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The Manchurian Candidate

Director: John Frankenheimer Run Time: 126 min. Format: DCP Rating: PG 13 Release Year: 1962

Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, James Gregory

In 1962, the iconic thriller The Manchurian Candidate foretold the story of media in shaping public opinion in an insider threat (homegrown terrorism anyone?) about a Korean War hero secretly programmed as a sleeper mole to assassinate a Presidential candidate.  The pseudo-documentary initially flopped at the box office, was banned in Soviet bloc countries, and withdrawn from circulation after the assassination of JFK. It was also remade in 2004 with Denzel Washington and a demonic Hillary Clinton (whoops! Meryl Streep) to add, umm, color.  The original, starring Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury, still stands up with a Hitchcock-like climax.

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