The Best Man **** (1964, Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Edie Adams, Lee Tracy, Margaret Leighton, Kevin McCarthy, Shelley Berman, Ann Sothern) – Classic Movie Review 6668

Director Franklin J Schaffner’s outstanding 1964 film stars Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Lee Tracy, Margaret Leighton, Edie Adams, Kevin McCarthy, Shelley Berman and Ann Sothern. Tracy was Oscar nominated as Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

The battle to win the backing of the now terminally ill American President Art Hockstader (Tracy) by two rival politicians (Fonda as William Russell and Robertson as Joe Cantwell) for their party nomination for the Presidency is the core of this sizzling, engrossing drama from the great American cult novelist Gore Vidal, who brilliantly adapts his own play for the screen.

Though none too liberal in his own life, Fonda is ideally cast as the nice liberal candidate, Robertson has got a real, steely glint as the mean-eyed right-winger with the sharpest line in black humour. But it is Tracy who steals the show as the man they try to convince.

The all round superlative performances and Vidal’s biting screenplay help to make this one of the best behind-the-scenes melodramas of the American political scene.

Also in the cast are Gene Raymond, Mahalia Jackson, Richard Arlen, Penny Singleton, George Furth and Anne Newman.

It is shot in black and white by Haskell Wexler, produced by Stuart Millar and Lawrence Turman, and scored by Mort Lindsey.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6668

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