I have to admit, I wasn't blown away by this film. It's a classic thriller but I just was not impressed by it.Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) received the Congressional Medal of Honor after saving his squad from an attack in Korea. His commanding officer, Captain Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) wrote the nomination, but finds himself plagued by a recurring dream of sitting in an auditorium filled with Russian and Chinese military leaders while Shaw murdered two of the squad. Unable to shake the feeling that something is very wrong, Marco starts investigating Shaw. He finds Raymond to be clearly bitter over the iron-fisted control his mother (Angela Lansbury) has over his step-father's (James Gregory) career in the Senate and over his own life and completely unaware that he may have been programmed as the ultimate sleeper agent for the Communists.
I think, because I've seen this plot device played out several times before, that I just couldn't feel the impact of this picture. Also, Janet Leigh's role seemed to be shoehorned in unnecessarily. That may have just been an adaptation from the book that was constrained by time, but I could have done without her entirely. I'm sad that I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. People speak so highly of it. I can't say I'm sorry to have watched it, but I do wish I had watched it when I was much younger.
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