The Manchurian Candidate
A haunted army captain races to expose a covert brain‑washing plot that has turned his celebrated comrade into a puppet assassin, before the conspirators can trigger a deadly political coup.
“When you've seen it all, you'll swear there's never been anything like it!”
Synopsis
At the close of the Korean War, a U.S. military platoon is captured by communist forces and subjected to brainwashing. After the war ends, the soldiers are repatriated, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw is celebrated as a war hero by his fellow platoon members. However, the platoon's commander, Captain Bennett Marco, begins to experience disturbing nightmares and becomes determined to uncover a sinister conspiracy.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 39
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Ferris WebsterShot by Lionel LindonScored by David AmramDesigned by Richard Sylbert
Box Office
1962 · Box office
✅ Made its money back — grossed 3.5× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$7.7M
Re-release box office
- 19885 theaters
- $202K($565K today)
Domestic gross earned in theatrical re-release, by year · adjusted for inflation
Also known as
- Botschafter der Angstde
- El embajador del miedoes
- El mensajero del miedoes
- Un crime dans la têtefr
- Va' e uccidiit
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Cast & Crew
39 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Frank Sinatra
as Major Bennett Marco
Laurence Harvey
as Raymond Shaw
Janet Leigh
as Eugenie Rose Chaney
Angela Lansbury
as Mrs. Iselin
Henry Silva
as Chunjin
James Gregory
as Sen. John Yerkes Iselin
Leslie Parrish
as Jocelyn Jordan
John Mcgiver
as Senator Thomas Jordan
Khigh Dhiegh
as Dr. Yen Lo
James Edwards
as Corporal Allen Melvin
Douglas Henderson
as Col. Milt
Albert Paulsen
as Zilkov
Supporting cast
20Barry Kelley
as Secretary of Defense
Lloyd Corrigan
as Holborn Gaines
Madame Spivy
as Female Berezovo
Bess Flowers
as Gomel's Lady Counterpart (uncredited)
Leoda Richards
as Woman at Press Confrence (uncredited)
Reggie Nalder
as Gomel (uncredited)
Colin Kenny
as Senator (uncredited)
Bert Stevens
as Officer
Arthur Tovey
as Second Reporter
Paul Frees
as Narrator (voice)
Whit Bissell
as Medical Officer
James Yagi
as Chinese Officer (uncredited)
Tom Lowell
as Pvt. Bobby Lembeck (uncredited)
Joe Adams
as Psychiatrist
Merritt Bohn
as Jilly
Robert Riordan
as Benjamin K. Arthur
Raoul Freeman
as Reporter (uncredited)
Rudy Germane
as Delegate (uncredited)
Herschel Graham
as Delegate (uncredited)
Stuart Hall
as Reporter (uncredited)
Directors
1Writers
2Producers
2Other crew
4Parents Guide
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