A STILL VIABLE `CANDIDATE' IN UPDATING COLD WAR CLASSIC, FILMMAKERS FOUND IT IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE PARALLELS TO TODAY'S FEARFUL TIMES.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Forty-two years ago, it was communists. Today, it's corporations. For the makers of the updated ``The Manchurian Candidate,'' the bogeymen have changed, but the threat to the American public remains the same - maybe even greater.

``Big business, big government and big science are coming together and we know there are some disturbing things going on, but we feel powerless to stop them,'' says director Jonathan Demme, director of the new ``Candidate.'' ``There are some wild things happening in this film, but I don't think any of them are beyond the realm of possibility. Just look at the headlines with Halliburton. There's a lot of money being made and it's pretty questionable how it's all coming about, especially when there are people dying.''

It's all there in Demme's ``Manchurian Candidate,'' even if it's mostly in the background. In the film, politicians speak of ``compassionate vigilance.'' News reports announce suicide bombings in Denver. The United States is attacking suspected chemical weapon sites in Guinea. It's a scary future of corporate greed and aggression, brain bugs, assassination attempts and political power unchecked and corrupted.

Amid all this paranoia and dread is the heart of the movie - a goofy theater of the frighteningly absurd, perfectly in keeping with Richard Condon's potboiler novel on which the whole thing is based.

``Richard Condon was angry about a lot of things and they remain as relevant today as they were in the late '50s,'' Demme says. ``His idea of brainwashing through fear was certainly prevalent at that time, and - hello - here we are again. Any time the news becomes a little too critical of our current president, bingo, a catastrophe becomes imminent. And the fear rushes to our chest and we think, 'Do whatever is necessary to protect us. Do whatever you want to do, even if you have to deconstruct the Constitution to do it.' That's the kind of thing Condon delighted in skewering.'

Demme has some experience treading on hallowed cinematic ground. His last movie, ``The Truth About Charlie,'' was a flawed but interesting interpretation of ``Charade'' that was crucified by many film critics simply because it didn't star Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.

Director John Frankenheimer's ``Manchurian Candidate'' is equally revered but is also uniquely wed to its time and place. So Demme believed he and writer Dan Pyne (the screenplay is also credited to Dean Georgaris) could reinvent and modernize the root causes of the paranoia while remaining true to the characters and Condon's concerns.

``If you look at Richard Condon's stuff, it is of its time, but it also goes beyond it,'' says film columnist David Poland, who runs the Movie City News web site. ``The original movie was a Cold War movie and that has encased it in a block of Lucite that can never be escaped.''

The 1962 ``Candidate'' definitely has a distinct McCarthy-era feel, with its brainwashed Korean War vet, Raymond Shaw (memorably played by cold fish Laurence Harvey), being controlled by his mother (an amazing Angela Lansbury), the string-pulling wife of a red-baiting U.S. senator (James Gregory). Shaw is set into motion to assassinate the presidential nominee.

Thirteen months later, President Kennedy was murdered, and ``Manchurian'' star and rights owner Frank Sinatra pulled the movie out of circulation.

``It was considered a small, black-and-white art film at the time,'' says Sinatra's daughter, Tina, a producer on the new movie. ``It was beautifully made, frightening and strangely predictive of the future.''

The new version is set, Demme says, during the next presidential election, and ramps up the paranoia. Denzel Washington takes over the Sinatra role, playing the man trying to figure out who turned Raymond Shaw into a killing machine. But unlike Sinatra, Washington has no allies. In fact, he may even be part of the conspiracy himself.

As for the controlling mother, she's no longer the wife of a senator - she is a senator herself (played with gusto by Meryl Streep). Her relationship with her son remains ... um ... complicated, to say the least. As Demme puts it: ``It's a very rich, very real, true mother love she has for her son. She just has different ways of showing it.''

Frankenheimer's ``Candidate'' was re-released in theaters in 1987. Tina Sinatra remembers going to a screening in Westwood and watching the audience ``teeter on the edge of their seats.'' She called her father the next day, who gave his blessing to her idea for a remake. Seventeen years later, it arrives in theaters.

``We came close before,'' Sinatra says. The movie was in development at Warner Bros. for a time, then moved to Paramount and then became a casualty of 9-11.

``After the attacks, (Paramount chairman) Sherry (Lansing) and I believed it was no longer a good time to make the film,'' Sinatra says. ``The parallels were too great. I didn't think political paranoia belonged in an entertainment vehicle.''

