CONSPIRACY THEORY                     by            David Elstad

The Manchurian Candidate has been called a political fantasy, a satire, and a thriller.  It is all of these things and more.  At the heart of this film is the notion that the political right and left meet at the extremes.  Indeed, whether you be liberal or conservative, you can pretty much read into this movie whatever you want.  Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey play a couple of American soldiers taken prisoner during the Korean War.  In a sequence involving an impressive use of editing and camera movement, they are brainwashed by the communists.  Harvey is picked to assassinate a presidential candidate.  The other soldier meanwhile, is deprogrammed by the FBI, and assigned to trail Harvey.            Sinatra had already proved that he could act, in such films as From Here to Eternity and The Man with the Golden Arm.  Those roles were full of tricks however, and a little over the top.  His restrained intensity here was a revelation.  I think it's the best thing he ever did.

Frank Sinatra was also instrumental in getting this story to the screen.  United Artists refused to distribute the film.  Arthur Krim was both president of United Artists AND national finance chairman for the Democratic Party.  Krim felt the material was too controversial, and could be damaging to Democrats.  Well, Frank Sinatra went right to President Kennedy.  Not only did JFK love the Richard Condon novel, he also thought it would make a terrific motion picture!  Sinatra urged the President to contact Krim.  After a phone call from Jack Kennedy, Krim relented and The Manchurian Candidate became a reality.  A year later, Kennedy would be dead from an assassin's bullet.  It's ironic that

Photo Courtesy UNITED ARTISTS

Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) kills a comrade during the brainwashing sequence in The Manchurian Candidate, while Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) sits in a daze.  Both victim and chair are knocked across the room.

the same Sinatra who helped get the picture made would also prevent its re-release for decades.            Condon's novel was adapted for the screen by the iconoclastic George Axelrod.  He gives the film its satirical edge.  This was counter-balanced by the cinematic razzle-dazzle of director John Frankenheimer.  Frankenheimer was a graduate of television's "Playhouse 90" series.  His heart was in film though, not theater.  His later political thrillers - Seven Days in May, and Black Sunday were solid, if unremarkable.  The Manchurian Candidate, however, feels like the work of a virtuoso.  Released in 1962, it remains the high water mark in a long career.  His energy and vitality inform the entire project.  Like Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Harvey), the movie itself becomes a ticking time bomb, just waiting to go off.  Each sequence builds to the famous climax at Madison Square Garden.

CLICK HERE FOR NEXT PAGE