When campaigns were really nasty

The Manchurian Candidate

MGM, $15

Stars: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury and James Gregory.

Synchronicity: MGM is bringing out a special edition of the 1962 political satire-thriller Tuesday to coincide with the July 30 release of Paramount’s updated remake, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep.

Bad dreams and ambition: John Frankenheimer, who cut his teeth in the 1950s during the golden age of television, deftly directed George Axelrod’s inventive adaptation of novelist Richard Condon’s political satire.

Alternately scary, funny and surreal, “The Manchurian Candidate” stars Sinatra -- who was instrumental in getting the controversial film made -- as Ben Marco, a career soldier who suffers from a recurring nightmare in which his platoon is brainwashed by communists during the Korean War.

Harvey plays Raymond Shaw, an arrogant, loveless man who was the sergeant in the platoon and is at the center of Marco’s nightmares. Marco feels that there is something strange about Shaw being awarded the Silver Star for bravery.

Shaw’s mother just happens to be the dragon lady of all dragon ladies (a deliciously vile Lansbury). A pushy, ambitious woman, she wants her dimwitted, Joe McCarthy-esque senator husband (Gregory) to become president of the United States. And she will stop at nothing to make her dream come true, even if it means getting in bed with the communists to arrange a political assassination.

The lowdown: Evocatively shot in black and white and masterfully edited by Ferris Webster, the original “Manchurian Candidate” offers Sinatra one of his best roles as the troubled Marco, and he’s more than up to the challenge.

Harvey was a vastly underrated actor. And his performance as the icy Shaw -- Lansbury describes his head as always “about to come to a point” -- manages to be simultaneously terrifying and sympathetic. Lansbury received the third of her three Oscar nominations for her role -- she lost the best supporting Academy Award to a teenage Patty Duke in “The Miracle Worker” -- and those who are only familiar with her as the sweet mystery writer Jessica Fletcher from “Murder, She Wrote” will be shocked by her ruthless, maniacal turn. Even Leigh as Sinatra’s understanding girlfriend makes the most of a predictable role.

“Manchurian Candidate” hit close to home upon its release -- America was still involved in the Cold War and it had just been a handful of years since McCarthy had conducted his communist witch hunts.

After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Sinatra had the film removed from circulation for many years.

Extras: This special edition features a discussion from 1988 among Sinatra, Frankenheimer and Axelrod; a fascinating new interview with Lansbury; an equally compelling featurette with director William Friedkin, who talks about why the film works on so many levels; and sturdy, informative commentary from Frankenheimer, who died two years ago this month.