But as the entertainment community sorted through the fallout from the terrorist attacks, the producers changed their minds and came to view the film as a potentially worthy successor to '70s political thrillers like ``3 Days of the Condor'' and ``The Parallax View.''

The main challenge was trying to stay ahead of current events.

``We were putting new scripts in front of the actors playing the commentators seven or eight weeks ago, just to keep it updated with the headlines,'' Sinatra says.

Adds Demme: ``We wanted the movie to feel predictive, but so many things kept changing dramatically. From January of last year until the last few days of the final mix, Dan Pyne continued to work on the screenplay, updating those newscasts. It was a scramble. It never stopped.''

Which is why everybody connected with the film wanted it out now rather than its original release date, which was scheduled shortly before the November election.

``You never know what's going to happen, but you do know you don't want real life to overtake you,'' Demme says. ``And as fast as the world turns today, it's almost a losing battle.''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE ... THEN AND NOW

THE ENEMY

THEN: Communists

NOW: Corporations

BRAINWASHED BIGWIG

THEN: Raymond Shaw, Medal of Honor recipient, stepson of a U.S. senator, research assistant for a political reporter. Played by Laurence Harvey, who put his unlikable persona to good use in the role.

NOW: Raymond Shaw, Medal of Honor recipient, U.S. congressman and contender for the No. 2 slot on the presidential ticket. Played by Liev Schrieber, who has never had much of a persona - unlikable or otherwise - before this career-making role.

RAYMOND'S MOTHER

THEN: Controlling wife of U.S. senator, also the top Communist operative in the United States. Played by Angela Lansbury, who won an Oscar nomination for her performance.

NOW: Controlling U.S. senator, willing to do anything to put her son on the presidential ticket. Played by Meryl Streep, who will probably receive an Oscar nomination for her performance.

AGE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ACTRESS PLAYING RAYMOND'S MOTHER AND ACTOR PLAYING RAYMOND.

THEN: 3 (Lansbury born in 1925, Harvey in 1928)

NOW: 18 (Streep born in 1949, Schrieber in 1967)

INCESTUOUS OVERTONES BETWEEN RAYMOND AND HIS MOTHER.

THEN: Yes. She kisses him on the mouth.

NOW: Yes. She caresses his bare chest.

RAYMOND'S COMMANDING OFFICER

THEN: Maj. Bennett Marco, played by Frank Sinatra. Suffering from recurring nightmares due to brainwashing and possibly exacerbated by too many nights spent at Jilly's (Sinatra's favorite New York bar, prominently featured in the movie).

NOW: Maj. Bennett Marco, played by Denzel Washington. Suffering from recurring nightmares due to brainwashing. Colleagues chalk it up to Gulf War Syndrome. Jilly's nowhere to be found.

THE GIRL

THEN: Janet Leigh, who meets Sinatra's Marco on a train, gives him her phone number and, immediately afterward (and rather incredibly), declares her eternal love for him.

NOW: Kimberly Elise, who meets Washington's Marco on a train, gives him her phone number but, as it turns out, has ulterior motives that go beyond the bedroom.

METHOD OF BRAINWASHING

THEN: Hypnotism. The soldiers believe they're listening to a lecture- ``Fun With Hydrangeas'' - at a ladies garden club meeting in New Jersey.

NOW: We won't give it away ... but let's just say that it's a little more gruesome than the sight of matronly women sitting around fanning themselves.

THE TRIGGER MECHANISM

THEN: To set Shaw into murder mode, one need only say: ``Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?'' The queen of diamonds is a second trigger, opening Shaw's mind further to suggestion.

NOW: Simply uttering the subject's full name, as in: ``Raymond Shaw. Raymond Prentiss Shaw.''

PROMOTIONAL TAGLINE

THEN: ``If you come in five minutes after this picture begins, you won't know what it's all about.''

NOW: ``Everything is under control.''

CAPTION(S):

9 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Can he be FRANK?

Denzel takes over Sinatra's role in a `Manchurian Candidate' with 9-11 in mind

(2) no caption (Denzel Washington)

(3) no caption (Laurence Harvey)

(4) no caption (Liev Schrieber)

(5) no caption (Angela Lansbury)

(6) no caption (Meryl Streep)

(7) no caption (Frank Sinatra)

(8) no caption (Denzel Washington)

(9) no caption (scene from the original movie `The Manchurian Candidate')

Box:

MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE ... THEN AND NOW (see text)