8/10

USA 1962 : John FRANKENHEIMER : 126 mins

• All comment on the 1962 Manchurian Candidate must necessarily exist in the shadow of Greil Marcus's 2002 BFI monograph: prime (ahem) candidate for title of best book ever written about a single film.

• Marcus's only real mis-step: to overrate the film itself.
• Bold for 1962, somewhat dated in 2004 - though still much more topical than Jonathan Demme's "update" released during that year's US election campaign: though based on Joe McCarthy ("Head of 15 different patriotic organisations"), Senator Iselin (James Gregory) now an unmistakeably Dubya-ish front-man for sinister right-wing machinations; Teresa Heinz Kerry's family firm (eerily) provides Iselin with a handy mnemonic ("57 Varieties") for the arbitrarily made-up number of Communists he identifies as supposedly holding government posts. Also: surname of Janet Leigh's character is 'Cheyney'.
• Prologue set in 1952... Korean War... (voiceover identifies prologue's setting as "A dreary spot in Manchuria"). Main action set some time afterwards - during an election year. Presumably 1956? No Democrats seen : this is purely internecine feud within Republican Party (hence preponderance of Lincoln references, visual and verbal - impressive deep-focus cinematography by Lionel Lindon).
• TITLE is a somewhat odd choice, in this film at least. The candidate is Iselin. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), brainwashed in the Chinese province of Manchuria, is never a candidate for anything - at least, not a candidate for public office.
• Opacity and off-the-wall bizarreness, however, seldom far from the surface: most famously in the train exchange between Frank Sinatra (nominal lead as implausibly erudite Bennet Marco) and Janet Leigh (Rosie Cheyney) - "Are you Arabic?" etc.
• Black-and-white proto-trippy off-kilter universe familiar from Kubrick of this period: Paths of Glory, Dr Strangelove, Lolita. But scenes in which everyone shouts over the top of each other recall Preston Sturges - specifically (given Shaw's status) Hail the Conquering Hero. "Those uniquely American feelings: guilt and fear". (Surely the English - among others - can lay claim to such an unforunate inheritance...)
• Sinister Orientals and Russkies abound - fiendish plot hatched by Soviets. Including (amusingly) the Hispanic actor Henry Silva as Chunjin, "an oriental gent".
• Lansbury's performance justly remains famous, but no less impact made Harvey: perpetual frozen sneer: colossally unpleasant "turn" as Shaw: hilariously icy performance, with no attempt at an American accent: "One day of Christmas is loathsome enough!"
• Prefigured a decade of assassinations: Frankenheimer connection: Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles: 5th June, 1968.

25th December, 2004
[seen on DVD, Sunderland, 9th November]