In October 1962 the film The Manchurian Candidate was released to rave reviews. Directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Frank Sinatra and Lawrence Harvey, the film was about a nefarious plot that involved brainwashing, an assassin with a post-hypnotic trigger and a conspiracy to deliver the US presidency into the hands of foreign enemies whose plan it was to destroy the country from within. Eventually cracks began to appear in the plot and in the end the evildoers met their just rewards.