This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

The Manchurian Candidate is a significantly better film than what I'm rating it, but is sadly unsurprising and not as thrilling due to the fact I've seen the remake.

The remake is a lot different, however the gist and surprises don't really change... expect for the final minutes of course.

As a first viewing I felt a little let down but it'll no doubt grow on me over time. It is a lot better than Demme's version and it'll be the one I watch from here on out.

Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life

Three stars for the movie, five thousand stars for Angela Lansbury's amazing performance.

Very engaging and thrilling...need to see the remake now!

brilliant and formal

Happy Mothers' Day!

Clever, suspenseful and it's aged incredibly well. Frankenheimer has to be one of the most under-rated directors - you never think of his name when asked, but he rarely turns in a bad film. Sinatra's good, Harvey is chilling but the biggest kudos go to Angela Lansbury as Raymond's terrifying mother.

The Manchurian Candidate is a significantly better film than what I'm rating it, but is sadly unsurprising and not as thrilling due to the fact I've seen the remake.

The remake is a lot different, however the gist and surprises don't really change... expect for the final minutes of course.

As a first viewing I felt a little let down but it'll no doubt grow on me over time. It is a lot better than Demme's version and it'll be the one I watch from here on out.

This was as good as I remember it being the first time I saw. The story does a good job of combining a political thriller with a "red scare". Frankeheimer's direction is good, and the acting is also. This IMO is one of the most unique films from before the 1970s. Hell it beats passing time by playing a game of solitaire.

For some reason during this rewatch, I kept getting this nagging feeling that this film would be a good double bill with David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone.

Very entertaining thriller about Anerican Korean War vets returning home after being brainwashed into being enemy agents by the commies. Prescient, stylish, surreal and Frankenheimer gets great performances from Harvey, Lansbury, and Sinatra.

I hear the 2004 remake directed by Jonathan Demme is pretty muddled and not as sharp in terms of dialogue and characterization so place your bets on this one instead.

Angela Lansbury is only two years older than her son, Laurence Harvey. Still, it's one of the best political thrillers ever made, and I've found out that a CIA program in the 50s and 60s called MKUltra comprised 10% of the CIA's budget and was all about the kind of brainwashing experiments depicted in the movie. The program apparently became a haven ex-Nazi scientists. It's all very Dr. Strangelove. Frankenheimer's commentary's kinda lame.

We got to watch this in school in my Honors Colloquium on Fear, and it is AWESOME. I think it helped that we, as a class, were completely immersed in readings on the red scare, but nevertheless it was thrilling, and tricky, and full of complex and interesting characters. It’s incredibly well-made, and has not lost a single shred of its relevance. Yay!

I actually don't have words to describe how much I like it.