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In character and incidental comment, it displays irreverence towards hallowed cliches, be they (all-consuming) mother love, the commercialization of Christmas (“‘The 12 Days of Christmas’?–one day is quite loathsome enough”), Iron Curtain spies (here the Russ agent is an apprehensive boor and the Chinese a whimsical, literate mind from outer Manchuria, if not space), to say nothing of homegrown political frauds who hide behind portraits of Abe Lincoln. Like all the best films, there probably has never been anything quite like “The Manchurian Candidate” before, though in sheer bravado of narrative and photographic styles it shares the tradition of Hitchcock, Capra, Welles and Hawks. The captain’s subsequent pursuit of the truth comprises the bizarre plot which ranges from the halls of Congress, New York publishing circles and an extremely unlikely Communist hideout in mid-Manhattan, to a literally stunning climax at a Madison Square Garden political convention. Harvey himself admits to being the least likely of heroes, and Sinatra, though he testifies that the sergeant is ‘the bravest, most honorable, most loyal’ man he knows, realizes this is completely untrue. Shortly thereafter, the sergeant of the group, Laurence Harvey, is seen being welcomed home in Washington as a Congressional Medal of Honor winner, having been recommended for that award by his captain, Frank Sinatra, who led the illfated patrol. Koch, “Manchurian Candidate” gets off to an early start (before the credits) as a dilemma wrapped in an enigma: a small American patrol in Korea is captured by the Chinese Communists. But the fascinating thing is that, from uncertain premise to shattering conclusion, one does not question plausibility: the events being rooted in their own cinematic reality.Īs scripted by Axelrod and directed by Frankenheimer, who also double as coproducers under exec producer Howard W. government, is, on the surface, one of the wildest fabrications any author has ever tried to palm off on a gullible public. Its story of the tracking down of a brainwashed Korean war “hero,” being used as the key figure in an elaborate Communist plot to take over the U.S. The exact nature of “Manchurian Candidate” may be hard to define, but perhaps “suspense melodrama” is the best term.