It's not the most memorable moment of "The Manchurian Candidate" but it is too delightfully and subversively goofy to be ignored: an inebriated Senator John Iselin (James Gregory),disguised as Abraham Lincoln, is dancing the limbo, George Washington would rap in a Simpsons' episode but that was three decades later, here we're in 1962 and the film's statement about politics isn't just ahead of its time but also plays like a stinging retort to all the patriotic, flag-brandishing and crowd-pleasing Capra messes that anaesthetized the masses.

To be fair, Capra also highlighted the corrupting effect of political ambition, but the Iselins would have convinced Mr. Smith to emigrate to Argentina. "The Manchurian Candidate" doesn't just satirize politics, it writes as words of Gospel that power in politics isn't a mean but an end, which means that the right and left distinction is rather sterile, the whole point is to reach power by denigrating the enemy and brainwashing the masses. Under the armor of apparent cynicism, the script, brilliantly written by George Axelrod, fabricates its own alibi. When you have a demagogue using the Red Scare to intimidate his adversaries and his mastermind wife implicated in a real communist conspiracy, say what you want but it's a fair trade.

On that political level only, the film is a triumph of writing, so ahead of its time it was deemed prophetic a day of November 1963. And that's something no one could ever foresee, not director George Frankenheimer, not the screenwriter George Axelrod, not Robert Condon who wrote the original novel and not Frank Sinatra who was rumored to have limited the diffusion of the film in respect to Kennedy's memory. It would be hard to imagine that the film inspired the assassination, but it did nourish the wildest theories about Lee Harvey Oswald being an agent of the Soviet, if not brainwashed like Raymond Shaw (Lawrence Harvey) in Manchuria, but being manipulated with extreme prejudice.

In our world where Internet became a beehive of conspiracy theorists, it's not difficult to grasp the appeal of a movie like "The Manchurian Candidate", it is not just modern by today's standards, but it's disconcertingly relevant. And yet; this a movie of many, many layers on brilliances and the political aspect isn't even the showiest one. In fact, I'm only going to quote the tag-line, "If you come in five minutes after this picture begins, you won't know what it's all about! When you've seen it all, you'll swear there's never been anything like it!". Indeed, I can think of a thousand movies like "The Manchurian Candidate", but none of them preceding it.

The statement about missing the five minutes is also true, in a subtler way. The first minutes aren't about the operation that get the whole platoon knocked out with the complicity of the interpret (Henry Silva),the point is to show that Raymond Shaw is the one who doesn't have fun and even in the next scene, warmth isn't his strongest suit as he doesn't display it either with his parents. Granted the poor man's McCarthy is only his stepfather (as he loves to mention) but she's his mother! Yet the perpetually malcontent is awarded the Medal of Honor, recommended by Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) and is described by everyone as the "warmest, bravest, most charming man they ever met".

They all repeat the same expression and all have the same dream involving a mysterious demonstration session lead by Chinese people and showing the "bravest and warmest" man casually executing two soldiers. It's not much the killing that is disturbing than the fact that it involves the two who didn't make it. If Shaw did kill, he didn't let it exude from his attitude and with good reason, as he was not only programmed to kill, but to never remember that he did. Shaw couldn't pass as a guilty man because he would know it himself. The programming is brilliant and brilliantly displayed through a mix of dream sequences and solitaire games where the Queen of Diamonds play like action-buttons.

The directing and the visual symbolism is so straight-forward that we never perceive it as surrealism, the film maintains a very straight and legitimate aspect despite a few creative digressions that could have been borrowed from Hitchcock, which encompasses an atmosphere of suspicion where every moment of awkwardness can be rightfully or wrongfully suspected. When the interpret wants to be hired as Shaw's cook, our suspect-radar is engaged but when Sinatra meets Janet Leight on the train, the dialogue is so bizarre that we suspect something codified behind. We'll never know but we sure wouldn't have remembered the scene had they exchanged banalities.

In the end, there's also this constant feeling of an impending doom all through the film, anyone can be a spy, a mind-controller, an evil force, and this is where "The Manchurian Candidate" gets its ticket to cinematic posterity. Indeed, for all the malevolent forces it inhabits, forcing a man to commit murders, one of them being pretty hardcore for the time of the film, or the level of corruption that shows absolutely no regard for the dignity of human beings, for all the bad guys who populate it with their sinister smiling face, the bigger bad of all comes from one woman. As the evil and domineering Mrs. Eleanor Shaw Iselin, not the woman behind the great man, but THE "great man" of the whole scheme, Angela Lansbury portrayed one of the most iconic villains of history, a woman who knows no bounds when it comes to satisfy her selfish impulses. She's so creepy that it's not just the way she hates that is disturbing, but the way she loves, too.

In a movie that goes so far in terms of originality, we're not even shocked by Mrs. Iselin's behavior, we're just fascinated. And what I said could apply for the whole film.

There are works of fiction whose very name can conjure up images and meaning for people who have never even experienced them. The Manchurian Candidate, the 1962 film based on Richard Condon's 1959 novel, is one such example. The film's title has entered into the public consciousness, a term for brainwashing and seemingly incomprehensible betrayal in common use. Yet how many of those who use the term have seen the film and experienced what is likely to be one of the best thrillers of its era or any other?

