October 24, 1962: "The Manchurian Candidate" Premieres

October 24, 1962: The film The Manchurian Candidate premieres, based on Richard Condon's 1959 novel. The fact that the Cold War-themed film's scheduled premiere turned out to be during the Cuban Missile Crisis probably brought it more hype than expected.

The film starts with the Red Chinese capturing a platoon of U.S. soldiers during the Korean War, and brainwashing them. (Manchuria is northeastern China.) Most of them are brainwashed only into believing that one of them, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, a shy, not particularly combative type (played by Laurence Harvey), saved their lives. Another, Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra), recommends him for the Congressional Medal of Honor, based on this incorrect belief.

The trick is that this "war hero" is being set up for a political rise, as his conniving mother, Eleanor Iselin (Angela Lansbury), already a Communist agent, is married to his stepfather Senator John Iselin (James Gregory, later Barney Miller's Inspector Luger). Ironically, the Senator is a Red-baiter, like the late real-life Senator Joseph McCarthy. He is being set up to be nominated for Vice President, and the "hero" will then assassinate the Presidential nominee, setting the stepfather up to be President and the mother as the power behind the throne, aiding the Red cause. The climactic convention scene was filmed at the old Madison Square Garden.

One of the brainwashers is Dr. Yen Lo, played by Khigh Dhiegh, later to be better known for playing Wo Fat, the villain of the original Hawaii Five-O series. Janet Leigh, then the wife of Tony Curtis, and the mother of Jamie Lee Curtis, also appears as Rosie Cheyney, Bennett's girlfriend.

Sinatra had creative control over the film, and originally wanted Lucille Ball to play the mother -- which would have been as big a shock to 1960s viewers as it turned out to be to see kindly old Henry Fonda as the ruthless villain in the 1969 film Once Upon a Time in the West.

But Sinatra's choice as director, John Frankenheimer, coming off directing The Birdman of Alcatraz, had worked with Lansbury on the film All Fall Down, and insisted that Frank watch that film with him. Seeing it convinced Frank to cast Lansbury instead, even though she was only 3 years older than the actor playing her son, Harvey. In a further irony, Harvey died young, of cancer in 1973, while Lansbury just died at the age of 96, and was still acting almost until the end. (The year before, she had played the mother of Elvis Presley's character in Blue Hawaii, and was only 9 years older than Elvis.)

Frankenheimer directed political thrillers again with Seven Days in May in 1964, and the terrorists-at-the-Super Bowl Black Sunday in 1977. He lived until 2002. Dheigh died in 1991, Sinatra in 1998, Gregory in 2002, and Leigh in 2004.

Also in 2004, a remake of The Manchurian Candidate was released, directed by Jonathan Demme. It moved the war and brainwashing to the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Instead of the Communist nations, the antagonists are Manchurian Global, a private-equity firm that has been "buying" members of Congress to cut their taxes and eliminate regulations on business.

This time, the evil mother is a Senator (Meryl Streep), who maneuvers her Manchurian-controlled Congressman son (Liev Schreiber) to the Vice Presidential nomination, on a ticket with a Senator (Jon Voight) she hates but can't stop legally, and the election happens, and their party wins. So she sets up Marco (Denzel Washington) to assassinate the President-elect. As in the original, at the last moment, the Shaw character does the right thing and prevents the assassination.

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October 24, 1962 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that James Brown gave the concert that became the album Live at the Apollo. I have a separate entry for that event. And Jay Novacek, the tight end on the Dallas Cowboys' 3 Super Bowl wins of the 1990s, was born on this day.

The baseball season had ended 8 days earlier, with the New York Yankees beating the San Francisco Giants in Game 7 of the World Series. Football was in midweek. The NHL season was underway, but no games were scheduled.

There were 2 games played in the NBA. The Chicago Zephyrs beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 118-107 at the Chicago Coliseum. Walt Bellamy scored 42 points. The next season, the Zephyrs became the Baltimore Bullets. In 1973, they moved to Washington. In 1997, they were renamed the Washington Wizards.

And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Cincinnati Royals, 121-114 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Oscar Robertson scored 31 points. The Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968. The Royals became the Kansas City Kings in 1972, and the Sacramento Kings in 1985.