Reviews (119)

Candidate for the Best Political Satire of its Time
Have you ever seen Frank Sinatra kicking a Korean man and shouting: What was Raymond doing with his hands? No? Well, here is your chance. Quite seriously though, this is one of the better movies out there. It turns out Raymond was brainwashed into becoming an unconscionable killing machine, and his hand movements were imitating a game of solitaire--the trigger for thoughtless actions, including the taking of human life.

The movie is a dark political satire that exposes politics as a game in which the lust for power is the dominant motive. Angela Lansbury is here in one of her best roles as a traitorous witch behind a bluffing, blustering, Joseph McCarthy-ite Senator. This is also one of Sinatra's better roles, as he displays quite a range of acting: from depressed aloofness to irrepressible violence. The movie has real characters, even though there was a danger it would end up with stick figures and straw men. But no, everything is done superbly, including the McCarthy-ite thug of the Senate and the liberal senator with a milk cartons. Even the Russian operative from the Pavlov Institute in Moscow is a real character.... "always with a touch of humor."

Excellent Classic Thriller
The Manchurian Candidate, starring Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, and Angela Lansbury, is a well-acted film based on the novel about a mind-controlled assassin created to facilitate a political coup. Sinatra is the former army colleague of the man programmed for the deed, and he begins to have nightmares about the experience where his unit was captured in Korea and then brainwashed by Russian & Chinese personnel. Laurence Harvey plays the programmed killer, who is promoted as a war hero (and the other unit members programmed to praise him even though his real personality was unpleasant). Sinatra's character begins to work with military intelligence to uncover the Harvey character's memories and uncover the full plot, which involves the mother of the programmed assassin, played by Lansbury as the wife of a U.S. Senator seeking the Presidential nomination on the heels of his McCarthy-esque tirades against communists in the government. This clever plot unfolds with a smooth pace, and Janet Leigh provides a stylish role as Sinatra's romantic interest as he pursues the main mystery. The DVD has some extra commentary on the film, with Sinatra & the director providing their insights, although there could have been more bonus material and improved picture quality for the DVD transfer.

I wanted to love this movie
I wanted so badly to love this movie, and on some level, I do. My first viewing (on DVD since I didn't get to see it when it originally came out) wasn't the best experience. I got lost. Oh, I understood the basic plot and thought it was one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen, but I missed some things. On a second and third viewing, I STILL didn't get some of the connections. As I said, I got the main idea and thought this brilliant, but some of the writing failed to connect the dots. Even if you don't like every line/connection/piece of the plot, you have to like the acting. The ending will (sorry for the pun), blow you away. Can't wait for the remake.

The original classic
The Manchurian Candidate is a John Frankenheimer directed film set in the middle of the cold war. A group of US soldiers is captured and then brainwashed by the North Koreans and returned to the US lines. Members of the patrol begin to have strange dreams which are in reality the repressed memories of their brainwashing technique.

The crux of the story is the manipulation of one of the soldiers [Shaw] by his mother who's marriage to a McCarthy like senator hides the fact she is really a communist plant. The patrol's commander, played by Frank Sinatra in a fine performance, slowly pieces togther what occurred behind North Korean lines.

Manchurian Candidate predates the Kennedy assasination and the assasination itself was a key reason that the film was later taken out of circulation until the 1980's. A masterpiece of paranoia and political intrigue, The Manchurian Candidate set the tone for a slew of like minded conspiracy films none an finely made or anywhere near as chilling. Both Sinatra and Angela Landsbury in the role of Shaw's mother, put in very fine performances.

Highly recommended.

Political satire and thriller rolled into one
"The Manchurian Candidate" was a product of its era that has managed to transcend the era that produced it. This political satire and thriller captures the sense of paranoia that existed in America during the 50's and early 60's. Frank Sinatra, Lawrence Harvey, Angela Lansbury and James Gregory all give top notch performances in John Frankenheimer's classic film of Richard Condon's novel.

A platoon of soliders are betrayed by their military guide and captured by the North Koreans during the Korean War. Their subjected to mind control techniques to make one of them the perfect assassin. When they return home, the platoon's captain (Sinatra)begins having nightmares where his Sgt. Shaw (Harvey)kills two of his men in cold blood. In these dreams they are surrounded by the enemy in a lecture hall being conditioned for the mind control experiments. It's clear that the Sgt. has been conditioned to become a "sleeper" agent--impossible to detect because he doesn't know that he's now an agent for a foreign power. Additionally, Shaw's mother (Lansbury)uses the concerns over communists in the US government to launch her husband's (Gregory)bit to be put on the ticket for the vice-presidency.

This new edition comes with two featurettes. The first features director William Freidkin ("The French Connection", "The Exorcist", "To Live and Die in L.A.")in an appreciation of Frankenheimer's career. Freidkin discusses how "The Manchurian Candidate" broke with the conventions of political thrillers of the time. The second features 15 minute interview with Angela Lansbury about working on the film.

The animated menus is also new and the features from the first disc including Frakenheimer's marvelous commentary track are kept in tact. Do you need to upgrade to this new edition? Only if you didn't purchase the previous one. The previous edition had both the widescreen and full screen versions of the film and all the features here except the two previously mentioned featurettes. ... Read more

Reviews (49)

Good film, less suspenseful than dramatic
There is great tension in this film, but the suspense is less frightening than we see in some of Hitchcock's other films.

