The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

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Shocking, daring, thrilling and mesmerizing, The Manchurian Candidate is a mindblower! Directed by the legendary John Frankenheimer (Seven Days in May, The Train, Seconds, Ronin) and featuring an all-star cast, including Angela Lansbury (The Mirror Crack'd) in an Oscar-nominated performance (Best Supporting Actress, 1962), this eerily prescient masterpiece may be the most sophisticated political satire ever made (Pauline Kael). When a platoon of Korean War G.I.s is captured, they somehow end up at a ladies' garden club party. Or do they? Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra, Von Ryan's Express) can't remember. As he searches for the answer, he discovers threads of a diabolical plot orchestrated by the utterly ruthless Mrs. Iselin (Lansbury) and involving her war hero son (Laurence Harvey, A Dandy in Aspic), her senator husband (James Gregory, The Silencers) and a secret cabal of enemy leaders. Janet Leigh (Touch of Evil) and Henry Silva (Code of Silence) also play pivotal parts in one of the best and brightest of modern American films (Roger Ebert).