The Manchurian Candidate

Brainwashing with Frank and Angela? Yes, please! (Vol. 2; Issue 32)

Welcome aboard The Bus!

The Stop

Based on the 1959 novel by Richard Condon¹ and directed and produced by John Frankenheimer,² The Manchurian Candidate is a ‘prophetically tragic, chilling, brilliant,’ film-noirish Cold War thriller involving ‘brainwashing, conspiracy, the dangers of international Communism, McCarthyism, assassination, and political intrigue.’ Starring Laurence Harvey as a brainwashed Korean War hero programmed by the Soviets to assassinate a Presidential candidate, Frank Sinatra³ as the intelligence agent trying to crack the case, and Angela Lansbury⁴ and Janet Leigh,⁵ the film was released on 24 October 1962 - at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. A year later, following Kennedy’s assassination, rumours began circulating the film had been withdrawn from movie theatres due to it being ‘unnervingly close-to-the-truth’ about the President’s death. This is a myth, but - appropriately - ‘anticipated the American obsession with conspiracy theories’ that remains strong to this day.⁶

Synopsis:

As the film opens, Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Harvey) and Captain Bennett Marco (Sinatra) - responsible for an American infantry platoon serving in Korea - stop the ‘late night carousing’ of their troops in a Korean brothel-bar in order to go on a night-time manoeuvre. This proves disastrous as the platoon is ambushed and taken by helicopter to Manchuria to be held captive. What happens next is unclear, for next come the the opening credits and the following scene is stateside with the soldiers returning and Shaw being hailed as a war-hero. Cheering crowds and a band greet their plane and we learn he is to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour.

While speaking to a general, Shaw’s politically-motivated, power-mad mother Mrs Iselin (Lansbury) and his step-father Senator John Iselin, arrive and push their way through the crowd to capitalise on their son’s fame. Iselin is an aspiring, right-wing, buffoonish Vice Presidential candidate and when a photograph of his parents is taken with him under the banner ‘Johnny Iselin’s Boy,’ Shaw is disgusted to realise his mother has arranged the stunt to boost her husband’s electoral chances. After receiving his medal, Shaw shocks his parents by deciding to not return home with them on their campaign plane, but instead going to New York to work for the liberal publisher Holborn Gaines. Shaw’s mother denounces Gaines as a Communist, causing Shaw to express his revulsion for his parents’ virulent anti-Communism and his ‘affinity for his new boss’s animosity’ towards them both.

Some time later, (now) Major Marco is troubled by a recurring nightmare in which Shaw murders two soldiers in their platoon. In the nightmare, he and the soldiers are onstage at a ladies’ garden club party at the Spring Lake Hotel in New Jersey. An elderly white woman is speaking on the topic of ‘Fun with Hydrangeas’ while the platoon lounge about, completely disinterested. However, this is an illusion: the scene is actually a demonstration of the powers of hypnotism staged for various uniformed Korean, Chinese and Soviet officers and civilians during their captivity in Manchuria. During the demonstration, the brainwashed Shaw is ordered to strangle one of his men as the rest sit placidly and bored - an act which causes Marco to wake from the nightmare.

Marco confides to his superiors, noting it is curious that the men killed in his dream were the two deemed lost in action when the platoon finally returned. When asked how he feels about Shaw, Marco replies he saved their lives - and then robotically insists that ‘Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.’ Marco is reassigned to the Public Relations Corps just in time to be present at a press conference where Senator Iselin publicly accuses members of the government of being Communists.

Meanwhile, another former member of the platoon, Corporal Melvin, has been experiencing dreams similar to Marco’s. In his dream Marco is asked to describe the ‘first duty’ he will undertake after being returned from captivity, and the Major replies he will recommend Raymond Shaw is awarded the Medal of Honour for saving their lives and taking out a complete company of Chinese infantry. This is followed by another demonstration of the brainwashed Shaw’s ability to kill when he is told to shoot - ‘through the forehead’ - the youngest, favourite member of the platoon. With no hesitation, Shaw does - and as blood splatters on the portrait of Stalin behind them, Melvin screams himself awake. When his wife comforts him and mentions Shaw’s name, Melvin robotically repeats the same adulation about their leader that Marco had earlier.

In his New York apartment, Shaw is reading a letter from Melvin telling him about his terrible dreams and his fear of going crazy, when the phone rings. Answering it, he hears a male voice say, ‘Raymond, why don’t you pass the time playing a little solitaire?’ Robotically, Shaw begins dealing from a deck of cards until he sees the Queen of Diamonds - the trigger to activate his brain to obey any suggestions. The phone rings again and the voice tells him to meet at a hospital for a checkup. Under the cover of being in a hit and run accident, Shaw arrives at the hospital where a group of Communist infiltrators has taken over an entire floor. Shaw is checked to ensure he is ready to be turned over to his American operator, but in order to be sure he is still capable of killing Shaw is sent to kill Gaines in his home.