What's really great about this film is the directorial art, in visuals and timing and setups -- and the acting is fabulous. How often did we get to see Stewart really flex his dramatic muscles in so complex and potentially somewhat dark and hard character? Song or no song, Doris Day does a fine job of acting through Que Sera-Sera, and it is artfully placed and used within the film for dramatic effect. Personally, I feel and understand her predicament, even though I don't find myself as involved with the characters as I do in Rear Window. That, however, may just be me, since Rear Window is my favorite Hitchcock film -- and I find it easier to identify with Grace Kelly's character than I do with this one.

Overall, a fabulous film, worth watching. If you get past the clothes and cars, you'd never know when it was made -- personally, I don't care!

Hitchcock Sleeper Classic now on WIDESCREEN DVD!!!!
The 1956 Widescreen Color "The Man Who Knew Too Much" is a remake of Hitch's 1934 Standard Screen Black & White British version. (Hitch didn't come to the United States until 1939). As he stated, "the 1934 version was directed by an amateur and the 1956 version by a professional."

This was to be the second of 5 brilliant films made from 1954 - 1960. (the others are; Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959) & Psycho (1960)). This was Hitchcock at his best, in fact these last 4 were voted to AFI's (American Film Institute's) top 100 films in the last 100 years (1998). So you can see why "The Man Who Knew Too Much" was overlooked. A definite sleeper classic!!!

Summary: James Stewart, wife Doris Day and son are on a vacation in Morocco. They are accidently swept up in an assassination plot to occur in London. The assassin group kidnaps their son as insurance of their silence and hold him hostage. Doris Days rare dramatic role is outstanding and her singing the Oscar winning song, ("Que Sera, Sera") high light this brilliant spy thriller. Jimmy Stewarts natural acting ability (Hitchcocks favorite male actor) pulls off being Doris Days husband.

The Anamorphic Widescreen Color presentation is excellent. The "Making of - with Patricia Hitchocks (Hitch's daughter) comments is very interesting & informative.

Que Sera Sera

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Format: Color
Studio: Universal Studios
Video Release Date: August 3, 1999

Cast:

James Stewart ... Dr. Ben McKenna
Doris Day ... Jo McKenna
Brenda De Banzie ... Lucy Drayton
Bernard Miles ... Edward Drayton
Ralph Truman ... Buchanan
Daniel Gélin ... Louis Bernard
Mogens Wieth ... Ambassador
Alan Mowbray ... Val Parnell
Hillary Brooke ... Jan Peterson
Christopher Olsen ... Hank McKenna
Reggie Nalder ... The assassin
Richard Wattis ... Assistant manager
Noel Willman ... Woburn
Alix Talton ... Helen Parnell
Yves Brainville ... Police inspector
Carolyn Jones ... Cindy Fontaine
Harry Fine ... Edington
Alex Frazer ... Man
Wolf Frees ... Aide to the foreign Prime Minister
Milton Frome ... Guard
Leo Gordon ... Chauffer
Walter Gotell ... Guard
Frank Atkinson ... Taxidermist
Bernard Herrmann ... Himself (conductor)
Alfred Hitchcock ... Man in Morocco marketplace
George Howe ... Ambrose Chappell Sr

Harold Kasket ... Butler
Barry Keegan ... Patterson
Lou Krugman ... Arab
Lloyd Lamble ... General manager of Albert Hall
Donald Lawton ... Desk clerk
Mayne Lynton ... Taxidermist
John Barrard ... Taxidermist
Edward Manouk ... French waiter
Richard Marner ... Aide to the foreign Prime Minister
John Marshall ... Butler
Lewis Martin ... Detective
Louis Mercier ... French policeman
Ralph Neff ... Henchman
Leslie Newport ... Inspector at Albert Hall
John O'Malley ... Uniformed attendant
Liddell Peddieson ... Taxidermist
Arthur Ridley ... Ticket collector
Patrick Aherne ... Handyman
Eric Snowden ... Special Branch officer
Alexi Bobrinskoy ... Foreign Prime Minister
Guy Verney ... Footman
Anthony Warde ... French policewoman
Patrick Whyte ... Special Branch officer
Peter Williams ... Police sergeant
Richard Wordsworth ... Ambrose Chappell Jr
Allen Zeidman ... Assistant manager
Clifford Buckton ... Sir Kenneth Clarke
Peter Camlin ... Headwaiter
Abdelhaq Chraibi ... Arab
Gladys Holland ... Bernard's girlfriend
Barbara Howitt ... Soloist in Albert Hall sequence
Enid Lindsey ... Lady Clarke
Janet Macfarlane ... Lady in audience
Betty Bascomb ... Edna
Elsa Palmer ... Cook
Mahin S. Shahrivar ... Arab woman
Alma Taylor ... Box office woman
Janet Bruce ... Box office woman
Naida Buckingham ... Lady in audience
Barbara Burke ... Assassin's girlfriend
Pauline Farr ... Ambassador's wife
Bess Flowers ... Woman in Hotel Lobby

On vacation in Marrakech, Morocco, Dr. Ben McKenna (James Stewart), his wife Jo (Doris Day) and their son Hank (Chrisopher Olson), meet a secret agent, Louis Bernard (Daniel Gélin) who is killed because he is in possession of a secret: a statesman is about to be assassinated in London. Before he dies, he confides in McKenna some of the details. To keep the doctor quiet, the
bad guys grab his son, Hank, and threaten his life.

This is the story as it unfolds. Hitchcock does his usual fine job of keeping up the tension, and of course Stewart and Day do their usual excellent job of acting. This is a superb thriller, and endlessly entertaining.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

Shows that Doris Day can act
When this film was made, people were confused at the choice of Doris Day as the mother whose son is kidnapped. However, Doris Day is outstanding in this, and very convincing. She is more than just 'funny girl' actor who appeared in so many comedies.

