This past Saturday I have several friends over for a three-movie marathon with the central theme being The Cold War. For some of the people attending the films were their first views, while others had seen at least some of the trilogy. With pizza to snack on we had a very enjoyable time.

We started off with The Manchurian Candidate, the story of poor doomed Raymond Shaw and of vast, complex international communist conspiracies to subvert the American democracy. For anyone who only knows Angela Landsbury as a sweet old lady solving mysteries, or as a welcoming animated teapot, this film is a revelation and a shock.

Following the paranoia of The Manchurian Candidate we skipped across the pond for the British film, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Spy follows the exploits of Alex Leamus, former station head of for the East German sector of British Intelligence. When Mundt, the head of East German intelligence, kills Leamus’ last agent, Leamus’ superior, code named Control, leaves Leamus in the field for one last operation in hopes if destroying Mundt. What follows is a cat and mouse game with secrets, betrayals, and the cynical premise that one cannot afford to be less ruthless than your enemy, no matter your ideals.

To counter the dreary themes of the previous two movies we ended with the black comedy Dr. Strangelove or How I stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb. In Strangelove, General Jack D. Ripper, suffering a paranoid breakdown, orders his B52 bomber wing to attack the Soviet Union with its nuclear payload. Suddenly the Russian and Americans find them selves scrambling to find some way to avoid atomic war and the destruction of all life in the Earth’s surface. With farcical overdrawn characters this movie highlights the inherent absurdity and dangers of the Cold War’s nuclear standoff.

Overall I think the marathon was a success and that people enjoyed this bleak black-and-white peek at the bit of history that is not too far behind us.