The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate is a political thriller of the highest calibre. At the same time it is John Frankenheimer's courageous reckoning with McCarthyism, which, to a far greater extent than the red menace, could undermine the USA as a country of free speech.

The film's ingenious plot is about how a small platoon of soldiers has been brainwashed by the enemy in Korea, that is the communists, with the result that one of them, Raymond Shaw, has become a remote-controlled killer. When the platoon returns, they all tell the same story: that Shaw acted heroically when he rescued them from the enemy camp, but in recurring nightmares the returned soldiers dream the truth. In reality, Shaw killed two of his own men during a demonstration of the new killing machine for the communist comrades.

One of the soldiers, Bennett Marco, at long last convinces his superiors that the dream is true. Marco is put on the case; above all he must find out who is controlling the robot. The surprise is great, for it is Raymond Shaw's own mother who is the catalyst, and she is married to none other than a Republican senator, Iselin, Raymond's stepfather, who hunts communists wherever he can.

Laurence Harvey is fabulous as the hypnotised Raymond, who is programmed to kill his own wife and father-in-law. For Harvey's character the ending is infinitely tragic, while Bennett can look forward to a rather happier future (or can he?)