The Manchurian Candidate – Kino Lorber (4k UHD)

Theatrical Release Date: USA, 1962
Director: John Frankenheimer
Writers: Richard Condon, George Axelrod, John Frankenheimer
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish, John McGiver

Release Date: June 20th, 2023
Approximate Running Time: 126 Minutes 18 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: PG-13
Sound: DTS-HD Stereo English, DTS-HD 5.1 English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $39.95

"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." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about the transfer, "Brand New HDR/Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative."

The Manchurian Candidate comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD

Disc Size: 87 GB

Feature: 85.4 GB

The source used for this transfer looks excellent. Image clarity is outstanding, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image always looks organic. That said, this transfer easily beats all of this film’s previous home video releases.

Audio: 4/5 (DTS-HD 5.1 English), 3/5 (DTS-HD Stereo English)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English and a DTS-HD stereo mix in English. Though both audio tracks sound clean, the lack of the original mono track is disappointing. That said, the DTS-HD 5.1 track is the stronger of these two audio tracks. For a remix track, it does a very good job expanding the original mono source. Then there is the DTS-HD stereo track that has odd panning and echo issues. Included are removable English SDH.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc include an archival audio commentary with director John Frankenheimer.

Extras on the Blu-ray disc include a theatrical trailer (1 minute 52 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), an archival outtake with filmmaker William Friedkin titled Phone Call (26 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival outtake with actress Angela Lansbury titled How To Get Shot (1 minute 7 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with William Friedkin titled A Little Solitaire (13 minutes 17 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with Angela Lansbury titled Queen of Diamonds (14 minutes 51 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), and an archival extra with actor Frank Sinatra, John Frankenheimer and screenwriter George Axelrod.

Other extras include a slipcover (limited to the first pressing) and trailers for The Train, The Holcroft Covenant, 52 Pick-Up, Ronin, Room at the Top, Touch of Evil, and The Manchurian Candidate (2004).

Summary:

Directed by John Frankenheimer, whose other notable films are Birdman of Alcatraz, The Train, Seven Days in May, and Seconds.

The narrative revolves around A former sergeant who was given a medal for his bravery in the Korean War is brainwashed and turned into an assassin by communist sympathizers that want to take over America by executing a coup d’état.

The Manchurian Candidate was made during a time when McCarthyism and its aftereffects were still fresh in the majority of Americans minds. At the core of McCarthyism was a political witch hunt to expose anyone who supported or sympathized with communism. And by the time support for McCarthyism began to wane, there were literally hundreds who were falsely accused, imprisoned, and blacklisted from their professions.

Thematically, The Manchurian Candidate would explore the things that have since become synonymous with McCarthyism. Also, when The Manchurian Candidate was first released, the Cold War with the U.S.S.R. was at its height due to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which started ten days before this film was released. And the threat of communists infiltrating the USA was considered a real possibility. This type of threat runs deep throughout The Manchurian Candidate, a film that features a protagonist who has been brainwashed by communists. This character has been programmed to essentially be a weapon that the communist sympathizers plan to use to gain control of The United States government.

The narrative is meticulously constructed to the point that no detail, no matter how small, is insignificant. Another area where The Manchurian Candidate excels is in its well-defined characters, whose motivations are always crystal clear. Outside of the protagonist, Raymundo Shaw, there are no gray areas with the other characters, as they are all either portrayed as good or bad. And not to be overlooked is The Manchurian Candidate’s stunning use of black-and-white cinematography and wide-angle lenses, which reinforce The Manchurian Candidate’s paranoia overtones. Also, there are many remarkable moments visually. The one that stands out more than any other is the sequence where Raymond Shaw and his platoon are being brainwashed. In this scene, the camera moves in a 360-degree motion around the room, which reveals its realities. Shaw and his platoon believe that they are at a garden party with a group of elderly ladies, when in reality they are in a room full of communists all wearing their military uniforms.

From a performance standpoint, one would be hard pressed to name many films that, from top to bottom, have as many great performances as there are in The Manchurian Candidate. These three actors anchor The Manchurian Candidate. Laurence Harvey (Darling) in the role of Raymond Shaw; Angela Lansbury (Bedknobs and Broomsticks) in the role of Raymond’s overbearing mother; and Frank Sinatra (The Man with the Golden Arm) in the pivotal role of Major Bennett Marco. Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury’s characters serve opposite purposes with regard to Raymond Shaw's character. Where Frank Sinatra’s character is the one who helps unravel the conspiracy. It is Angela Lansbury’s character who is the mastermind behind the said conspiracy. And as good as they are in their respective roles, The Manchurian Candidate would not have worked as well as it does without Laurence Harvey’s tour de force performance. Ultimately, The Manchurian Candidate is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking that has not lost any of its potency.

The Manchurian Candidate gets a first-rate release from Kino Lorber that comes with a solid transfer and insightful extras; unfortunately, the audio options are a massive disappointment.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer