The Manchurian Candidate Movie Review (1962)

When The Manchurian Candidate takes to you the Pavlov Institute, it’s more than a dog drooling that you have to worry about. It’s a serious – and very sweaty – business.

With all of the film options out there, I tend to watch those made in the last four or five decades. Nothing against older films, I just don’t hear about too many and therefore don’t think to watch them. I’m really glad I got to this one, though.

The Manchurian Candidate is about a group of military men in the Korean War who have unknowingly been captured into a Soviet and Chinese brainwashing operation where they are turned into killing operatives. Raymond Shaw, the man chosen to be the main operative, is the son of fierce Eleanor Shaw and step-son to Senator Shaw. Once recruited, he is triggered into carrying out multiple murders on behalf of people in the shadows, sometimes interfering with his own personal life as well as politics.

This is a fascinating film. I was captivated within the first 10 minutes as you watch the bored military men on a stage listening to women present at a garden party. As the frames begin to splice back and forth, showing that they are not actually at a garden party, they are subjects on a stage in front of an audience of Soviet and Chinese people at the Pavlov Institute (a nod to Pavlov’s famous experiment where dogs were conditioned to drool at the sound of a bell because they expected that they would receive food), I was fully engaged.

While the film is in black and white and there are lines such as, “make like a housewife” to encourage a woman to get to the kitchen, the subject-matter and viewing experience feels very modern. I know that there was a remake in 2004 and I’m not shocked. Brainwashed people unknowingly pulling strings for the higher-ups and then continuing on with their day is likely going to be a timeless story.

I have never seen Frank Sinatra in a film before, so that was a treat and he did a great job as a military officer trying to figure out what had happened to him and his platoon. And a young Angela Lansbury wasn’t something I knew that I needed in my life, but she’s a tough cookie as Raymond’s mother.

There is some violence and killing, but it is surprisingly ungory. It is nothing next to what you’ve seen in other films and it drives the story well. Plus, some of it is shocking (in the best of ways). I’m telling you, for a movie from 1962, this holds up well to its contemporary peers.

The thing that I noticed most in addition to the excellent movement of the plot is that the men are very sweaty. The women appear as if they’re right off the pages of a magazine, but in many of the shots, the men are sweating buckets. I assume that this is a nod to the psychological stress that they are under and, you know, women don’t get stressed.

This is a great watch. It doesn’t matter if you were born in 1927 or 1997, give this movie a whirl. It’s a real treat to see a piece of cinema stand up and announce that it’s here to stay.

Runtime: 126 minutes

Motion Picture Rating: PG-13

Languages Spoken In The Film: English

Should You Watch It? Yes

Did I Cry? Nope, not that kind of movie

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

Available: Free on Prime Video or PlutoTV or may be available for free on other streaming platforms