At this point the plot becomes complicated by more disturbing dreams, a martial arts fight with a Chinese houseboy, Marco’s realisation the awarding of the Medal of Honour was a sham, an accidental triggering of Shaw’s conditioned response which causes him to jump into a lake, a rekindled romance between Shaw and a former girlfriend (Leigh) when his mother realises the girl’s Senator father might come in handy, conversations between Shaw and Marco in which the two start to piece together what really happened that fateful night in Korea, Marco’s attempt to deprogram Shaw, additional murders and the revelation of the complicated assassination plot devised and run by Shaw’s American operator - his mother. 

In the film’s climax, Shaw is sent on his final mission - to assassinate the Presidential candidate so his stepfather (and mother) can sweep into power in the chaotic vacuum created by his death. By now, Marco has figured out the plan and races to stop him. From his vantage point high in Madison Square Garden, Shaw loads his rifle and aims the cross-hairs at the candidate’s head, waiting for him to utter the phrase - ‘nor would I ask of any fellow American in defense of his freedom that which I would not gladly give myself - my life before my liberty’ - which will trigger Shaw to shoot. At the last second, just as the word ‘liberty’ is spoken, Shaw - whether because of Marco’s attempts at deprogramming him or a sudden realisation of his parents’ evil - swings his aim from the candidate to his stepfather and shoots him through the head before reloading and fatally shooting his mother. As she collapses to the floor, he pauses to place his Medal of Honour around his neck. Marco bursts into the room just in time to see Shaw turn the rifle on himself and shoot, the echo of the blast dissolving into the thunderclaps of the rainstorm outside.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Original Trailer

The Detour

Today’s Detour is a short video (3:43) that will change the way you think (if you even do) about bagpipes.⁷ Gunhild Carling plays the bagpipes like a saxophone - and it’s amazing. Seriously - give this video a chance.

Gunhild Carling - 'Bagpipe Blues'

The Recommendation

Today’s recommendation is Stephen Kinzer’s Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control (2019). An interesting investigation into the leader of the CIA division responsible for researching mind control and brainwashing techniques in the 1940s-1960s,⁸ this is the true story of what inspired The Manchurian Candidate.

From the inside cover: The visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentle-hearted torturer - the Agency’s ‘poisoner in chief.’ As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he ran brutal experiments at secret prisons on three continents. He made pills, powders and potions that could kill or maim without a trace. He paid prostitutes to lure clients to CIA-run bordellos, where they were dosed with LSD and other drugs. For years he was the chief supplier of spy tools used by CIA officers around the world.

Stephen Kinzer draws on new documentary research and original interviews to bring to life one of the most powerful unknown Americans of the twentieth century. Gottlieb’s experiments destroyed many lives, yet he considered himself deeply spiritual. He lived in a remote cabin without running water, meditated, and rose before dawn to milk his goats.

During his twenty-two years with the CIA, Gottlieb worked in the deepest secrecy at the intersection of extreme science and covert action. Poisoner in Chief reveals him as a clandestine conjurer on an epic scale.

Remember: You can buy Poisoner in Chief at Amazon, but you can also get it from your local new or used bookstore - or check it out from the library. And those options are better for everyone.

The Sounds

Today’s playlist is a selection of five tracks that were all popular in 1962, the year of The Manchurian Candidate’s release: ‘Crying in the Rain’ (The Everly Brothers, 1962), ‘Johnny Angel’ (Shelley Fabares, 1962), ‘The Wanderer’ (Dion, 1961), ‘Breaking Up is Hard to Do’ (Neil Sedaka, 1960) and ‘She’s Got You’ (Patsy Cline, 1962). Enjoy!

The Thought

Today’s Thought is from the Danish philosopher - and father of existentialism - Søren Kierkegaard:⁹

‘People settle for a level of despair they can tolerate and call it happiness.’

If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:

And that’s the end of this stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!

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Until the next stop …

1. Author of numerous novels, including the Prizzi series which starts with Prizzi’s Honour (1982).

2. Who also directed Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Seven Days in May (1964), French Connection II (1976), The Island of Dr Moreau (1996) and Ronin (1998).

3. Yep, Frank. Who actually broke a finger during the martial arts scene midway through the film when he hit a table that was real and not a breakaway prop - but, in true Sinatra style, kept on acting. Though it evidently didn’t heal properly and caused him discomfort for the rest of his life.

4. Though she played his mother in the film, Lansbury was actually only three years older than Harvey. She was also the second choice for the role - Sinatra had wanted Lucille Ball, but Frankenheimer convinced him otherwise.

5. Two years after her starring role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

6. This is one of my favourite films, and one I used to show as part of a Film as Literature unit in one of my high school classes back in the 1990s. It’s filled with great set pieces and some rather adventurous editing. If you’ve not seen it, give it a try. Sources for today’s Stop include: The Manchurian Candidate (1962), The Manchurian Candidate and The Manchurian Candidate.

7. Seriously, it’s something else. My personal experience with the bagpipes is limited, and it’s only been on two occasions that I found anything remotely intriguing about them: once at a wedding in Malta where the newlyweds (he’s Scottish) left the church to the strains of Highland Cathedral - a piece which combines pipe organ with solo bagpipe - and once in Amsterdam where a solo bagpipe was being played at one end of Dam Square and the sound just circled around and around the streets. Which was rather special.

8. Including running Operation Artichoke - see The Bus 1.42 (29 August 2022).

9. For more information about Kierkegaard, see The Bus 1.17 (2 June 2022).