I’ve had Gore Vidal on my mind of late. As the Trump-Musk wilding continues, I miss his voice. He’s been gone for 13 years but we have his novels, essays, and plays to remind us of his sardonic and witty voice.
The Best Man was originally a 1960 play with Melvyn Douglas in the lead. It’s so snarky and sardonic that it was rarely revived until the 21st Century. There have been two Broadway revivals: First with Spalding Gray and then with my homey John Larroquette.
Enough about the play, the movie was released in 1964. Vidal had been burned by Hollywood when he sold the rights to his play A Visit To A Small Planet, which they turned into a vehicle for Jerry Lewis. Gore Vidal and Jerry Lewis? Talk about an odd couple.
The Jerry Lewis mishigas led Vidal to keep control of the film of The Best Man; serving as a de facto producer, writing the script, hiring director Franklin J. Schaffner, and casting Henry Fonda as William Russell. Hereinafter, I’ll use the actor’s names instead of the character’s monikers.
The movie is set at a political convention of an unnamed party that’s obviously the Democrats. Conventions then decided nominees as opposed to merely ratifying the results of the primary process. Henry Fonda is a former Secretary of State inspired by Adlai Stevenson who should have been SOS but never was. Fonda holds a narrow lead in the delegate count over Cliff Robertson who plays a red baiting Senator clearly modeled on master red baiter Richard Nixon.
Much of the action revolves around the candidates’ attempts to secure the endorsement of a former president based on Harry Truman and played by Lee Tracy, the only member of OG Broadway cast to appear in the movie. Tracy likes Fonda as a person and respects his intellect but doubts that he’s tough enough for the job.
Tracy dislikes Robertson but *knows* he’s a mean SOB who will do whatever it takes to win.
Fonda is an honest and decent man in his public life, but his private life is messy with rumors that his marriage to Margaret Leighton is a sham.
Robertson is a sleazy and unethical man in his public life but has a relatively spotless private life: He’s married to a blond bombshell played by Edie Adams. There is, however, a secret from his past that could sink his candidacy.
Kevin McCarthy, not to be confused with former Speaker KMac, plays Fonda’s campaign manager. He unearths a story that Cliff Robertson had sex with a male officer during World War II. McCarthy brings the man, played by comedian Shelly Berman, to the convention.
The Best Man was one of the first movies to use the word homosexual. Not a surprise given the author’s own sexual preference and his desire to push the boundaries. His 1948 novel The City and The Pillar was one of the first American books to openly deal with what Vidal called same-sex men.
Fonda decides not to use the dirt. Robertson is not so delicate and releases a document, well, documenting Fonda’s tomcatting.
The convention is hopelessly deadlocked. Delegates love Russell but want to win. That seems quaint given what we know about Donald Trump’s sordid sex life.
In the end, Fonda decides that the only way to stop Robertson’s candidacy is to drop out, release his delegates, and urge them to support an obscure Governor who wins the nomination. The dark horse is the real best man. All Fonda has left is the detritus of his candidacy:
The Best Man is loaded with excellent performances. I’ve focused on the men, but there are terrific performances by Margaret Leighton as Fonda’s long-suffering spouse and by Ann Sothern as a political dragon lady who supports Fonda but thinks he’s too funny. As if such a thing were possible.
The Best Man is a writer’s movie hence the post title, but Franklin J. Schaffner’s direction and Haskell Wexler’s cinematography succeed in opening up the action, so it doesn’t look like a filmed play. In fact, the convention scenes are downright thrilling.
Grading Time: I give Gore Vidal’s The Best Man 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A.
Posters for the movie aren’t as plentiful as pictures online, so this lone long sheet will just have to do:
Since The Best Man began life onstage, here’s a poster for the 1960 play, which ran for over 500 performances, winning a Tony for Melvyn Douglas:
Pondering the scenes in which Fonda and Tracy “strike a blow for liberty” by imbibing Bourbon made me thirsty. Let’s all go to the lobby:
Thirst slaked but not by whiskey. Old school movie theatres don’t serve booze, not even in New Orleans. Oh well, what the hell.
Yet again, the lobby cards for this fine black and white film are in color except for the last one.
Let’s ride the trailer as if it were a dark horse. I’m not sure what that means but it scans.
In 1960, Gore Vidal ran for a House seat in upstate New York. He never tired of saying that he ran ahead of Jack Kennedy.
The last word goes to a picture of GV with JFK:
