Back into McCarthy's era!

Manchurian Candidate (1962)
This is not the one where Denzel Washington acted in 2004 but rather the original one cast in black and white from a time before I was an embryo.

It starts with scenes of Korean War when some American soldiers are caught by their enemies (Russian and Chinese) and transported away on a helicopter.

After the show of credits, Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) arrives home from Korean War to be feted as a war hero, much to his annoyance. The whole brouhaha is his mother's mastermind, a conniving opportunist lady who has only one thing on her mind - to make her senator husband, Raymond's stepfather the President of USA. Raymond has had a strained relationship with his mother (Angela Lansbury of 'Murder! She wrote' - Boy, that lady was old even then) and his stepfather.

Instead of working for his stepfather, Raymond decides to work as a confidential secretary to a reputable political journalist. The said journalist is, however, is not in his parents' good books as the senator had been accused of being a Communist by his papers.

Meanwhile, Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) and another fellow platoon member (who worked with Shaw) keep having recurrent nightmares where all the platoon members are subservient soldiers to the enemies and kill their own people at the order of their enemies.
It looks like during their tour of duty, Shaw had been brainwashed and indoctrinated to be a zombie-like killing machine for Soviets and Chinese.
Marco is ordered to go on leave because of his inability to cope his work. On the train, he befriends Eugenia Rose (Janet Leigh of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho). This scene is actually just a romantic sub-plot with no relevance to the story per se but at one moment, we cannot help but think that she is a femme fatale! She helps him to get back on his feet.

Marco goes on to pay a visit to Shaw as he cannot stomach the idea of everyone in the platoon singing praises of Shaw when in real life, Shaw is an introvert and is disliked by everyone. After a rough start, Marco and Shaw eventually click.

Over drinks, he explains the reason for his bad relationship with his mother. Shaw had earlier fell hopelessly in love with a rival politician's daughter, Janice Jordan, whom his mother had labelled as communist. Thanks to his mother, the relationship crumbled and Janice went off to Europe and Shaw enlisted in Army.
All this while, the Russians are experimenting with brain washing hypnosuggestive techniques and Shaw is their guinea pig. The deal is for him to be used by American communist agents for their agenda to infiltrate into USA. Solitaire is code word used via phone and Queen of Diamond is the trigger to make Shaw do their killings.

During a chance meeting during a party, Janice and Shaw marry. The marriage did not last as Janice and her father is programmed to be killed by Shaw after some political rivalry.

Shaw's stepfather wins the election as Vice President nominee. Shaw is assigned to kill the President nominee by the Russians' American operator - his mother, the real Communist sympathizer. However, at the moment of truth, Shaw comes to his senses and saves the day and America. He fires the gun right through the hearts of his mother and his stepfather. Wearing the Medal of Valour, Shaw turns the gun on himself and shoots his head to smithereens.
This film can be classified as an anti-war movie which mocks the loss of lives and relationships purely for political ideology and medal. People are programmed to do things to meet the bigger agenda set by the state and its elected leaders. It questions the meaning of all these killings.

Some trivia on the movie, Angela Lansbury (nominated for Oscar here) acted as the hero's mother but in real life she was only 3 years older than him. The assassination scene is a replica of Hitchcock's 'Foreign Correspondent' but rather than calling it plagiarism, they named it homage to the great director! They decided not to screen the movie around a year later when JFK was assassinated. In the original story from the book it was based on, there was incestuous relationship between Shaw and his mother. In keeping with the sensitivities of the times, it was appropriately altered. I suppose if were to be made now, how the story would be. Would they in keeping originality, keep the original story? I wonder how the Denzel Washington's version is?
The memorable quote that was of interest to me:

Dr. Yen Lo (the Chinese agent) speaking to Russian agent Zilkov on his interrogation room...

Dr. Yen Lo: Attractive plant you have here.

Zilkov: Thank you, doctor. It's actually a rest home for wealthy alcoholics. We were able to purchase it three years ago. Except for this floor and the floor above it, which is sealed off for security purposes, the rest functions quite normally. In fact it's one of the few Soviet operations in America that actually showed a profit at the end of the last fiscal year. 

Dr. Yen Lo: Profit? Fiscal year? Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! Beware, my dear Zilkov, fires of capitalism are highly infectious. Soon you'll be lending money out at interest. [Chuckles] You must try, Comrade Zilkov, to cultivate a sense of humor. There's nothing like a good laugh now and then to lighten the burdens of the day.