The Manchurian Candidate

[MichaelB]

Release Date: 16th February 2015
Format: Blu-ray
Starring: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh
Directed by: John Frankenheimer

Synopsis: WHY DON’T YOU PASS THE TIME BY PLAYING A LITTLE SOLITAIRE?

After saving the lives of his platoon during the Korean War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is hailed as a bona fide American hero. This couldn’t have come at a better time for his mother (Angela Lansbury) who is hell-bent on boosting the career of his stepfather, a senator straight from the McCarthyite wing of the US political spectrum with designs on the Presidency.

So far so familiar – but why does Shaw’s former captain (Frank Sinatra) have recurring nightmares that suggest that his distinguished comrade-in-arms might not be all that he seems?

Based on the memorably paranoid bestseller by Richard Condon (Prizzi’s Honor), this is one of the greatest of all Cold War suspense thrillers, not least for its alarmingly original take on the notion of “the enemy within”. Angela Lansbury won multiple awards and an Oscar nomination for her performance as one of the most monstrous mothers in screen history, but perhaps the most unnerving thing about the film is the way that its political satire remains so perfectly on target more than half a century later.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the main feature, transferred from original elements by MGM
- Uncompressed 1.0 PCM soundtrack
- Optional English SDH subtitles
- Audio commentary by director John Frankenheimer
- The Directors: John Frankenheimer, an hour-long portrait from 2000, including interviews with Frankenheimer, Kirk Douglas, Samuel L. Jackson, Roy Scheider, Rod Steiger and many others
- Interview with John Frankenheimer, Frank Sinatra and screenwriter George Axelrod from the film’s 1988 revival
- Queen of Diamonds: an interview with Angela Lansbury
- A Little Solitaire: an appreciation of the film by director William Friedkin (The Exorcist)
- Stills gallery
- Theatrical trailer

There will certainly be more - I'm just reluctant to go public with the details until the new pieces are actually in the can. But the hour-long doc on Frankenheimer means that this is already a substantial advance on MGM's US BD.

[Finch]

Happy to replace the MGM BD for the documentary and the booklet alone. Nice choice by Arrow.

[Drucker]

Glad I never picked up the MGM DVD. Can't wait to get this. Excellent.

[hearthesilence]

FWIW, the MGM DVD lists a mono track, but their Blu-Ray does not, so I'm glad Arrow is apparently using the original mono track.

(BTW, does anyone know how MGM did the 5.1 mix? Is it fake surround sound?)

[MichaelB]

Given that quite a few people reacted to the soundtrack format announcement, I asked James White to double-check the master (which I haven't personally examined yet), and he's just confirmed that the soundtrack is indeed mono.

I can't answer your question about the 5.1 remix, but someone on Blu-ray.com described it as:

really disconcerting and annoying, as voices changed direction in mid-sentence to reflect cuts to a different shot angle.

[olmo]

William Richert's 'Winter Kills' would make a good companion piece, also from a Richard Condon novel featuring cold war paranoia and assassination. Saw it years ago and remember the strange motif of a woman riding a bicycle as a pre-cursor to a killing.

It has a superb cast also, Sterling Hayden in one of many great, autumnal roles; The Godfather, The Long Goodbye, 1900. Also Jeff Bridges, Anthony Perkins & John Huston.

[antnield]

Packaging pics.

[manicsounds]

Cineoutsider

[MichaelB]

Quite a few reviews have emerged in the last few days:

AV Forums
Beaver
Blu-ray.com
Flickering Myth
House of Mortal Cinema
Rhythm Circus
60 Minutes With
10K Bullets

[PfR73]

The MGM Blu-Ray had 2 short features not listed in the Arrow specs:

-How to Get Shot (SD; 1:07) features Lansbury discussing how she prepared for the film's denouement, only what she says she does she doesn't do in the film, funnily enough.
-Phone Call (SD; 00:26) is a brief but funny outtake from the Friedkin interview.

The 10K Bullets review states there is an easter egg featuring Lansbury, which I assume is "How To Get Shot." Is the Friedkin outtake also somewhere on the Arrow disc?

[MichaelB]

They're both on the disc, and easy enough to find - but I won't spoil it for you!

[David M.]

Yep, all there.

[PfR73]

Great to hear this can completely replace the MGM disc!

[MichaelB]

Great to hear this can completely replace the MGM disc!

Unless you have a hankering to hear the 5.1 remix, of course.

We did briefly debate including it, but given the bad press and the fact that it would have taken up valuable disc space (at a premium on the DVD, thanks to the hour-long Frankenheimer doc), we thought "nah".

Otherwise, though, everything that's on the MGM release has been ported across to this one.

[olmo]

Am I the only one that can see similarities with Welles's Lady From Shanghai, in the way the film's shot? Can't help but think Frankenheimer must have been a fan of the film, he also incorporates the same quirky feel as well as the scene construction in the placement of the actors during dialogue scenes.

Lansbury even pinches Everett Sloane's 'loverrrrr' refrain.

Maybe it's just me..