The film does however suffer from being very dated. It starts off well, but goes pair-shaped halfway through. I'm not a fan of James Stewart, and wonder why Hitchcock used him so often. Didn't he realise that there were other actors around? He acted the same in all his films. Yawn!

The DVD is features packed. There's a "Making Of," Trailors and nice anamorphic transfer. Some reviews have criticised the transfer, but i actually think it is much cleaner than the supposedly restored "Vertigo" withDVD.

Doris Day Shines!
Alfred Hitchcock did a wonderful job on this 1935 remake of The Man Who Know Too Much. Dr. Ben McKenna, played by James Stewart, his wife, Jo (Doris Day), and their son are vacationing in French Morocco. They meet up with many suspicious charaters, but they befriend one man, played by Daniel Gelin. Their friend was a detective and was shot in front of many people while in the midst of trying to solve a case. Then the McKenna's son is kidnapped by some other "friends". The police aren't helping with the case so Ben decides to figure out who the kidnappers are by himself. This is the only Alfred Hitchcock film in which a song is sung. The song "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" won an Acadamey Award. Doris Day's acting is brilliant. She really got me to feel like I was her. That my son had just been kidnapped and I could not go on living. The movie was so good that I cried because I was deeply affected by the charaters feelings and emotions. This is one of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock thirllers and one of my favorite Doris Day films. ... Read more

Description

MARK OF THE DEVIL Positively The Most Horrifying Film Ever Made

This is one that historians and gorehounds alike still speak of with shock and awe, the movie so extreme that audiences were given free barf bags! Herbert Lom (THE DEAD ZONE), Udo Keir (BLADE), Herbert Fox (EUGENE) and the ultra creepy Reggie Nalder (SALEM'S LOT) star n this infamous epic of fanatical 18th Century witchfinders who rape, torture, dismember and burn thousands of nubile young women falsely accused of fornicating with Satan. Can you stomach the agonizing torment of the damned. Behold the gut-wrenching horror of MARK OF THE DEVIL!

MARK OF THE DEVIL has been completely restored from recently discovered vault materials - including all of its scenes of unspeakable torture - and is now presented totally uncut, uncensored and packed with startling new Extras that finally reveal the full controversial history behind what still may be "positively the most horrifying film ever made!" ... Read more

Amazon.com

Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante) is an American reporter living in Rome who witnesses what appears to be a murder. Trapped by a glass wall, he can't intervene, but does manage to scare off the killer. Wounded, the victim survives, and Dalmas's curiosity drives him to look further into the story, but he soon finds himself and his girlfriend in jeopardy and stalked by the would-be murderer. Director Dario Argento's debut film is a remarkable work, more restrained than many of his later films. Based on an obscure 1950s pulp novel, Bird draws heavily on Hitchcock, as well as on American novelists such as Dashiell Hammett and Cornell Woolrich.At the same time, its execution makes it a highly original, inventive, and fast-paced film that plays with the conventions of the thriller genre. As was often the casewith Hitchcock's work, Dalmas is a spectator to the original crime, reflecting the voyeuristic role of the film audience. He's an ordinary guy who unravels the circumstances of the crime until he comes across the most unlikely scenario, a device also reminiscent of Hitchcock. The score, editing, and camera work, however, give the film a distinctly Italian stamp, and established Argento as a stylish, innovative director to watch. The scene in which Dalmas is chased through the streets by a gun-toting assassin, in particular, is a little gem of suspense. Modern-day thrillers should hope to live up to this film's intelligence, energy, and intricate plot twists.--Jerry Renshaw ... Read more

Reviews (28)

Broad appeal for Argento's debut feature
Even those who don't care for writer-director Dario Argento's later baroque extravaganzas may warm to his debut feature "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage" (L'Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo, 1969), a well-received thriller in which an American writer living in Rome (Tony Musante) witnesses an assault on a woman in an art gallery and is subsequently targeted by the would-be assassin, a crazed psychopath who's been terrorizing the city with a series of brutal murders. Typical of an Argento thriller, the hapless hero's investigation unleashes a cycle of violence which culminates in a climactic unmasking that will take some viewers completely by surprise. Loosely inspired by Fredric Brown's novel 'The Screaming Mimi' (filmed under that title in 1958), Argento's first film is a fairly straightforward thriller with horror asides, anchored by a strong narrative, an increasingly bizarre series of supporting characters, and a strong Everyman hero who slots the puzzle together piece by piece before realizing that the most important clue to the killer's identity was there in front of him all the time. Musante is given excellent support by English actress Suzy Kendall as his girlfriend (the scene in which she's besieged alone in her apartment as the killer hacks through the door with a knife is truly the stuff of nightmares) and Enrico Maria Salerno as the cop charged with finding the killer before he/she strikes again.

Despite Argento's prior screenwriting credits, including significant contributions to the script of Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" (C'era una Volta il West, 1969), producers were unconvinced of his directorial abilities and wanted to pull him off the picture during the first few weeks of shooting, but Argento persevered under an iron-clad contract and ultimately proved his critics wrong with the finished product, a genuinely engrossing mystery punctuated by scenes of explicit horror. The film puts a late-1960s Italian spin on the kind of movie that Hitchcock had already popularized in America, and is leavened with the same kind of uproarious humor: Salerno gets the best line of dialogue during a police line-up when he despairs: "How many times do I have to tell you? Ursula Andress belongs with the transvestites, not the perverts!" And later, an outrageously camp antiques dealer offers a jaw-dropping description of one of the killer's former victims: "It was said she preferred women. I couldn't care less - I'm no racist, for heaven's sake!" Briskly edited by Franco Fraticelli, and featuring a brief appearance from distinctive character actor Reggie Nalder ("Mark of the Devil", "Salem's Lot") as an assassin-for-hire, "Bird" is arguably Argento's warmest, most humane thriller until "Tenebrae" (Tenebre) in 1982.

