The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American black-and-white Cold War neo noir suspense thriller, produced by George Axelrod and John Frankenheimer, directed by John Frankenheimer, and starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, and Janet Leigh, co-starring are Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, and James Gregory. The screenplay by George Axelrod is based on the 1959 novel by Richard Condon.