Review of The Manchurian Candidate (1962) by Patrick B — 28 Nov 2011

At first viewing, The Manchurian Candidate even scared me a little. That's part of its wonderful effectiveness, on how well it portrays how paranoically the Communist threat was viewed by most Americans in the Cold War days.

It has an eerie setting right throughout, accentuated to brilliant proportions by the Fu Manchu-like Yen Lo's appearances. I found the satirical part to be quite virile too: notably the almost hilarious flower show farce in the Communist brain washing nightmare sequence.

But without the big four actors in the film - Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh and, most chilling of all, Angela Lansbury - it would have been nothing. Hence The Manchurian Candidate is a very delightful thriller that serves up suspense and conjecture at every level, right until the final climatic showdown at Madison Square Garden.

For political and espionage thriller fans, watching this is a must.