Rent The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

A superb cat-and-mouse psychological thriller - The Manchurian Candidate review by SG

Released in 1962, this political thriller really gets under your skin. One year on from this film's opening, JFK died and its leading actor, Frank Sinatra, bought the rights to this picture and took it out of circulation - you will see why when you watch the ending. This movie was then not released until nearly 30 years later - only then was it shown in all its black and white glory. Laurence Harvey is excellent as the disturbed Korean war hero who can't understand why everyone loves him as he knows deep down they hate him. Soon enough, his whole platoon start having flashback nightmares from their tour of duty and it's up to Frank Sinatra's character to work out why. Throw into the mix a scheming conniving mother (Angela Lansbury) who wants unadulterated political power and you have yourself a conspiracy theory. Even Janet Leigh, fresh from Psycho two years earlier, is excellent as the girlfriend of ol' blue eyes.

This is an outstanding film. Just don't even think about playing Solitaire…

Queen of Hearts - and Bile - The Manchurian Candidate review by CH

Has there ever been a film with so large an uncredited cast which finds itself moving between dream - or, rather, nightmare - and reality in the aftermath of the Korean War when, come the early-Sixties, a veteran of it, Laurence Harvey is programmed to assassinate politicians? From Richard Condon's novel, here is also an unlikely but credible mixture of Sinatra and Angela Lansbury. They have but one brief scene in which neither is aware of the other. Say no more, as her son Harvey goes about his task, and Sinatra becomes aware of what's afoot.. Add in two women of similar looks - Janet Leigh and the lesser-known but accomplished Leslie Parrish - and one finds the wild card of love adding to trouble ahead heralded by a pack of cards in which the Queen of Hearts ever looms.

Strange to think all this - realistic and fantastic - lasts more than two hours. A series of scenes, well-nigh set pieces,with wonderful photography, light and shadow matching the continual subterfuge, as everything past and present sits together, keeping one guessing until the very last minutes (these feature an earlier incarnation of Madison Square Garden). All of which prompt one to watch again Suddenly, a smaller-scale work in which Sinatra is mired in a killing spree. He was a better actor than many realise. Naturally, he appears at home whenever events here conspire to land him in a bar - and this disc has an extra in which he discusses the way in which a great brawl was staged. It looks as though a table fell apart in the course of events rather than being scored through to speed that crash. This is but one of the many details meticulously prepared which make so large scale a work curiously, even Oedipally intimate.

Fantastic Psychological Thriller - The Manchurian Candidate review by GI

This is one of the great psychological thrillers of the 1960s and it's often overshadowed by the 2004 remake, which pales in comparison to this tense, taut and wonderfully acted film from director John Frankenheimer. Frank Sinatra is Major Ben Marko, a US Army officer who returns home with his platoon at the end of the Korean War. On Marko's recommendation one of his men, Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) has been awarded the Medal of Honour for saving the platoon during an attack. But Marko begins having recurring nightmares that Shaw murdered two of the platoon in front of an audience of enemy officers. Shaw, the son of a famous politically ambitious and domineering mother (a brilliant Angela Lansbury), is now a respected journalist but he soon begins to exhibit strange behaviour. The plot twists and turns and there are some surprisingly violent incidents as the truth behind what happened in Korea and the effects on the men is revealed. Frankenheimer delivers a compelling story, a complex narrative that deals with issues of McCarthyism, political corruption and the traumas of war. It's easy to forget that there are great films like this out there waiting to be rediscovered. This is a classic and well worth seeking out if you've never seen it.