This week, Zach gets a little freaked out over the number of Communists running around, and what they might be doing to our heads. Frank Sinatra stars in the 1962 classic, Manchurian Candidate. The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American Cold War suspense thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer from a screenplay by George Axelrod based on Richard Condon's 1959 novel. It stars Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Janet Leigh and features Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, and James Gregory. The central concept of the film is that the son of a prominent right-wing political family has been brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy. The Manchurian Candidate was nationally released on Wednesday, October 24, 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The film was well received and gained nominations for two Academy Awards.