and that character, not angela lansbury's character of the scheming wife who is secretly c controlling everything, but the senator, the loud senator with the amazing voice who has the list of communists known to the defense secretary but nevertheless still working at the defense department, whatever else was going on in that movie, that role, the senator, which is not frank sinatra. i don't know why we're showing frank sinatra here. that role, that senator, was very much based in reality. during the decade before manchurian candidate came out, it was real life senator joe mccarthy of wisconsin who really did stuff like that.ow tec that's joe mccarthy there at the microphone. the man sitting next to him in the previous still was a man named roy ccohn. on february 9th, roy cohn on the right.