But for me, the hands down winner is the brilliant Angela Lansbury in one of my all-time favorites, “The Manchurian Candidate” (Pictured, above, with director John Frankenheimer). Though Lansbury didn’t even rate star billing and was barely two years older than the actor who played her son, Laurence Harvey, she dominates the film as a mother who turns her only child into an assassin for the Chinese communists in this devastating political satire. While Meryl Streep was very amusing in Lansbury’s role in Jonathan Demme’s otherwise tepid remake, for me Angela will always be the definitive Monster Mom of all time.