Marco wants to investigate, but has no solid evidence to back his claims and thus receives no support from Army Intelligence. When asked to describe him, Marco and the other soldiers automatically respond, "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." Deep down, however, they know that Shaw is a cold, sad, unsympathetic loner.įollowing his return to America, Marco, who has since been promoted to major, suffers from a recurring nightmare in which a hypnotized Shaw blithely and brutally murders the two missing soldiers before an assembly of military brass from the Communist nations, during a practical demonstration of a revolutionary brainwashing technique. Upon the recommendation of the platoon's commander, Captain Bennett Marco ( Frank Sinatra), Raymond is awarded the Medal of Honor. lines and Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw ( Laurence Harvey) is credited with saving their lives in combat by his fellow platoon members. Some days later, all but two of the soldiers return to the U.S. platoon and take them to Manchuria in Communist China. 5.3 American Film Institute recognitionĭuring the Korean War, the Soviets capture a U.S.The Manchurian Candidate was selected in 1994 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It was well-received and was nominated for two Academy Awards. The film was released in the United States on October 24, 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Manchurian Candidate concerns the brainwashing of the son of a prominent right-wing political family, who becomes an unwitting assassin in an international communist conspiracy. The screenplay by George Axelrod is based on the 1959 novel The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon.
The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American black-and-white Cold War neo-noir suspense thriller, produced by George Axelrod and John Frankenheimer, directed by John Frankenheimer, and starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, and Janet Leigh co-starring are Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, and James Gregory. $7.7 million (domestic) Read the transcript