Post by topbilled on Dec 19, 2023 5:45:51 GMT
THE BEST MAN (1964)
Lee Tracy does a marvellous job playing an old president who's got cancer and is asked to endorse a candidate to be the next president. At first he's cagey and holds out, then he realizes there is only one man right for the job.
The main plot involves the candidates, portrayed by Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. Fonda's character is modeled after Adlai Stevenson, and Robertson's is modeled after John F. Kennedy, whom he'd already played in PT 109 the previous year. Oh, I should mention the story is by Gore Vidal, who hated Kennedy with a passion. So Robertson's character is more a 'bad guy' than Fonda's.
During the movie we learn Fonda and his British wife (Margaret Leighton) are estranged but willing to stay together and let bygones be bygones if he becomes president. Fonda has also had what could be termed a mild breakdown. At the same time Robertson is married to a gorgeous all-American gal (Edie Adams) but has to deal with the emergence of a man from his past (played by Shelley Berman) who can corroborate that Robertson once had a homosexual affair in the military years ago.
Yes, tons of melodrama...swirled into 60s politics...with so many great performances.
Lee Tracy does a marvellous job playing an old president who's got cancer and is asked to endorse a candidate to be the next president. At first he's cagey and holds out, then he realizes there is only one man right for the job.
The main plot involves the candidates, portrayed by Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. Fonda's character is modeled after Adlai Stevenson, and Robertson's is modeled after John F. Kennedy, whom he'd already played in PT 109 the previous year. Oh, I should mention the story is by Gore Vidal, who hated Kennedy with a passion. So Robertson's character is more a 'bad guy' than Fonda's.
During the movie we learn Fonda and his British wife (Margaret Leighton) are estranged but willing to stay together and let bygones be bygones if he becomes president. Fonda has also had what could be termed a mild breakdown. At the same time Robertson is married to a gorgeous all-American gal (Edie Adams) but has to deal with the emergence of a man from his past (played by Shelley Berman) who can corroborate that Robertson once had a homosexual affair in the military years ago.
Yes, tons of melodrama...swirled into 60s politics...with so many great performances.
