In this episode, our season finale, Jason Christian, Anthony Ballas and Paul T. Klein are joined by guest Andrew Scahill to discuss John Frankenheimer's 1962 thriller The Manchurian Candidate. Andrew Scahill is a film professor at the University of Colorado Denver and author of The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema. He specializes in horror, gender, and sexuality.

In this episode we discuss:

• The historical context of the film, which was released during the Cuban Missile Crisis, on October 24, 1962
• The "paranoid style" exhibited in the film, which relates to the 1964 essay "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," by Richard Hofstadter
• How the film offers both a critique of McCarthyism and the Communism, and ultimately endorses Kennedy liberalism
• How masculinity is explored in the film
• How genre operates, and how the horror genre in particular reflects social and political anxieties
• The limits and possibilies of Hollywood cinema

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We love to give recommendations, so here are ours for this episode:

• Andy recommends Brandon Cronenberg's 2020 film Possessor
• Tony recommends Thomas Elsaesser's essay "Tales of Sound and Fury: Observations on the Family Melodrama" and F. Gary Gray's 1996 film Set it Off
• Paul recommends John Frankenheimer's 1964 film Seven Days in May, and check out Paul discussing the film on the Front Row Classics Podcast
• Jason recommends Nicole Rafter's book Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society and Ernst Lubitsch's 1932 film Trouble in Paradise

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Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at coldwarcinemapod@gmail.com.

To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema.

For more from your hosts:

• Check out Andy's Substack newsletter, Andy Might, on horror cinema and much more.
• Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic.
• Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas.
• Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com

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Logo by Jason Christian

Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).

Happy listening!