Classic 60s Movie: “The Manchurian Candidate”

January is Classic 60s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Liz Warner.

Movie Title: The Manchurian Candidate

Year: 1962

Writers: Screenplay by George Axelrod, Novel by Richard Condon (1959)

Director: John Frankenheimer

Lead Actors: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, James Gregory

IMDb Plot Summary: A former Korean War POW is brainwashed by Communists into becoming a political assassin. But another former prisoner may know how to save him.

You could call The Manchurian Candidate a political thriller or a psychological thriller.

My Favorite Moment in the Movie: “The cards. Nothing quite like a little game of Solitaire…”

My Favorite Dialogue in the Movie: Undoubtedly, the best known dialogue (other than Solitaire) is when Captain Marco intones, “Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”

The other soldiers join the refrain.

These are the kind of lines every writer looks to put in their script — ones that are both memorable and immediately identifiable as being from their story.

But my favorite is:

Mrs. Iselin: I know you will never entirely comprehend this, Raymond. But you must believe I did not know it would be you. I served them. I fought for them. I’m on the point of winning for them the greatest foothold they will ever have in this country. And they paid me back by taking your soul away from you. I told them to build me an assassin. I wanted a killer from a world filled with killers and they chose you. Because they thought it would bind me closer to them.

Angela Lansbury has quite a lot of expository lines that she manages to deliver in a most compelling and nuanced way.

She concludes:

Mrs. Iselin: But now we have come almost to the end. One last step. And then, when I take power, they will be pulled down and ground into dirt for what they did to you. And what they did in so contemptuously underestimating me.

Key Things to Look For When Watching This Movie: Ideally, a political thriller should seem prescient or ominous. It becomes a classic when the underlying fear factor remains durable for future audiences. This is certainly the case with The Manchurian Candidate.

In historical context, the story takes place in an era when the red scare terrified many Americans, and Communists seemed to lurk under every rock. (In fact, the film was released in October 1962 — at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis.) The story held up so well, in fact, it was remade in 2004, albeit depicting the character of Raymond Shaw as a veteran of the Gulf War, rather than the Korean War.

Angela Lansbury was nominated for an Academy Award in her co-star role and received a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. Mrs. Iselin was a stark contrast to the charming, folksy novelist in Cabot Cove, Maine that Lansbury later played on the long-running TV series, “Murder, She Wrote.” Hers remains among the best female characters, and performances across media, I think.

Over the years, Lansbury has showcased the range of her talents admirably, and this is instructive for a writer on how important it is to write roles actors want to play. A top-notch actor can improve a so-so script, and vice versa — magic happens when both are good! Add a masterful director to the mix, and then you have a winner.

Thanks, Liz! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!

Twitter: @writeonliz

We already have a set of classic 70s movies, 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 60s Movies.

We have 28 volunteers. I have put in bold those who have already sent their guest post to me.

Ipsita Barik — Rosemary’s Baby
Ipsita Barik — Bonnie and Clyde
Bookman Film — The Sound of Music
Brandnewusedcar — Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Markham Cook — Jules et Jim
Steve Cook — The Blue Max
JasperLamarCrab — 2001: A Space Odyssey
N D — Lonely are the Brave
Drew Dorenfest — Easy Rider
Rick Dyke — Fail Safe
Felicity Flesher — The Music Man
PaulG — Lawrence of Arabia
D.L. Gill — Zulu
Jeff Guenther — Cool Hand Luke
Kate Hagen — Repulsion
John Henderson — Night of the Living Dead
John Henderson — The Odd Couple
John Hörnschemeyer — The Graduate
Zach Jansen — They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
Will King — The Pink Panther
Lisaisfunny — Blow Up
Jack McDonald — Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Daryl Powell — The Apartment
jprichard — Persona
Ally Shina — The Jungle Book
Mark Twain — The Loved One
Liz Warner — The Manchurian Candidate
Michael Waters — Dr. No

I’m looking for more guest posts to take us through January. Why not pitch in to help add to this online resource to inspire writers to learn about and — most importantly — watch great movies.

If you have a classic 60s movies on which you’d like to do a writeup, please either post in comments or email me.

And for those who have signed up, but have yet to email me your post, please do so ASAP.

Thanks in advance!

For the original post explaining the series, go here.