Suddenly those glazed eyes aren’t incidental, and the POWs are shown to be a part of a sinister scheme. But as Frankenheimer’s camera spins, the environment transforms into a politburo-style room where a brainwashing conspiracy is taking place, surrounded by Chinese and Soviet officials with not a fussy matron in sight. The soldiers sit slouched and smoking, eyes glazed over with boredom.
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In his nightmare, the camera does a wild circular pan around what initially seems to be a dull garden party full of middle-aged ladies, attending a lecture on proper planting skills. But the actual ordeal is something else entirely Sinatra scratches and mutters in his sleep, reliving the truth of the incident, haunted in his waking hours by the feeling that something isn’t right.
Shaw, on Marco’s recommendation, was chosen for a Congressional Medal of Honor as a result. It’s 1952, and the official story is that Marco and his unit in Korea were saved by the heroic efforts of their commander, Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey). He was forty-seven, and it had been nearly a decade since his Oscar-winning turn as the doomed, lovable Maggio in From Here to Eternity, which had established him as an actor of serious dramatic weight, not just a moonlighting musical star, during a time when major success in both fields was rare for one performer.įor the first drastic sign that something is severely out of place in the mind of Sinatra’s character in The Manchurian Candidate, ex-GI Bennett Marco, look no further than the opening fifteen minutes of the film: his sweat-drenched evenings, full of recurring nightmares, reveal his torment. In the film, he looks wan and tired, middle-aged now, no longer in possession of the boyish, apple-cheeked visage he had in Anchors Aweigh or On the Town, those postwar musicals for MGM. His bobby-soxers had been displaced by Elvis fans, who had been displaced by Beatles die-hards Sinatra was twice deposed, and his bearing suggested that he knew it. Let’s just hope people now go to see it.By the time The Manchurian Candidate was released in 1962, Frank Sinatra had been on American screens and in American hearts for nearly two decades.
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Reached by telephone, Frankenheimer (who is about to start a new movie for Lorimar, “Dead Bang,” with Don Johnson) said: “It’s great news that ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ is being re-released. When the movie was released in November, 1962, Sinatra took the-for him-unusual step of taking out an advertisement thanking everyone connected with the movie for their contribution. Great! Who’s going to play the mother?” ’ (Angela Lansbury plays Harvey’s mother, the power behind the redbaiting campaign of his McCarthy-like stepfather.) Hearing this, the (studio) executive promptly backed down, and we went ahead with the picture.” I was in Hyannis (Mass.) for the weekend with the President, and he asked what I was doing next and I said, “ ‘The Manchurian Candidate.’ ” He said, “That’s great.
I’ll find Frank and we’ll be in your office Monday morning.’ When Frank and I showed up, this executive started the whole thing about embarrassing Kennedy. A year from now, President Kennedy will be on the verge of making a deal with the Russians and to have this film showing will be highly embarrassing to him.’ “I got a call one Friday,” said Axelrod, “a month before shooting was to start, and this executive in New York said, ‘We can’t make this movie. Because of the joint ownership, the movie has since become a sort of tap dance for accountants, and that’s been the problem getting it re-released.”Īccording to Axelrod, shortly before filming was to begin, United Artists became very nervous about making the movie. “In addition,” said Axelrod, “Frank was paid $750,000, Larry Harvey got $250,000 and Janet Leigh (who plays Sinatra’s love interest) got $25,000. Productions, to make it, with 50% of the film’s revenues going to Sinatra, 25% each to Frankenheimer and Axelrod. Sinatra, Frankenheimer and Axelrod formed a partnership, M.C. Afterward the picture never regained its momentum.” Remember, Frank had been very close to Kennedy. “And when Kennedy was assassinated a few months after we opened, it was obviously not a good idea to keep the picture in the theaters, so we pulled it. “Unfortunately, it was not only black comedy but highly prophetic,” said Axelrod. The now-defunct New York Herald Tribune called Axelrod’s screenplay “a delight.” “Frankenheimer’s direction is exciting in the style of Orson Welles when he was making ‘Citizen Kane,’ ” said the New York Times. When it was first released, many critics seemed to agree.