VCI's region-free DVD runs 95m 47s (not including the UMC logo at the beginning, which wasn't part of the original film) and restores all of the violence that was cut from the initial US theatrical release. The restored material is derived from a separate source - possibly VHS - and is of lesser quality than the bulk of the film, which offers a bright, colorful rendition of the Cromoscope image, slightly reframed to 2.20:1 (from the original 2.35:1), anamorphically enhanced. VCI were forced to issue a 'corrected' version of the disc when it was discovered that one of the restored sequences - the bedroom murder - had been edited incorrectly. However, both versions offer an unnecessary two-channel stereo 'enhancement' of the mono original which sounds more than a little forced and unnatural, made worse because the dialogue is badly out of sync for the duration of the movie, and while the film relies primarily on Vittorio Storaro's widescreen visuals, the audio blemish provides a hideous distraction during prolonged conversation sequences. Ennio Morricone's lilting, melancholy music score is cut off at the end, just as the last credits disappear from the screen, whereas it continued for almost another minute in the theatrical version. There's a letterboxed trailer and an audio-only soundtrack option, but no captions or subtitles of any kind.

Fast-paced and clever
There are two types of Dario Argento films: those after "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" (excluding "The Five Days of Milan," which was never released in the U.S.) and those before it. "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage," Argento's first film, belongs to the category of the before and includes the noticeable differences between the two. While the entire body of Argento's work is something to admire, his first three films are surprisingly well-plotted, given Argento's notorious lack of interest in matters of narrative structure. "Bird" begins with Sam Dalmas, an American writer living in Rome, witnessing an attempted murder in an art gallery. Though he is unable to do anything, his fortuitous arrival saves the victim from almost certain death. His passport confiscated and at first held as a suspect, Sam is told by the police that this is the fourth attack in one month. The only difference is, the victim, a beautiful woman named Monica Ranieri, was the first to survive. Troubled by the idea that he saw something that didn't quite fit, he soon begins his own investigation, putting both his life and the life of his girlfriend at great risk. Several attempts are made on their lives, and everytime Sam is able to learn of someone who might be able to help him, that person is murdered. Finally, in a double-twist ending, Argento reveals the identity of the killer in a cleverly constructed manner. A pure delight from start to finish, "Bird With the Crystal Plumage" is one of the most entertaining (if minimal) thrillers since Hitchcock. Another attribute is Argento's knack for always creating a cast of wonderfully offbeat characters. Be sure to catch Inspector Morosini's exclamation regarding the "perverts" in the line-up sequence. Black humor is equally interwoven with generous amounts of suspense to create a fast-paced and clever mystery/thriller.

A brillant debut!!!
I saw this movie after seeing many other films from the master of horror Dario Argento and I was a little scared about this one but surprisingly I found it very interesting for a first picture from a new director. The cold colors, the calculating plot and suspense keep you into a nail bitting tension from the start to the end. The only bad thing from the movie is probably the english traduction but this is very often from foreign motion pictures. It`s a must for the fans of Dario but also a great thriller for the others.

His first and arguably one of his best
I really couldn't tell you why I have yet to watch every film in Dario Argento's filmography. A few years ago it was easy to claim ignorance of many of this Italian director's important works because it was often so difficult to find any of them in an uncut form. Fortunately, DVD arrived on the scene and salivating film fans with dollars to spend prodded numerous companies to start churning out any movie they could get their hands on to satiate the masses. It wasn't too long before practically every Argento film arrived on store shelves, with many of these releases being the uncut, unrated editions. Even Troma, the flagship of flaccid filmmaking, released a so-so version of Argento's "The Stendhal Syndrome." People outside of the world of Italian horror cinema have most likely never heard of Dario Argento, unfortunately. These days, more people are familiar with the director's beautiful daughter Asia than with the horror maestro himself. What a shame. Argento's films, at least the ones I have seen, are masterpieces of style injected with truly cringe inducing gore. And to think it all started in earnest with this engaging Hitchcockian thriller, "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage." Argento and his fans never looked back, but this is an apt starting point for those unfamiliar with this director's work.

An American reporter staying in Rome witnesses a truly shattering event one evening when he sees a gruesome assault takes place inside of an art gallery. Barred from interfering with the proceedings due to huge sliding glass doors, Sam Dalmas can only look on with horror as two figures, one clad entirely in black and the other a woman, struggle with each other over a very shiny knife. The person in black flees the scene of the crime, leaving behind the hapless woman with a knife wound to the abdomen. When Dalmas does his duty by calling in the police, his story leads the officers to cast a doubtful eye on the concerned American. The police insist that Sam stay in Rome until the investigation turns up some clues, much to the consternation of Dalmas and his pretty girlfriend Julia. It seems that Sam was planning to leave Rome, but all bets are off as more murders occur that the police suspect are linked to the crime seen by Dalmas. Moreover, Julia and Sam start receiving grim phone calls from an unknown person who almost certainly is the figure behind these crimes. Our hero is in a real fix, with his only supporters being his woman and a friend who works at a museum. At least the cops start to come over to his side as the bodies pile up, especially once they listen to those eerie phone calls. A unique sound in the background of one of these calls provides the break Dalmas needs to identify the killer he saw on that fateful night. The conclusion has more twists and turns than a cyclone.

