Still image from the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate.

The Manchurian Candidate

Directed by John Frankenheimer

A Korean War hero doesn't realize he's been programmed to kill by the enemy.

1962 2h 6m Drama TV-PG

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CAST
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John Frankenheimer, Director
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John Frankenheime..
Director

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Frank Sinatra, Bennett Marco
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Frank Sinatra
Bennett Marco

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Laurence Harvey, Raymond Shaw
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Laurence Harvey
Raymond Shaw

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Janet Leigh, Rosie
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Janet Leigh
Rosie

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Angela Lansbury, Raymond's mother
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Angela Lansbury
Raymond's mother

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Henry Silva, Chunjin
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Henry Silva
Chunjin

FULL SYNOPSIS

During the Korean War, members of a U. S. Army patrol are captured and taken to Manchuria by Chinese Communists who brainwash them into believing that Raymond Shaw, a mother-dominated sergeant, has led a successful action against the Communists. Back in the United States, Raymond is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on the strength of his comrades' testimony. Actually he is now a puppet of the Communists; at the sight of a Queen of Diamonds, his mind is triggered into obeying any instruction, retaining no knowledge of his subsequent actions. Meanwhile, another member of the patrol, Bennett Marco, begins having nightmares in which he vaguely recalls what happened in Korea. Suspicious, he starts an investigation and discovers Raymond's strange reaction to the playing card. Unknown to Raymond, the key Communist behind the U. S. operation is his mother, a politically ambitious woman who plans to have her son shoot the presidential nominee during a rally at Madison Square Garden, thus paving the way for her husband, Senator Iselin, the vice-presidential nominee, to take control of the government. As part of the Communist master plan, she uses the cards to force Raymond into killing both his wife, Jocie, and his father-in-law, Senator Jordan, a crusading liberal and his mother's chief political enemy. On the night of the rally, Marco confronts Raymond with a handful of the cards and tries to convince him that he no longer has control of his own mind, but Raymond follows his mother's instructions and takes a rifle to a deserted projection booth. At the last moment, however, the hypnotic spell breaks and he kills his mother and stepfather and then takes his own life.


VIDEOS
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Dave Karger Intro
Hosted Intro
I'm Kinda New At This Job...
Movie Clip
Can You See The Red Queen?...
Movie Clip
My Two Little Boys
Movie Clip
Our American Visitors...
Movie Clip
Original Trailer
Trailer

ARTICLES
SYNOPSIS Raymond Shaw, stepson of Sen. John Iselin, a highly vocal anti-Communist demagogue, returns from the Korean War decorated for war heroism. The sullen, withdrawn Shaw is described with robotic precision by all the surviving members of his platoon, including Army lifer Bennett Marco, as a warm and wonderful human being. But Marco is having nightmares about what really happened in Korea, and when he finds out others have been experiencing the same disturbances, he sets about to uncover the truth - that the entire platoon had been captured and brainwashed by the Chinese Communist enemy. As opponents of the rabidly right-wing Iselin and his wife, Raymond's fierce, controlling mother, begin to be destroyed politically or killed outright, Marco discovers Raymond's deadly mission and the horrifying reason they were brainwashed years earlier. Director: John Frankenheimer Producers: Howard W. Koch (executive producer), George Axelrod, John Frankenheimer Screenplay: George Axelrod, based on the novel by Richard Condon Cinematography: Lionel Lindon Editing: Ferris Webster Art Design: Richard Sylbert, Philip M. Jefferies Music: David Amram Cast: Frank Sinatra (Bennett Marco), Laurence Harvey (Raymond Shaw), Angela Lansbury (Raymond's mother), Janet Leigh (Eugenie Rose), Leslie Parrish (Jocie Jordon), James Gregory (Sen. John Iselin). B&W-127m. Letterboxed. Why THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is Essential The Manchurian Candidate is one of those rare pictures that...

ARCHIVES
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 Movie Posters from the movie 'The Manchurian Candidate'
The Manchurian Can...
Movie Posters

NOTES

Location scenes filmed in and around Los Angeles and New York City. In 2004, Paramount Pictures released another film based on Richard Condon's novel. Also entitled The Manchurian Candidate, the picture was directed by Jonathan Demme and starred Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber and Meryl Streep.

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