![frank sinatra the manchurian candidate frank sinatra the manchurian candidate](https://editorial01.shutterstock.com/wm-preview-1500/5885697aa/9d88a679/the-manchurian-candidate-1962-shutterstock-editorial-5885697aa.jpg)
On the other side of the coin, Shaw is also used for political gain by his harridan mother ( Angela Lansbury), who guides the career of her second husband, John Iselin ( James Gregory), a bone-headed congressman hoping to win the vice-presidential nomination through a campaign of anti-Communist hysteria. In time, Marco is able to piece together what happened it seems Raymond Shaw was programmed by a shadowy cadre of Russian and Chinese agents into a killing machine who will assassinate anyone, even a close friend, when given the proper commands. Bennett Marco ( Frank Sinatra) who seems the most haunted by the experience. While several are troubled by bad dreams and inexplicable behavior, it's Capt. Months later, Shaw is receiving a hero's welcome as he returns to the United States to accept the Congressional Medal of Honor, and several of the soldiers who served under Shaw repeatedly refer to him as "the bravest, finest, most lovable man I ever met." It soon becomes evident that after their capture by the Koreans, Shaw and his men were subjected to an intense program of brainwashing prior to their release. While on patrol, Shaw and his platoon are ambushed by Korean troops. These men obviously have no fondness for Shaw, and he feels no empathy for them. Raymond Shaw ( Laurence Harvey), arrives to inform them that they're back on duty. It opens with a group of soldiers whooping it up in a bar in Korea as their commander, Sgt. Its themes of thought control, political assassination, and multinational conspiracy were hardly common currency in 1962, and while its outlook is sometimes informed by Cold War paranoia, the film seemed nearly as timely when it was reissued in 1987 as it did on its original release. An unusually tense and intelligent political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate was a film far ahead of its time.