So I am obviously trying to get through the top 100 movie list at a little bit of a faster pace.  Anyway, just wanted to make sure that you know this site hasn’t turned in to a movie only site, I just want to get some of these out of the way so it’s not five years before I get the countdown finished.  On with the movie…

So this entry is for the original 1962, Frank Sinatra version of The Manchurian Candidate and not the 2004 version with Denzel.  I haven’t seen the new version and probably never will.  In fact, I plan to watch the original again sometime soon and am choosing to ignore the new one.  I have noticed that remakes are seldom as good as the original; and with a movie as good as this why did they even bother?

The movie starts out with a group of American soldiers (Korean War I think) being hypnotized by a Chinese Communist who has them so surely under his power he gets one of them to strangle another to death.  The men are eventually released and sent back home to the US.  One of these men is Raymond Shaw, played by Lawrence Harvey who is the son of a Republican big wig played by Angela Lansbury (or the old bag as my Dad refers to her) and step son to the man who may be nominated as the party’s presidential candidate.  During the hypnotism Shaw was brainwashed to become an assassin for the Communists, but he is completely unaware of this.  Only when triggered does he go in to killer mode.  Sinatra plays Bennett Marco who is also one of the soldiers who returns home, but he has flashes of remembering the ordeal and is possibly the only one who can save Shaw.  In the meantime Marco meets and fall in love with Janet Leigh (poor guy) who probably doesn’t serve much more of a purpose than to have a hot chick in the movie.

It’s hard to classify exactly what the Manchurian Candidate is.  I guess I would just say it’s a political satire/thriller.  It’s funny at times and always suspenseful.  The question throughout is who is really in control of Shaw’s head and what are they planning on doing with it?  Lansbury is excellent and was nominated for the supporting actress Oscar for her role.  She actually won the Golden Globe.  Her character is as scheming and low down as any mother you’ll see in a movie and there really is no telling what she’s up to.

And just one more thing about Denzel and remakes.  He is in the midst of remaking The Taking of Pelham 123 which was originally starring Walter Matthau back in 1974.  The original is not in the class of The Manchurian Candidate but it’s a very good movie in its own right.  Denzel is one of the great actors of this time and I wish he’d stick with making original movies.  Besides, the remake he’s doing now is directed by Tony Scott and co-starring John Travalota. Travolta plays the bad guy in this and already have visions of him from Face/Off yelling something stupid like, “Wooowhee. You good lookin’” or “It’s like looking in a mirror, only, not.”  It doesn’t have a chance. Like the movie I just reviewed, when this comes out; do yourself a favor and just rent the original.