2026 Blind Spot Series: The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Official Synopsis: An American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.
What I knew going in: The basic plot
I worked at a movie theater in high school when the 2004 remake of this came out, but I never watched it. All I knew is that they changed a lot of major plot points to modernize it. I figured when I was ready to take the Manchurian plunge, I'd start with the original.
And I'm not going to lie, there were times where I wished I was watching Denzel instead of Frank Sinatra or Laurence Harvey, because lets be real they don't hold a candle to him, BUT thankfully this is a solid political thriller overall. It did a good job making you guess and building tension, though not without a few red herrings.
It's the ladies that are the biggest draw and also the biggest question mark of this film. Angela Lansbury give a great villain performance. Her scheming Eleanor Shaw is by far the most memorable character. Then we have Janet Leigh, who plays Sinatra's quasi-love interest. I was so sure her character was going to end up being something else. Without going into spoiler territory, I'll leave it at that, but her character is a puzzling choice. Then there's Leslie Parish who is just too sweet for this world. They were the ones that made the biggest impression on me.
Over all, I think this is a very well made film and I can only imagine the paranoia is caused at the time. I didn't love it as much as I was hoping I would, but it was still a good watch.
Those Tubi commercials reeeeeeeeeeeeally took me out though.
Grade: B-
I like this one more than you do. Angela Lansbury is the main reason to watch, but I like Laurence Harvey in this; he always comes across as detached and cold, and that's a boon for this role. The love story(?) doesn't work for me at all and is by far the worst part of the film.
ReplyDeleteThe remake is fine, but I prefer the original.
I wish Lansbury wasn't such a dick in real life because she was so good here.
DeleteI have not seen the original film nor the remake with Denzel. Still, I want to see them both back-to-back but without commercials.
ReplyDeleteI think Denzel might sell me more on this lol
DeleteThis is Birgit…I love this film and it is right on the mark about the paranoia of that time. I grew up with the Cold War in full swing I heard, on the TV, all the time, “This is a broadcast of the emergency broadcast system. If this was an actual emergency, you would be informed where to go…” all I wanted back was Godzilla or Bug Bunny back. I never thought about nuclear war. The tensions between the States and Russia was always strong so this film made a huge impact. Unfortunately, because it shows Americans being brainwashed as well as siding with the Russians to move ahead, this film was banned for over 30 years. I did see the remake and Denzel is excellent but it is not as good as this original.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a crazy time to live through. I mean, right now is pretty rough but we have more technology to find what we need lol.
DeleteGood going! You are powering through these Blind Spots!!
ReplyDeleteI also like this more than you though it has its problems, the Janet Leigh red herring storyline is the most egregious. But the good outweighs those weaknesses. I’m not the biggest Laurence Harvey fan however his cold somewhat robotic persona is a perfect fit for Raymond and along with the flat-out brilliance of Angela Lansbury they power the story. She was robbed of her Oscar for this! Not that the winner Patty Duke was underserving in “The Miracle Worker” but if you’ve ever seen that movie, you know that as Helen Keller she was a co-lead to Anne Bancroft’s Annie Sullivan (who won the Best Actress Oscar that year). Patty’s win was category fraud at almost the same level as Tatum O’Neal in “Paper Moon.”
Sinatra is fine, since he’s our mirror (who is also suffering from brainwashing) the fact that he’s not as compelling a presence as he could be I think is in service of the picture. The stark black & white cinematography adds a sense of isolationist foreboding. Some elements of the film are frighteningly prescient!
I won’t say anything more now than that the remake is a miscast botch job.
I’m surprised by your comment about Angela Lansbury!! Everything I’ve read about her was that she was a warm, gracious, down-to-earth very liberal person. I know she had several small roles written into Murder, She Wrote for performers who were struggling with health issues so they could maintain their medical insurance. She did try to keep her private life shielded from the media’s glare, two of her children had severe drug problems, to deal with that privately she put her career on hold and moved with them to Ireland to help them get straightened out and was reluctant to discuss it publicly so could be a bit abrupt if the subject was raised.
I will hopefully be able to keep the momentum lol. I have a few more that I'm hopefully going to get to as well. Thankfully not on Tubi lol. Lansbury had some comments during MeToo that really rubbed me the wrong way and that's what soured me on her. But I'll never deny her talent. She's great here,a nd Murder, She Wrote was such a staple in my house growing up. My mom loved it.
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