The Manchurian Candidate (1962): Director John Frankenheimer’s chilling film-noir Cold War thriller was remade in 2004 and updated with a Gulf War theme but the original, which opens in 1952 Korea, is the masterpiece. It has a complex plot but the gist of it is that an American platoon was captured and sent to Manchuria where they were subsequently brainwashed before being released back to their units under a phony story and unaware of their ordeal. After the war it is gradually revealed that Staff Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) has been trained to be an unwitting assassin – to be activated by his own domineering mother (Angela Lansbury) who is also a communist agent.

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Shaw’s bombastic stepfather, Senator John Iselin (James Gregory), is a politician on the rise – and also a communist agent – who is a part of a plot that will take him all the way to the White House. At a crucial moment Shaw is to be activated by his mother to kill her husband’s rival, thereby initiating a series of chaotic events that will ultimately install the “Manchurian Candidate” into power.

But all along another former platoon member, Maj. Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra), suffers recurring flashbacks and dreams about the time they all spent as prisoners in Manchuria and comes to suspect that he and the others were in fact brainwashed. Eventually he uncovers the plot, finds Shaw, and discovers just how far it goes. Shaw, clueless throughout, is a tragic figure as he comes to realize his condition and moves to act accordingly. (more…)

Produced for television in 1997 and just released on DVD, director John Frankenheimer’s three-hour docudrama on the adult life of Alabama governor George Wallace (Gary Sinise),  plays like a quality theatrical film, and not just because of impressive production values. A winner of multiple awards, including 2 Golden Globes and 3 Emmys, “George Wallace” is a welcome throwback to the classic biopics of old.

Crafting a screenplay around the life of a historical figure is no easy task. Screen stories demand a three-act structure and reality isn’t always so convenient. For the last couple decades, screenwriters have too often leaned on a stormy marriage or substance abuse – or both – to solve this dilemma, but as last year’s spoof “Dewey Cox,” made clear, this framing device is long past cliché and needs to be retired. (more…)