"The Bird With the Crystal Plumage" helped inaugurate the era of the Italian giallo (Italian for yellow), so named because in Italy cheap paperback crime novels came with yellow covers. These are the films with the anonymous, black-gloved killers toting gruesome looking knives while stalking their mostly female prey. The crimes are often seen from the point of view of the killer, giving the audience the impression that they are part of the heinous murders. Argento plays the giallo for all its worth here, matching this disturbing technique with a great score by the inestimable Ennio Morricone and camera work rarely seen in the horror genre. The cinematography here is simply divine, with the director including a shot from the point of view of a man falling from a tall building and an ultra cool scene where the camera points at a lighted doorway from inside a darkened room. All these elements combine to make this film a taut thriller of enormously entertaining dimensions. Moreover, of the few Argento films I have seen to date, "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage" contains one of his most coherent plotlines.

Gorehounds might find themselves a bit disappointed with the lack of the trademark Argento gore (no sharp corners to bash a head against here!) in this movie, but the stellar camera work, truly creepy scenes of murder and mayhem, and the strong performances from Tony Musante as Sam Dalmas and Suzy Kendall in the Julia role more than make up for the 'PG' rating. Still, that rating made me wonder a bit about what the people at the MPAA were thinking when they viewed this picture. There is upsetting violence here, along with some truly disturbing scenes that hint at where Argento would go in the future. The way the killer caresses those weird looking blades (one of which, I am almost certain, appeared in a later Argento film called "Deep Red") and the participatory effect the audience feels during the killings makes you wonder how this movie got off with such a mundane rating.

The DVD version of "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage" is strictly bare bones: you get the film and a trailer, which is good considering its relative obscurity but could have been better. As others have said, the audio is quite muzzy at times and the picture quality isn't anything to write home to mother about. After viewing this picture and a couple of other Argento films, I must say I really enjoy how these movies mess with your mind. Just when you think you know what's going on, good old Dario throws another curveball. He does this in many of his films, but he does it here for the first time. What a joy it is to watch it today!

A SUSPENSEFUL THRILLER!!!
THIS FILM HAS THE RIGHT ATMOSPHERE FOR A CREEPY THRILLER AND IT KEEPS YOU INTERESTED THROUGHOUT.
THE MOVIE ALSO FEATURES A "SURPRISE" ENDING THAT YOU PROBABLY WON'T PREDICT.
IT'S FAIRLY SAFE TO SAY THAT THIS THRILLER SUCCEEDS ON ALL LEVELS AND IS A GOOD WAY TO PASS 100 MINS. PLUS!!
I ENJOYED THIS HORROR THRILLER AS YOU WILL WHEN YOU SEE IT!!
IF YOU ENJOY THE MOVIES OF HITCHCOCK, YOU MAY ENJOY THIS FILM ALSO!! ... Read more

Amazon.com

You will never find a more chillingly suspenseful, perversely funny, or viciously satirical political thriller than The Manchurian Candidate, based on the novel by Richard Condon (author of Winter Kills). The film, withheld from distribution by star Frank Sinatra for almost a quarter century after President Kennedy's assassination, has lost none of its potency over time. Former infantryman Bennet Marco (Sinatra) is haunted by nightmares about his platoon having been captured and brainwashed in Korea. The indecipherable dreams seem to center on Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), a decorated war hero but a cold fish of a man whose own mother (Angela Lansbury, in one of the all-time great dragon-lady roles) describes him as looking like his head is "always about to come to a point." Mrs. Bates has nothing on Lansbury's character, the manipulative queen behind her second husband, Senator John Iselin (James Gregory), a notoriously McCarthyesque demagogue. Digital video disc extras include interviews with Sinatra, producer George Axelrod, and director John Frankenheimer, and audio commentary by Frankenheimer. --Jim Emerson ... Read more

Reviews (119)

Candidate for the Best Political Satire of its Time
Have you ever seen Frank Sinatra kicking a Korean man and shouting: What was Raymond doing with his hands? No? Well, here is your chance. Quite seriously though, this is one of the better movies out there. It turns out Raymond was brainwashed into becoming an unconscionable killing machine, and his hand movements were imitating a game of solitaire--the trigger for thoughtless actions, including the taking of human life.

The movie is a dark political satire that exposes politics as a game in which the lust for power is the dominant motive. Angela Lansbury is here in one of her best roles as a traitorous witch behind a bluffing, blustering, Joseph McCarthy-ite Senator. This is also one of Sinatra's better roles, as he displays quite a range of acting: from depressed aloofness to irrepressible violence. The movie has real characters, even though there was a danger it would end up with stick figures and straw men. But no, everything is done superbly, including the McCarthy-ite thug of the Senate and the liberal senator with a milk cartons. Even the Russian operative from the Pavlov Institute in Moscow is a real character.... "always with a touch of humor."

Excellent Classic Thriller
The Manchurian Candidate, starring Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, and Angela Lansbury, is a well-acted film based on the novel about a mind-controlled assassin created to facilitate a political coup. Sinatra is the former army colleague of the man programmed for the deed, and he begins to have nightmares about the experience where his unit was captured in Korea and then brainwashed by Russian & Chinese personnel. Laurence Harvey plays the programmed killer, who is promoted as a war hero (and the other unit members programmed to praise him even though his real personality was unpleasant). Sinatra's character begins to work with military intelligence to uncover the Harvey character's memories and uncover the full plot, which involves the mother of the programmed assassin, played by Lansbury as the wife of a U.S. Senator seeking the Presidential nomination on the heels of his McCarthy-esque tirades against communists in the government. This clever plot unfolds with a smooth pace, and Janet Leigh provides a stylish role as Sinatra's romantic interest as he pursues the main mystery. The DVD has some extra commentary on the film, with Sinatra & the director providing their insights, although there could have been more bonus material and improved picture quality for the DVD transfer.

