THE BEST MAN

Dirty political in-fighting never really got more entertaining than in Franklin Schaffner's brilliant 1964 film of Gore Vidal's political comedy-drama THE BEST MAN. This is the one about the National Convention to choose a candidate to run for President. The front runners are nice, liberal Henry Fonda, (he's the Adlai Stevenson type), and rotten right-wing Cliff Robertson, who may look like a Kennedy but acts like Joe McCarthy, (and, of course, don't forget that Bobby Kennedy was once in the McCarthy camp). Each has dirt on the other; Robertson wants to release information that shows Fonda once had a nervous breakdown and would, therefore, be mentally incompetent to be president while Fonda's team has information that during the war, 'when there were no women around', Robertson was, euphemistically, a de-gen-er-ate, or to put it another way, he took his pleasures where he could find them, (why is it that it's always assumed straight men turn gay 'when there are no women around'?), but while Robertson has no scruples in blackmailing Fonda, Fonda is much too nice a guy to reciprocate.

We have to presume that Vidal, who also wrote the script, knows of what he speaks and Schaffner's film must indeed be accurate but no matter, it is still hugely enjoyable and is terrifically well acted. Of course, the role of the do-gooder intellectual politician fitted Fonda like a glove, (his performance here is almost a reprise of his role in ADVISE AND CONSENT). As his rival, Cliff Robertson was possibly never better; I honestly think his performance here eclipses his Oscar-winning role in CHARLY. Their respective wives are nicely played by Margaret Leighton and Edie Adams respectively while Shelley Berman is brilliant as the somewhat unreliable witness against Robertson and Lee Tracy is on terrific form, (and gaining an Oscar nomination), as a former president who just happens to be dying. Unfortunately it is not a film that is often revived but it is certainly one well worth seeking out.