The Best Man is a 1964 film based on the play of the same title, both written by Gore Vidal. Starring Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, and Lee Tracy, the film (and play) lays bare the seamy political maneuverings behind the nomination of a presidential candidate. Tracy was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
William Russell (Henry Fonda) and Joe Cantwell (Cliff Robertson) are the two leading candidates for the presidential nomi...
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The Best Man is a 1964 film based on the play of the same title, both written by Gore Vidal. Starring Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, and Lee Tracy, the film (and play) lays bare the seamy political maneuverings behind the nomination of a presidential candidate. Tracy was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
William Russell (Henry Fonda) and Joe Cantwell (Cliff Robertson) are the two leading candidates for the presidential nomination of an unspecified political party. Both have potentially fatal vulnerabilities. Russell is a principled intellectual (believed by many critics and fans to be based on Adlai Stevenson). A sexual indiscretion has alienated his wife Alice (Margaret Leighton). In addition, he has a past nervous breakdown to live down. Cantwell (believed to be based upon John F. Kennedy with some Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy mixed in) portrays himself as a populist "man of the people", and patriotic anti-communist campaigning to end "the missile gap" (a...
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