I wanted to love this movie
I wanted so badly to love this movie, and on some level, I do. My first viewing (on DVD since I didn't get to see it when it originally came out) wasn't the best experience. I got lost. Oh, I understood the basic plot and thought it was one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen, but I missed some things. On a second and third viewing, I STILL didn't get some of the connections. As I said, I got the main idea and thought this brilliant, but some of the writing failed to connect the dots. Even if you don't like every line/connection/piece of the plot, you have to like the acting. The ending will (sorry for the pun), blow you away. Can't wait for the remake.

The original classic
The Manchurian Candidate is a John Frankenheimer directed film set in the middle of the cold war. A group of US soldiers is captured and then brainwashed by the North Koreans and returned to the US lines. Members of the patrol begin to have strange dreams which are in reality the repressed memories of their brainwashing technique.

The crux of the story is the manipulation of one of the soldiers [Shaw] by his mother who's marriage to a McCarthy like senator hides the fact she is really a communist plant. The patrol's commander, played by Frank Sinatra in a fine performance, slowly pieces togther what occurred behind North Korean lines.

Manchurian Candidate predates the Kennedy assasination and the assasination itself was a key reason that the film was later taken out of circulation until the 1980's. A masterpiece of paranoia and political intrigue, The Manchurian Candidate set the tone for a slew of like minded conspiracy films none an finely made or anywhere near as chilling. Both Sinatra and Angela Landsbury in the role of Shaw's mother, put in very fine performances.

Highly recommended.

Political satire and thriller rolled into one
"The Manchurian Candidate" was a product of its era that has managed to transcend the era that produced it. This political satire and thriller captures the sense of paranoia that existed in America during the 50's and early 60's. Frank Sinatra, Lawrence Harvey, Angela Lansbury and James Gregory all give top notch performances in John Frankenheimer's classic film of Richard Condon's novel.

A platoon of soliders are betrayed by their military guide and captured by the North Koreans during the Korean War. Their subjected to mind control techniques to make one of them the perfect assassin. When they return home, the platoon's captain (Sinatra)begins having nightmares where his Sgt. Shaw (Harvey)kills two of his men in cold blood. In these dreams they are surrounded by the enemy in a lecture hall being conditioned for the mind control experiments. It's clear that the Sgt. has been conditioned to become a "sleeper" agent--impossible to detect because he doesn't know that he's now an agent for a foreign power. Additionally, Shaw's mother (Lansbury)uses the concerns over communists in the US government to launch her husband's (Gregory)bit to be put on the ticket for the vice-presidency.

This new edition comes with two featurettes. The first features director William Freidkin ("The French Connection", "The Exorcist", "To Live and Die in L.A.")in an appreciation of Frankenheimer's career. Freidkin discusses how "The Manchurian Candidate" broke with the conventions of political thrillers of the time. The second features 15 minute interview with Angela Lansbury about working on the film.

The animated menus is also new and the features from the first disc including Frakenheimer's marvelous commentary track are kept in tact. Do you need to upgrade to this new edition? Only if you didn't purchase the previous one. The previous edition had both the widescreen and full screen versions of the film and all the features here except the two previously mentioned featurettes. ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Walt would not approve
While purporting to be based on "actual accounts" of witch trials, MARK OF THE DEVIL is obviously serious about nothing except being a sadistic turn on. Make no mistake about it, this is a graphic, gruesome exercise in Nihilistic pessimism not to be viewed by the faint of heart. It is to violence what hard cord pornography is to sex: a reduction to and wallowing in the most explicit details the censor will allow. The fact that we know they are faked doesn't make the horrific actions any easier to watch.

With one major exception, the virtues of MARK OF THE DEVIL are all negative. It is refreshingly free of the optimistic cant that infects most movies. There is no effort at any "positive human values." Quite the contrary, the movie both dramatizes and appeals to the bestial side of human behavior. This emphasis on the negative doesn't make the film any more true to life than Hollywood's Pollyanna view of experience. Given how infrequently such negativism is allowed to be expressed on screen, however, its utter relentlessness here is salutory. People watch movies for all sorts of reasons, to match all sorts of moods. I don't see why we shouldn't have something to watch, say, after we've had to deal with an idiotic bureaucrat, or after we've been stuck in traffic for two hours, or after having to sit through a Disney movie... The film's bleak take on life can satisfy the darkest mood.

MARK OF THE DEVIL has the one positive virtue of many exploitation films, a lot of highly inventive filmmaking. This extends not just to the gory inserts, but to a first-rate use of the locations, a wealth of period décor, very sharp editing, and a resourceful, imaginative use of the camera. None of this is likely to make it less offensive for those who turn away from a negative portrayal of humanity. On the contrary, it may make it worse to know that the film was made by talented people. But if nothing else you come away from this film knowing one should always give the Devil his due.

there's more to bad had from this than you think
The first thing that catches my attention about Mark Of The Devil is the opening sequence with the Morricone-like music that graces it. What I found to be disturbing was the fairy-tale like location and the sadism that visited. The town seems like a peaceful alpine Mayberry, but its denizens will sell each other out to the worst forms of torture at the drop of a hat to save their own skins, which as the point of this movie proves, are worthless. The real horror, and I do believe this was historically true, is the helplessness of everyone in this film to stop the events of witchfinding once they are set in motion. There is nothing more terrifying than for someone else to have complete control over your life-and Lom holds a whole village in his hand, end revels in being able to pull their strings and bring out the worst qualities of the helpless villagers.
Herbert Lom is adequate as the villain; he does a good job with his character's ability to barely conceal his Sadean lust. Udo Kier is also interesting as the ingenue. Granted where this film does begin to spin out of control is when the director tries to imbue his hero/heroine with a freewill choice of foiling Lom. Then it's time to suspend your belief for the remainder of the film. The ending almost redeems the original mood. All in all a pretty worthwhile see.

