The Best Man (1964)
With the nationally televised Democrat convention coming to Milwaukee this summer. it’s interesting to look back at a few classic Hollywood movies in which presidential conventions were pivotal. The following three are prime examples:
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
John Frankenheimer’s superior original, with Laurence Harvey as a Korean War hero brain-washed to assassinate the presidential nominee at the Madison Square Garden convention. Strong support by Angela Lansbury as his diabolical Communist mother, along with Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, James Edwards, Khigh Deigh, James Gregory, Henry Silva, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver.
Medium Cool (1969)
Director-writer-cameraman Haskell Wexler expertly used disturbing, actual film of the raucous 1968 Democrat convention in Chicago, including the protests and police riots. A stoic TV cameraman (Robert Forster) covering the convention finds himself drawn into the action while aiding a bewildered West Virginia mother (Verna Bloom) with tragic consequences. Fine, believable cast includes Peter Boyle, Peter Bonerz, Marianna Hill and Harold Blankenship.
The Man (1972)
In Rod Serling’s screenplay from Irving Wallace’s novel, Sen. James Earl Jones—president pro tempore of the Senate—assumes the presidency after a freak disaster in Europe kills the president and Speaker of the House, and the VP is too ill to take over. Jones confirms his candidacy at the Washington convention as America’s first black chief executive. With Burgess Meredith, Martin Balsam, Georg Stanford Brown and Janet MacLachlan, as Jones’ militant daughter, and Barbara Rush the racist wife of the Secretary of State (William Windom), whom she feels should be president.
The Best Man (1964)
But the most compelling is The Best Man, Gore Vidal’s stinging insight into down-and-dirty political conventions, with scenes of noisy, partisan state delegations. The film focuses on driven men and women pulling out the stops trying to help their candidate gain the party’s presidential nomination as the convention plays out.
Directed by Franklin Schaffner, this vintage-star, black-and-white vehicle features Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Edie Adams, Margaret Leighton, Lee Tracy, Kevin McCarthy, Ann Sothern, Shelley Berman, Gene Raymond, Richard Arlen, John Henry Faulk, William R. Ebersole and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.
As William Russell, a wealthy, womanizing, intellectual Secretary of State, Fonda (who portrayed the president the same year in Fail Safe) seeks endorsement of the dying ex-president (Lee Tracy) at the Los Angeles convention. His chief rival is Sen. Joe Cantwell (a smarmy, up-from-the-bootstraps Robertson) also pushing for Tracy‘s support.
As the contested convention proceeds, they await Tracy’s decision at the Ambassador Hotel, egged-on by key advisers working the delegates—McCarthy as Fonda’s upbeat campaign manager and Raymond as Robertson’s older brother, who once lost to Tracy as a presidential candidate. Meanwhile, Fonda and Robertson also seek the support of three minor candidates—Sen. Oscar Anderson (Arlen); Gov. T.T. Claypoole (Faulk), and Gov. John Merwin (Ebersole). However, each decides to withhold their choice until the second floor ballot. .
Fonda is the odds-on favorite to secure the party’s nomination prior to a stunning turn of events. He and Robertson have dirt on each other, complicating matters. But not for Tracy, who favors no-holds-barred infighting by any candidate who is really serious. Robertson threatens to supply each state’s convention floor delegation with a year-old medical report revealing Fonda suffered a nervous breakdown. After he also criticizes his opponent’s known adultery, the feisty Tracy tells him, “A lot of men need a lot of women.”
On the other hand, Fonda ponders releasing information from a witness (Berman) to Robertson’s alleged homosexual activity during Army service in Alaska in World War II. Meanwhile, an annoying female gossip columnist (Sothern), blurs the issue by haranguing each candidate and pushing to interview their wives as the future First Lady—Fonda’s stately Leighton and Robertson’s ditsy Adams.
At a glossy dinner before the first floor vote—featuring a rousing vocal by Jackson—Tracy surprises by declining to endorse either Fonda or Robertson, after initially favoring the latter. Hours later, as he lay in bed dying, Tracy, whose work garnered an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor, chastises the laid-back Fonda for indecisiveness.
In a secret face-to-face meeting, Fonda then challenges Robertson to release the medical report and Robertson backs down. A short time later, Robertson pleads with Fonda to become his vice presidential running mate, but Fonda refuses.
In the stunning finale, Fonda unexpectedly withdraws from the race and, to stop Robertson, releases his convention delegates, which flabbergasts McCarthy. He informs the next state to vote—which happens to be Wisconsin—that he endorses California’s nondescript Merwin. With the floodgates now open, each state delegation votes for Merwin as the party‘s presidential candidate.
The Best Man is nasty and great, and should not be missed by Milwaukeeans, especially with the Democrat convention coming to town this summer.
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