A slow, insipid beginning slowly morphs into a juggernaut of a psyco-espionage thriller. Sinatra is electric. Angela Lansbury is titan (she had me staggered). Frankenheimer helms your attention with interesting choices. “Manchurian Candidate” is a racist/anti-communist fiction from the Korean War, based on notions of Oriental despotism, Western individualism vs Eastern collectivism, & anti-immigrant anxieties over infiltration/espionage. This is something! ( )

Some American soldiers are captured in Korea and brainwashed.

Clever story, shot well. The dialog, acting and music are all quite good as well. I wasn't sure what to expect from a Frank Sinatra movie (this is the first I've seen), but I'm pleasantly surprised. The 2004 remake could hardly have been more pointless. ( )

Substance: The basic story-line makes points about the frantic anti-Communism of the time (post-WW2 to post-Korean-War) and plays on the McCarthy accusations and hearings. Anything else will spoil the fun.
The romance between Ben and Rosie happens too quickly in the film; I presume the book is a bit less abbreviated.
Style: Suspenseful and dramatic at the time (1962), the plot now looks obvious and the acting histrionic. However, the flash-backs to the brain-washing are superbly contrived, and Angela Lansbury is magnificent.

NOTES: Yes, McCarthy was bone-headed and grand-standing, but there really were Communists in the government at the time - and afterwards.
FWIW, if you don't have an intimate acquaintance with the layout of a particular large auditorium, there is no way you can find a path from one place to another without a map or a lot of back-tracking. Dramatic license at work.

Bizarre: (Wikipedia 2011-12-09) "In 1998, software engineer C.J. Silverio noted that several long passages of the novel seemed to be borrowed, almost word for word, from Robert Graves' 1934 novel I, Claudius. Forensic linguist John Olsson judged that "There can be no disputing that Richard Condon plagiarized from Robert Graves." 1. ^ Lara, Adair (4 October 2003). "Has a local software engineer unmasked 'The Manchurian Candidate'? Menlo Park woman says author Richard Condon plagiarized.". San Francisco Chronicle. http://articles.sfgate.com/2003-10-04/entertainment/17512034_1_silverio-richard-.... Retrieved 4 March 2011.

Interesting: (Amazon 2011-12-09) Claims the film was withheld by Sinatra for 25 years after Kennedy's assassination in 1963, but see this review at http://www.bookrags.com/research/the-manchurian-candidate-sjpc-03/

"The film received mixed reviews and mixed reactions—it was picketed in Orange County for being left wing and picketed in Paris for being right wing—but its original and gripping delineation of the lone gunman and his preparations for the murder of the president, so close to the actual death of Kennedy, propelled it into a kind of obscurity. Over the next 15 years it was difficult to see the film, increasing its aura and, as the amount of contradictory information mounted on the death of Kennedy, the work seemed prophetic not only in foreseeing a president murdered, but in foreseeing a political atmosphere that could make any conspiracy seem imaginable." ( )

Brilliantly imagined and exquisitely executed. ( )

2007