Fast forward review
You can tell when a sleaze film has hype by checking out the auction action, and the uncut DVD version of this is reaching 3 figures! No, it's not worth it, unless you're some kind of collector. But even a tape is a good acquisition for sex sleaze fans. There are several scenes for a compilation vid.

Let's see, first we got one of the mean witch finders cornering a girl in a bar and sticking a needle in her bare back. No nudity, but fairly realistic. Then we got a nude in a rack with various whip marks and such, having her footsies warmed up in full detail. There's a female whipping, but fully clothed, and too much cutting back and forth between the girl and the ugly face of the guy doing the whipping. We got two witch burning scenes, about as good as such things get, but no nudity. Oh yeah, I forgot, one girl is cured of talking too much, but it's more of a gore scene if you catch my drift.

That's it, I afraid, aside from wasted potential in the form of a nude sitting in a nail chair and being whipped, but oops . . . it's a guy!! Really bad call by the producers there. One star for the two burnings, one for the girl on the rack, one for the other scenes, but one star demotion for insufficient fast forward warning that you're checking out a male set of boo-toks. There. Want to pay full boat for two stars?

Total clip length worth saving; about a minute and a half. Wouldn't it be interesting to make one of these movies that had no plot at all, just a lot of realistic tortures? And no focusing on the priest dude holding a feather pen in his hand yelling for confessions either, makes editing the clip a pain. Ah well, they don't seem to be making these sleaze movies anymore. Maybe we could talk someone into making one about Uday, you know, current events being the cover? But no Olympic team stuff, please, let's stick to babes, eh?

there's more to be had from this than you think
The first thing that catches my attention about Mark Of The Devil is the opening sequence with the Morricone-like music that graces it. What I found to be disturbing was the fairy-tale like location and the sadism that visited. The town seems like a peaceful alpine Mayberry, but its denizens will sell each other out to the worst forms of torture at the drop of a hat to save their own skins, which as the point of this movie proves, are worthless. The real horror, and I do believe this was historically true, is the helplessness of everyone in this film to stop the events of witchfinding once they are set in motion.
Herbert Lom is adequate as the villain; he does a good job with his character's ability to barely conceal his Sadean lust. Udo Kier is also interesting as the ingenue. Granted where this film does begin to spin out of control is when the director tries to imbue his hero/heroine with a freewill choice of foiling Lom. Then it's time to suspend your belief for the remainder of the film. The ending almost redeems the original mood. All in all a pretty worthwhile see.

I was there in 1972
I was 12 when I saw this in my hometown theater. I did, in fact, receive a barf bag. The film was such a local sensation, especially among the teens, that the crowd at the sold-out opening surged at the ticket office, sending a guy through a plate-glass window. I have to say, at 12 years old, the film was pretty cool...it was so fake, but at the same time I was covering my eyes and squinting at the screen in a total gross-out experience. It was great! This film was obviously produced specifically for kids. Kids often have a better grip on reality than adults in the first place anyway.

Sorry, people didn't find my initial review helpful. Ok. Here are some helpful highlights from "Mark of the Devil:"
1. Bare-bottomed torture on a seat of nails.
2. Beheading
3. Stabbings with long sharp needles
4. Extracting a woman's tongue and holding it up to the camera for a closeup
5. Stretching on the rack
6. Thumbscrews
7. Branding with hot irons

Don't miss it! ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Who let the vampire dogs out?
Ah, those Communists; it's all their fault, you know. In Zoltan, Hound of Dracula, the forces of Communism unleash a mean, lean, killing machine in the form of a huge, fanged vampire dog on the good old USA. Sure, the film makes it look like it was accidental, but I have to ask: why was the Red Army going around blowing up holes all over Romania? There can be only one explanation: they were trying to find an ancient vampire tomb so they could bring a vampire back to life and enlist him in their cause. And that comrade who sacrificed his life for the cause? Clearly a ringer. Let's say I'm guarding a newly discovered Dracula family tomb when the earth starts quaking and a coffin slides out of the mausoleum onto the floor? Do I open the coffin? Do I then, seeing a stake projecting from the innards of the shrouded corpse inside, reach right in and pull the stake out just for the heck of it? No. Nobody would do that - unless they were acting under orders (or were just born stupid). What soon emerges from the coffin is a huge black dog (code name: Zoltan) who sates hundreds of years of blood hunger on his benefactor. The vampire canine quickly frees his old buddy, one of Dracula's servants, from another coffin, and the two reunited friends scurry off into the night. The servant is only a partial vampire; the sun doesn't bother him and he has no craving for blood; all he has is a fervent need to serve a master and a really silly expression on his face whenever he supposedly concentrates. Inspector Blanco, played by Jose Ferrer, knows all about the Dracula family, and he knows that the risen servant will go looking for a new master - and there is only one surviving member of the ancestral Dracula bloodline remaining (which is strange when you realize the guy has a son and daughter of his own), a perfectly normal human fellow named Drake living in California.

