0770NOTOrestes

0770NOTOrestes_Condon

First edition cover of "The Manchurian Candidate" by Richard Condon, featuring abstract, colorful illustrations

“Captain Marco always encouraged [Sergeant Shaw] to pass the time during quiet hours on patrol. The sergeant’s rage-daubed face would shine like a ripped-out heart flung onto stones in moonlight, and the captain like to hear the story because, in a way, it was like hearing Orestes gripe about Clytemnestra. Captain Marco treasured poetic, literary, informational, and cross-referenced allusions, military and non-military.” p. 22-23

This reference is integrated into the screenplay for the Frankenheimer film at a much later spot, minute 102. There, Shaw and Marco are going on a bit of a bender. Long after the audience has come to know something of the discomfitting relationship between Raymond and his mother, Marco says “Listening to you is like Orestes complain about his mother.”