Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7504 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-25
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.75:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen, Special Edition
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, Polish, Dutch, Finnish
• Dubbed in: Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 121 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
You will never find a more chillingly suspenseful, perversely funny, or viciously satirical political thriller than The Manchurian Candidate, based on the novel by Richard Condon (author of Winter Kills). The film, withheld from distribution by star Frank Sinatra for almost a quarter-century after President Kennedy's assassination, has lost none of its potency over time. Former infantryman Bennet Marco (Sinatra) is haunted by nightmares about his platoon having been captured and brainwashed in Korea. The indecipherable dreams seem to centre on Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), a decorated war hero but a cold fish of a man whose own mother (Angela Lansbury, in one of the all-time great dragon-lady roles) describes him as looking like his head is "always about to come to a point". Mrs Bates has nothing on Lansbury's character, the manipulative queen behind her second husband, Senator John Iselin (James Gregory), a notoriously McCarthyesque demagogue. --Jim Emerson

Special Features
1.75 Wide Screen
DVD 5
French\Italian\Spanish
English
English
Region 2
Mono English French German Italian Spanish
Mono
Interview With Frank Sinatra George Axelrod And John Frankenheimer
Trivia And Production Notes
Original Theatrical Trailer
Feature Length Audio Commentary
Interactive Menu Screens And Chapter Selection
Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\German\Italian\Norwegian\Polish\Portuguese\Spanish\Swedish

Synopsis
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is a complex paranoid political horror story about a brainwashed American platoon and a decorated soldier programmed to assassinate political enemies. The former platoon commander must piece together the clues to discover the killer's identity, his next target, and who is behind this sinister plan. Seasoned cast delivers strong performances, with an uncharacteristically hard-bitten Sinatra, a maliciously identifiable Harvey, and a frighteningly overbearing Lansbury. Political juxtaposition and factual plausibility lend terrifying realism. Based on Richard Condon's harrowing novel. Academy Award Nominations: Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actress--Angela Lansbury.

Customer Reviews

Finest American Film of the 60's
John Frankenheimer could do little wrong in the early 1960's and this political thriller, an adpatation of Richard Condon's novel, stands as probably his finest achievement. The film is dazzlingly photographed (in B&W), memorably performed (by Angela Lansbury in particular) and is blessed with a bitingly, satirical script containing surprise, humour, pathos and moments of shocking violence. There are some flaws: the plot is preposterous and Laurence Harvey makes no attempt at an American accent; but the film is so gripping from the outset that these are easily overlooked.

On the DVD, the film is presented in its original widescreen format with mono sound. Picture and audio quality are both adequate. The main extras are a commentary track from John Frankenheimer and short retrospective interviews with Frankenheimer, Frank Sinatra and screenwriter George Axelrod. Unfortunately, neither are particularly illuminating.

Truly a classic
More than forty years after its original release, The Manchurian Candidate has lost none of its edge. Unlike many classics it is good not just retrospectively and for its time, but will captivate the modern, jaded cinema goer even today - the mark of a real classic. With a plot that leaves the audience guessing and confused through much of the film, The Manchurian Candidate manages to keep the viewer in suspense until the very end. Nothing is what it seems in this groundbreaking story about Raymond Shaw, a US soldier brainwashed in the Korean War. Frank Sinatra puts in a stellar performance as the man trying to get to the bottom of a series of mysterious events, and Angela Lansbury, despite being only two years older than the actor who plays Raymond, is utterly convincing as his mother.

Disturbing, well acted, well directed
Lawrence Harvey was a brilliant actor, but one that tended to put people off with his aloofness bordering on arrogance. But this movie is not about likable people. It's about control, dirty politics, communism, and the anti-communist witch-hunts that took their toll on Hollywood and Washington. Harvey's distance works perfectly as Raymond Shaw, but even in the dis-likable Raymond, Frankenheimer pulls out moments of pathos. In a tour de force, Harvey is perfect as the man controlled by his mother, by forces the brainwashed him. He gives a bleak insight into the character of Raymond, a man driven to do things he has no idea why, and man so manipulated by his harpy mother, a 'gun' that has been loaded waiting for the trigger to be pulled, one that kills the woman he loves without hesitation.

But his brilliance does not dominate the film, because there are so many other superb performance by this All Star Cast. And oddly, John Frankenheimer in untypical Hollywood style, cast against roles and demanded such range from all the actors. Angela Landsbury (Murder, She Wrote) built a career of being the person everyone adored, yet in this film she is the woman behind the man...the true power. She is hard-edged, totally manipulative, rather ugly in spirit, and determined at all costs to change the face of US politics. Frank Sinatra, usually Mr. Macho, comes across as a man a tormented by dreams that made no sense, but keep him convinced something is terrible wrong, with him, with Harvey, with all the men of their unit. Many consider this Sinatra's best performance. Janet Leigh is warm as the woman who falls in love with Sinatra, though under used. James Gregory play Landsbury's husband, the wishy-washy Joe McCarthy-type senator, who is merely his wife's mouthpiece and puppet. John McGiver gives a fine supporting performance as the voice of reason, a senator who would block at all costs Landsbury pushing her husband's bid for the presidency.

The edgy, black and white lensing, gives a dated feel to the movie, but actually enforces the cold war era sensation, a perfect medium for Frankenheimer's anti-McCarthyism rant. Landsbury won an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for this performance. It's well deserved.

It's not a likable film, its not a comfortable film and maybe a little hard for younger generations to appreciate the horror, the tension of the cold war and McCarthyism, but is a film so brilliant it needs repeat viewing to appreciate all the small nuances.