Drake and his family have just begun a two-week camping vacation - it's not one they will soon forget. The family keeps being bothered by and eventually attacked by great big dogs, losing their own dogs in the process. Dracula's servant's master plan is to use his ever-growing number of vampire dogs to get the family out of the way and then take Drake's blood, thereby turning him into the Dracula heir and master he is seeking. The film completely goes to the dogs by the time Inspector Blanco finally finds Drake to warn him about the whole vampire thing. If you think your neighbor's dog barks loudly in the middle of the night, wait until you hear a constant cacophony of huge dogs whooping it up for a full half hour. This isn't a bad thing, though; I rather liked the way the dogs were used in this film, doing all of the dirty work for the weird undead servant. The ending of the film gets a little bit hokey, and then it gets even a little hokier, but I actually enjoyed this film a great deal.

I must warn fellow animal lovers out there that some dog characters meet with an unhappy fate in this film. Worst of all, a litter of cute little adorable puppies gets dragged into the whole mess. Personally, I don't care what happens to human characters in horror films - the more gruesome the death, the more I like it. But to bring pain and misery to poor little puppy characters is hard for an animal lover like me to watch.

You know, a number of really talented canine actors and actresses basically carried this movie on their backs; they acted their hearts out, looked more like fanged vampire killers than most humans ever do, and for what? For no credits whatsoever, that's what. Sure, the trainer gets his name listed; even the person who supplied the dogs gets to see his name up in lights; yet not one canine actor was given any credit in the making of this movie. You name the movie after a canine vampire, but you won't even list the dog's real name? Where is the justice in this? This is a good horror movie, and credit should be given where credit is due.

Pretty scary dog!
I've watched this movie several times and never found it boring. To think of meeting a dog like that on a dark lonely street. Heck, I'd be scared in broard day light. Any horror fan would love this movie. Just don't watch it alone!

Creature Of The Night
plain bore with no redeeming values at all unless you enjoy listening to demonic barks or watching dog attack training techniques for fun

Badder than Cujo!
I just discovered this gem, it is now a favorite horror movie of mine. If you like that 70's type of campy horror like I do, you'll love this one. The action is good and the dog is totally cool. The characters are pretty good considering the type of movie it is also. This a different look at Dracula movies that is not very well known.

Zoltan, Hound of Dracula
An interesting entry in the vampire legend, I think any horror fan should see this film. This movie has some genuine chills, and it makes you want to think twice before you leave the family pooch out at night. Reggie Nalder's performance as the undead slave and the eerie atmosphere of the film make it worthwhile to checkout. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

A Hilarious Film of Devlish Proportions
One of Bill Cosby's first mainstream films and a hoot a minute. The real star is supposed to Elliot Gould and he is indeed great as Max Devlin, a not so nice chappie who is hit by a bus and finds that he has gone to hell and hell is not a very nice place...In order to stay out of the infernal flames the Devil gives him a second chance, go back to earth and persuade three innocent people to sell their souls to the Devil. Max is all for it at first and to make sure he completes his task he is accompanied back to the land of the living by one of the Devil's helpers, played to perfection by Bill Cosby. The film isn't what you would call a mover and shaker when it comes to the storyline, the plot and the characters, but it fun and it will make you laugh. Max soon finds that he has gained a conscience as he tries to persuade his three victims to sign over their souls and he falls in love with the mother of his young victim played admirably by Adam Rich. Add to this a wonderful soundtrack, the song, "Roses and Rainbows," sung by Julie Budd is a cracker and you have a film that will have you chortling and crying in the same breath. Cosby is delicious as the Devil's helper who isn't really as bad as he tries to make out, and he certainly proves that he is a hell of an actor (ouch that pun hurt!) in this gloriously funny and poignant film about, man, the devil and the human heart.

the devil and max devlin
This is not actually a review. I love the movie, have it on vhs and would like to get the dvd. However, it doesn't appear to be closed-caption. Any suggestions?

I Don't Care What They Say...I Liked It!!
I've read the other reviews of this movie and I'm surprised they're so negative! While I'll admit that it's a little long and that, although I love Julie Budd, they play her big "hit song" about to death, overall I though it was great and had a great lesson or two in there...you just have to look a bit below the surface to find the powerful ones. (i.e., if you accept the devil's terms, you've already lost) I'll stop there for fear of giving too much away.
I think this movie is funny, entertaining and maybe not for really young kids. I'll bet the viewers who were bored grew up with The Terminator rather that good old fashioned Disney films.

Have trouble sleeping? Insert this and push 'play'.
Bill Cosby has a lot in common with Bob Newhart, they both were a huge success at releasing uproariously funny comedy albums, and hit sitcoms and both were in dreadful films. This is one such Cosby flop. Cosby is the Devil. In the first half hour of the film a person (on earth) offhandedly remarks that it is as hot as hell, Cosby laughs and says he doesn't know how hot it is. That my friends is the funniest line in the picture. A true turkey.

I Just Plain Didn't Like It...
I just didn't like this movie. The story was bland and idiotic. The acting was TERRIBLE, led with two memoribly terrible performances from Bill Cosby (The scene where he turns into the devil near end, it was almost funny. It would have been if it wasn't so BAD!!!), and Julie Budd (The "Phone Scene" was educational to me. I learned that I could actually sleep with my eyes open!) An all around terrible film, with an even worse soundtrack! The only reason I'm giving it 1 star is because I can't give it zero! ... Read more