the El Paso Cafe scene.
"The Manchurian Candidate" will influence Pakula's "The Parallax View", especially the final sniper scene.
"The Manchurian Candidate" is the first part of a paranoiac trilogy, in other words, a fear film. The film can first be appreciated as an oddball and intricate thriller. Then the film also provide tormented character's study and layers of political subtext. From a strict artistical or formal standpoint, the cinematography—thanks to DP Lionel Lindon—and the montage—thanks to Ferris Webster and writer George Axelrod—are a treat for art lovers.
The cast of characters is also fabulous because you recognize many popular faces of the era.
The Rebel: Frank Sinatra ..... Captain Bennet Marco
The Pawn: Laurence Harvey ..... Sergent Raymond Shaw
The American Bloc: Janet Leigh ..... Eugenie ("Rosie") Rose James Gregory ..... Senator John Yerkes Iselin James Edwards ..... Corporal Alvin Melvin John McGiver ..... Senator Thomas Jordan Leslie Parrish ..... Jocelyn ("Jocie") Jordan Whit Bissell ..... The Medical Officer Douglas Henderson ..... The Colonel
The Soviet Bloc: Angela Lansbury ..... Eleanor Iselin Henry Silva ..... Chunjin, the infiltrated butler of Captain Bennet Marco Khigh Dhiegh ..... Soviet Psychologist Dr. Yen Lo Albert Paulsen ..... Zilkov Reggie Nalder ..... Gomel Nick Bolin ..... Berezovo, the Soviet Officer
saw it on tcm about 3 years ago. deserves all the praise it gets. one thing that always stuck in my mind was the horticulture scene. completely sold the movie for me
The political subtext is mad: the wife of a conservative Senator is a spy for the Soviet bloc. The historical context is interesting: the aftermaths of the Korean War.
PS: CANDIDATE has its official inner foe through Senator Iselin and SEVEN DAYS will provide General Scott and Senator Prentice. The first two parano thriller also give us a rebel: Captain Marco, here, and Colonel Jiggs, there. Frankenheimer leads his films with a template of characters.
I also love how the future Hawaii Five-O arch nemesis, Wo Fat, (Khigh Dhiegh), was working his insidious charms in the Manchurian Candidate's brainwashing scenes. It's easy to imagine that chapter being a part of his back story, especially since Wo Fat attempted to brainwash Steve McGarrett in the Five-O pilot movie.
The weak link in the film--John McGiver. He is the quintessential windbag everywhere else he is (see his TZ episode) that the idea of him as the essence of nobility remains the most unitentionally funny part of the movie.
Saw it during its original release in theaters. Loved it, then. Love it, now! What sophisticated fare we were treated to as children. Of course, I saw it on a double bill with Elvis in GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!, so it wasn't all that sophisticated.
The weak link in your critical assessment of MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE: your antipathy to John McGiver, whom I always enjoyed on screen and admired as an eccentric real-life character.
And might we royally implore those sharing their favorite moments and scenes be respectfully cognizant of not SPOILing the acutely-anticipated delight of Discovery for those of us cultural barbarians yet to be exposed to the topic under scope?
What are your favourite scenes from "The Manchurian Candidate"?
1. Captain Marco's dual nightmare depicting the brainwashing of his patrol from old lady horticulture conferences in the lobby of a small hotel to the crude concrete bunker decorated with communist pictures run by psychologist Yen-Lo that ends up with the strangling of Ed Mavole 2. Corporal Melvin's dual nightmare depicting the brainwashing of his patrol that ends up with the shooting of Bobby Lembeck 3. Dr. Yen-Lo's meeting with Sgt. Raymond Shaw in a flat decorated as a hospital room 4. Captain Marco's troubled meeting with Eugene Rose on the train 5. Captain Marco's fight against butler Chinjun at Shaw's flat 6. Raymond Shaw conditioned to jump into a lake because of a game of solitaire 7. Raymond Shaw's killing his stepfather Senator Jordan and his wife Jocelyn 8. Captain Marco interrogates Raymond Shaw with a game of solitaire 9. Raymond Shaw's gunning down Senator Iselin and his own mother
The weak link in your critical assessment of MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE: your antipathy to John McGiver, whom I always enjoyed on screen and admired as an eccentric real-life character. To each his own, of course...
LOL. It's not antipathy to McGiver per se, but antipathy to him in this role. He was the *best* at playing comical windbags in that era, so much so that it's impossible for me to see him in anything and not see someone who is Roswell G. Flemington at heart.
I loved the spray of blood that hits the back wall during the nightmare sequence, as well as all the different bullet hits- through the milk carton, side of the head and right above the eyes. Stunning special effects for their time, I don't think I saw another bullet hit again until The Silencers with that gun that fired backwards. And then not again until Bonnie and Clyde.
The weak link in the film--John McGiver. He is the quintessential windbag everywhere else he is (see his TZ episode) that the idea of him as the essence of nobility remains the most unitentionally funny part of the movie.
He was absolutely brilliant in MIDNIGHT COWBOY as Razzo's "friend" O'Daniel. "I'm gonna use ya, Joe!" Actually I had no trouble with McGiver as the senator in MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. Or anything else in the film, actually. Let me add that Richard Condon's novel of the same name (finally back in print due to the remake of the film) is superb, and well worth reading even if you've seen the film.
Which begs the brilliantly-belated Kosmic Kuestion, Watcher-San: what'ja think of the remake? Down below near the bottom of This Syde's page, we await thy pronouncements with acute anticipation ...
And might we royally implore those sharing their favorite moments and scenes be respectfully cognizant of not SPOILing the acutely-anticipated delight of Discovery for those of us cultural barbarians yet to be exposed to the topic under scope?
