In The Manchurian Candidate, Angela Lansbury played the most evil movie mother ever

As written in Richard Condon's hilarious overheated novel, Eleanor Iselin is Lady Macbeth armed with Gertrude's incestuous libido. It's not hamartia - it's strength. And it's only a moment of eleventh-hour clarity, deus ex-machina, that compels Shaw to murder his mother and stepfather. As presented by screenwriter George Axelrod, Eleanor's sexual affection for Shaw is acknowledged but never consummated. It works better that way. You feel that Eleanor has literally overplayed her hand (Shaw's murderous instincts are activated by the queen of diamonds), but you doubt the young man's determination - and that doubt rests entirely on Lansbury's performance.

Eleanor of Lansbury is a gloriously evil reptile. She holds in her hands not only the fate of her cuckolded husband and confused son, but the global balance of power. She managed, through years of coordination with the Soviets, to orchestrate a palace coup. Once his drunken wife takes over, she will call the shots and destroy her enemies. For her, the United States isn't enough, and that's the kicker — she didn't know Shaw had been brainwashed.

This is, as Roger Ebert noted in his essay on Great Movies, a reckless and seemingly illogical move on Russia's part. But of course, those Kremlin villains underestimated Eleanor.