Is there one word to describe "The Manchurian Candidate?" Certainly there are several contenders: audacious, macabre, stark, gripping, pulpy, morbid, dark, hilarious. The film so stubbornly resists categorization that it's all of these things at one point or another, and frequently several of these things all at once.
I don't know what audiences made of this film at the time of its release, though, according to accounts, it bombed at the box office, primarily because it was pulled from theatres when life (the assassination of JFK) too closely imitated art. Add its prophetic quality to the list of reasons that "The Manchurian Candidate" deserves its unique place in cinema history and should be seen by everyone.
Director John Frankenheimer was at the top of his game here. His genius with this film resulted from his realization that the source material was pure camp, so he treats it as such. This same story played straight would have landed with a bone-crunching thud (as it did in the 2004 remake). But Frankenheimer injects the film with liberal doses of ghoulish humor, so the film ends up being grotesque and funny at the same time. For a premier example of this, refer to the brainwashing flashbacks sprinkled throughout the first half of the film, that through some of the most cracker jack editing ever done on screen juxtapose a deadly demonstration and a convention of female botanists to nightmarish and shocking effect.
And of course, no review of "Candidate" would be complete without mentioning the supremely harrowing performance of Angela Lansbury, who lords magisterially over the film and will drive all memories of Jessica Fletcher right out your head. If this film were a deck of cards, she'd be all four queens rolled into one.
Grade: A+