Part of what makes the film so successful is, perhaps paradoxically, the fact its based on a novel. Having read Condon's original novel a couple of years ago and then coming back to the film a couple of times subsequently, it is amazing to see how much of it makes its way into the film. It's not just brushstrokes that make their way in but entire scenes with large portions of dialogue presented with little edits made to them (the much discussed first scene between Marco and Rosie is a prime example). Even some of the costuming choices are drawn straight from Condon's novel. Scriptwriter George Axelrod is able to take the dark comedy of Condon's novel and put it into what is essentially a thriller that satirizes the McCarthyism of the previous decade and makes it all work together. Not everything makes it into the film of course but much of what makes the film memorable (the plot and dialogue especially) is owed to its source material and the wise decision of Axelrod in keeping as much of it as possible.

Axelrod's script is only part of what makes The Manchurian Candidate the film that it is. Part of it is, of course, the cast. Frank Sinatra was a solid choice for the role of Major Marco who finds himself first facing a potential phantom from his past before realizing that he, and the country he serves, is facing a much larger threat. Laurence Harvey was likewise a good choice for the always odd and never quiet normal Raymond Shaw whom is at the center of the film's plot. Though given a top credit, Janet Leigh's Eugenie Rose Chaney actually doesn't have much to do in the film except perhaps be a romantic foil for Sinatra and a bit of a red herring but Leigh shines in what scenes she does have thanks to her chemistry with Sinatra. The supporting cast is solid as well from James Gregory as the bombastic McCarthy like Senator Iselin to John McGiver as his rival Senator Jordan with Henry Silva, Khigh Dheigh, and Albert Paulsen in roles of varying villainy. There is one other name that needs to be mentioned though.

Because, perhaps oddly, the real star of the film is credited fourth in the film's title sequence. Angela Lansbury's performance as Raymond's mother has become something legendary and not without good reason. Despite being not much older than Harvey was when the film was made and made to look the part thanks to what must have been some excellent make-up, Lansbury was perfect casting for the role. For those who only know her from Murder, She Wrote will be in for a shock as they see the same often quiet determination give in to bouts of conniving manipulation across much of the film's running time. Mrs. Iselin is the power behind the throne, quietly moving pieces around while those around her (namely her senator husband and son Raymond) take the credit. Yet few things will prepare the unsuspecting viewer for the revelations that pile up towards the end of the film including a scene that is every bit as recoiling now as it must have been in 1962. It is no surprise that she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as it still stands as one of cinema's greatest villains.

Last but definitely not least, are those behind the camera. The stark black and white cinematography of Lionel Lindon serves the film well with its neo-noir feel that uses shadows and interesting angles to suggest how 'off' things often are. That is especially true when combined with the editing of Ferris Webster and when the two are combined during the film's lecture scenes or with the climactic sequence at the convention, the results are truly stunning. Director John Frankenheimer brought together a fine team to help him bring Condon's novel to the screen and his work on the film stands as among the best of his long career and there is little doubt that it stands up so well as a result of his work.

All of this combines to make The Manchurian Candidate both an excellent thriller and a fine film. From Axelrod's adaptation of Condon's idiosyncratic novel right down to its dialogue, the performances of the entire cast, and the direction of Frankenheimer, the film is a masterclass on how to adapt a novel to the screen faithfully and yet tell a tense and utterly enthralling story at the same time. It's no wonder that it has become not just a touchstone for films but in the culture at large for it is simply a well made and enjoyable piece of work ever after fifty-five years.

By the dawn of the 60s America had not been through with McCarthy-ism, the Korean War, and Communist witch hunts when it was already aiming towards a Cold War situation and ultimately, Vietnam. So much plays into this movie which came out at exactly the right time and place that even years later, layers of subtext can be garnered from its paranoiac, frightening images.

Power is a deadly thing to deal with, especially when it falls into the hands that should have it the least, and the word seems to dominate every angle of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE like a glowing ball of fire. The power to control minds and bend them to darker wills. The power to control the people into believing what the powers-that-be want. The power to demolish anything or anyone considered an even remote obstacle. The power to seize power, extend it outward, blindly, into a waiting globe.

And so does this disturbing, dark tale of the search for power in the political world takes place, with some of the most indelible images ever transferred onto the face of cinema. Frankenheimer amps up the paranoia already oozing from the story and with some truly nightmarish sequences brings forth a Creation that always seems like it will disclose some hideous, unseen force playing behind the scene -- the deceptive hydrangea scene at the beginning of the movie and the train scene where a shaken Sinatra meets Leigh who seems to be sincere are two very uneasy sequences to follow through, for example, because both disorient and succeed in sticking needles of doubt into your mind in more ways than one. You know something is completely wrong here and what lies beneath is always unsettling than what is eventually uncovered.

This is a character study as well as a political satire: while there is plenty of tension throughout, deep characterizations come through, and needless it is to me to state Angela Lansbury's terrifying performance as Mrs. Iselin, or Laurence Harvey's chilling portrait of a non-entity, a victim and a puppet who's design is to serve as a killing machine and a false hero. Much can be also said of Janet Leigh's Rosie, since her part suggests she also knows and is more than what she reveals, but sadly the film drops what might have been an interesting side story from the moment she appears on the train and talks in that coded language. It seems she only serves to be Sinatra's "controller." As for Sinatra himself, he's an asset and a weakness. He's too old to be Laurence Harvey's equal in combat, and his persona often comes through, but he does tune in a measured performance as the damaged General Marco.

MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE is one of those stories that detail the loss of innocence in America (with its killing of the more honest Senator Thomas Jordan and his almost pure daughter Josie, done without music, but in two long takes) and its transition to a super-power bent on political domination, and it chills to the bone to see it still today, 42 years later.