Review of The Manchurian Candidate (1962) by Hugh J — 09 Jul 2008

Damn good film. Although the movie is pretty much a slow burn, the small instances of action bits and the tension they built up were more than enough to keep my interest. The premise is great and the actors are well cast.

Angela Lansbury is awesome as the main villain. In fact, all the villains were good. Although it is a shame that not all of them were taken down cause I really wanted the hynotists to get bullets through the head.

Oh well, can't have everything. Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey are both great and work pretty well together. The only person who got the shaft was Janet Leigh. I don't think her character was that integral to the story but I guess Sinatra needed a lady.

The one I really liked, however, was Leslie Parrish. Besides being absolutely fucking gorgeous, her character is just about the perfect woman. It sucks that we no longer live in a world where a woman helping a complete stranger with a snakebite can comfortably undress herself in order to use her shirt to apply pressure to the wound.

Shit like that just don't happen anymore. Damn, I love her...