Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

HotToastyRag Frank Sinatra's having bad dreams. Ever since his return from the Korean War, he's had nightmares of his sergeant, Laurence Harvey, killing men in their unit. Is it shell shock? Is it a premonition? Larry is also struggling with his return to civilization, since his overbearing mother Angela Lansbury is a very powerful force in the political realm.If the title or plot sounds familiar to you, Hollywood remade The Manchurian Candidate in 2004, with Denzel Washington, Liev Shrieber, and Meryl Streep as the three leads, and updated to the Iraq War. The remake was also a great film, although perhaps not quite as chilling during the time of its release, since political corruption films were a new genre in the 60s. And the plot is so complex and confusing, even if you've seen one version, chances are you can watch the other without being able to guess or untangle the twists and turns. I have a soft spot in my heart for Frank Sinatra, so I'd recommend watching the original first, but Meryl Streep is frightening in her Hillary Clinton-esque portrayal in the remake, so if you want to watch that version first, that's fine.In addition to the tension-filled plot and scary setting of American politics, the acting in The Manchurian Candidate is fantastic. Both Frankie and Larry give wonderful performances, but only Angela Lansbury was honored with a nomination by the Academy in 1963. If you haven't yet seen it, rent at least one of the versions. It really is a classic.

frankwiener While many cast members did an outstanding job in this disturbing and often violent political thriller, it is Angela Lansbury who stands out in her superb portrayal of a woman who not only dominates her son and husband but who wants to take over the entire country, if not the world! In the end, this is Angela's triumph, and I don't understand why she took second billing behind any of the other actors.As much as I love Janet Leigh, she was handed a bizarre and somewhat minor role here which I believe only served as a deliberate distraction in that she never influenced Major Marco (Sinatra) as an agent working on either side. And don't get sidetracked by the fact that "Pinocchio" was playing at the Manhattan movie theater that she and Major Marco passed in the cab because that was probably a deliberate "red herring" too. Granted that Leigh and Tony Curtis, including their sensational divorce, were quite the rage at the time, but Angela deserved top billing here.When I read that Lansbury has only appeared in 54 full length movies to date, it seemed like a number too small only because she leaves such a strong impression in so many of her performances dating back to Nancy, the maid, in "Gaslight" and Sybil in "The Picture of Dorian Grey". To this day, I am haunted by the memory of poor Sybil singing "Goodbye, Little Yellow Bird" in the latter. Lansbury masters a wide range of effective acting from the kindly, unassuming Miss Marple to the powerful, detestable Eleanor Shaw Iselin here. In addition to a towering Lansbury, the excellent portrayals by Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, John McIver, Henry Silva, and James Gregory as the annoying buffoon of a step-father contribute to the success of this political thriller. I think that director John Frankenheimer and screenplay writer George Axelrod should be commended for staying close to Richard Condon's original novel, and the stark black and white photography enhanced the gloomy and ominous atmosphere. The filming of the three separate interpretations of the brainwashing sequence alone was a unique and unforgettable cinematic experience.What a dish like Jocelyn Jordan (Leslie Parrish) ever saw in Raymond Shaw is beyond me, and we have surely witnessed Harvey as the dark, brooding character before ("Room at the Top", "Butterfield Eight", etc.), but who else could play this morose character more accurately?As to that newspaper headline "Violent Hurricane Sweeps Midwest", did you folks in the Midwest ever experience a direct hurricane? I know about the tornadoes and the floods, but a direct hurricane? Was that another subtle attempt at humor by the director? Anyway, I'll never look at another hydrangea without much trepidation and dread.

denis888 Probably, this period piece was quite good for its times, when it was released. Now, it seems a funny overblown, too long in its running time, too boring, too cardboard cutout, too clichéd and too baloney. Frank Sinatra? No, he is not good here, he, like almost all the other characters, overplays hugely and thus creates a comical effects, which borders both on being utterly silly and hilarious. This is a mere propaganda film, made in the heat of Joe McCarthy's frenzy and it suffers from this fetid stigma. Moreover, its possible plausible merits are washed away by protruding slow pacing and awful, almost unreal dialogues that land in the realm of pure parody. IN the 50 and 60's there are far better films than this, and the recent awfully dismal remake shows that. When the basic material is poor the end result will limp along as well.

framptonhollis A film with a plot like "The Manchurian Candidate" has would more often than not come across as silly, but, somehow, John Frankenheimer manages to craft this bizarre little story into one of the finest and most surprisingly modern films of the 1960's.The silly story is structured ingeniously, forcing the audience to, at first, piece together various parts of the cinematic puzzle, before pulling us in to a world of evil and mayhem that lies beneath the political surface. Frankenheimer's lens captures the many oddities hidden within this story, using bizarrely comic and horrific dream sequences and effective use of wide angled lens shots to their finest advantages.Mixing tragedy, intensity, and wit may sound like a challenge, but for films like "The Manchurian Candidate", it comes naturally and infects the screen in a magical and engaging way.