The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Manchurian Candidate is a political thriller directed by John Frankenheimer. It stars Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh. The screenplay was written by George Axelrod, which was based on the novel, of the same name, written by Richard Condon.

The plot revolves around Laurence Harvey's character, Raymond Shaw, being awarded the Medal of Honour upon his return to America from the Korean War. However, other members of the squad start having nightmares about their experiences in the Korean war, including Frank Sinatra's character, Ben Marco. After a while, by doing some investigation they learn that none of it even happened, they were brainwashed to believe that Shaw had saved them from the enemy and to that Marco was brainwashed into recommending him for the Medal of Honour. In fact, the entire squad was kidnapped and taken to Manchuria, where Marco and Shaw were made to kill two of their squad members. It is later revealed that through the use of the Queen of Diamonds playing card, Shaw can be controlled and told to do whatever his master tells him to do. However, Marco outwits the enemies and manages to stop Shaw from committing to the enemies final goal, and kills both his handler, and himself.

One element of a thriller is when Sinatra's character, Marco, outwits the enemies after discovering the Queen of Diamonds is Shaw's trigger. Therefore, upon meeting Shaw, he suggests playing a game of cards, and the first card he shows them is the queen of diamonds. After telling Shaw to reveal his plan, and that he is no longer under the Conspirators control, he reveals it is a 'packed deck', with 52 Queens of  Diamonds in the deck.


Another element of a thriller in this film is the suspense. A very good example is at the end of the film, when Shaw is aiming his rifle over the electorates, the audience are on the edge of their seats, in anticipation of what he is going to do. Is he going to kill the electorate running opposite his step-father or not? In the end, he actually goes completely against his handler's commands (his mother), and kills both his step-father, Senator Iselin and his mother.