Search results
People also ask
Was the Manchurian Candidate based on a true story?
Is the Manchurian Candidate a movie?
Is the Manchurian Candidate a satire?
Is the Manchurian Candidate worth watching?
Now U.S. government records, many declassified after decades of secrecy, are finally revealing the real story behind the enduring meme.
The Manchurian Candidate is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy.
- John F. Kennedy Helped It Get made.
- Mom Was Barely Older Than Her Son.
- It Came Out Right in The Middle of A Real International Crisis.
- The Blurry Shots Weren't An Artistic choice.
- Sinatra Wanted Lucille Ball to Play The Conniving Mother.
- In The Original Version, The Opening Credits Confused audiences.
- If You Think The Movie Has Some Icky Connotations, You Should Read The Book.
- Sinatra's Private Plane Has A Cameo.
- Frankenheimer Did Some Live TV Directing in The Film.
- Laurence Harvey Had to Jump in The Lake on The Worst Possible Day.
Frank Sinatra had a deal with United Artists and wanted the studio to make an adaptation of Richard Condon's 1959 novel. But the execs at UA thought the subject matter was too politically controversial and wanted nothing to do with it. Lucky for Sinatra, he had friends in high places, including President John F. Kennedy. Frank visited JFK, who'd be...
Laurence Harvey, who plays the brainwashed Raymond Shaw, was born October 1, 1928 (in Lithuania). Angela Lansbury, who plays his mother, was born less than three years earlier, on October 16, 1925.
A movie that's dark, political, or satiric is a hard sell under the best of circumstances, so The Manchurian Candidate—which is all three of those things—had an uphill battle at the box office anyway. It didn't help that it was released on October 24, 1962, right in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis, during which America and the U.S.S.R. came ...
Near the end of the film, when Marco visits Raymond's hotel room and interrogates him, trying to undo the effects of the brainwashing, some shots of Sinatra are out of focus. Director John Frankenheimer said he got a lot of praise from critics for this "artistic choice"—showing Marco the way the addled Raymond sees him—but, in fact, it was the assi...
Frankenheimer, who'd worked with Angela Lansbury just a few months earlier on All Fall Down, always wanted her for the part of Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin. But Sinatra had an interesting suggestion, too: Lucille Ball. Putting TV's queen of slapstick in such a malevolent role would have been perversely amusing, but, alas, it was not to be.
When an early cut of the film was previewed, the first scene, in which U.S. soldiers fighting in Korea are captured by the Soviets, played with the opening credits laid over it. But Frankenheimer found that the onscreen titles distracted from the wordless action taking place behind them, and audiences didn't understand what was happening in the sce...
Or just take our word for it. There's that unsettling moment near the end when Mrs. Iselin gives her brainwashed son a pep talk and then kisses him, a little too fondly, on the mouth. Frankenheimer said that not only was the incestuous implication intentional, but it was toned down from Richard Condon's novel, in which Mom actually seduces Junior. ...
An early scene in the movie has Senator John Yerkes Iselin (James Gregory), his wife, and stepson Raymond Shaw arguing while flying to a campaign event. The interiors for the scene were shot on Sinatra's personal plane.
The press conference where Senator Iselin announces there are 57 secret Communists in the Defense Department is meant to look like a real news event being covered live by multiple cameras, as shown on the TV in the foreground. To achieve this, Frankenheimer (who had ample experience as a director of live TV) sat in the control truck and called the ...
According to Frankenheimer, the weather was so cold on the day they filmed Shaw jumping into the lake in Central Park that a crew had to break through a foot of ice beforehand. One of the cameras froze, too. Harvey did the job like a trouper.
Jun 27, 2023 · 1. Is The Manchurian Candidate based on a true story? No, The Manchurian Candidate is a work of fiction. It is based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Richard Condon. 2. Who directed The Manchurian Candidate? The Manchurian Candidate was directed by Jonathan Demme.
Dec 14, 2016 · Richard Condon’s political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate, has twice been turned into a feature film. In truth, as much as it’s internet law to slam remakes, Jonathan Demme’s 2004 take on...
May 22, 2017 · John Frankenheimer's classic The Manchurian Candidate built upon the idea of brainwashed GIs in Korea. Still from The Manchurian Candidate Journalist Edward Hunter was the first to...
Dec 7, 2003 · “The Manchurian Candidate” is inventive and frisky, takes enormous chances with the audience, and plays not like a “classic” but as a work as alive and smart as when it was first released. “It may be,” Pauline Kael wrote at the time, “the most sophisticated satire ever made in Hollywood.”
