Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

jacobs-greenwood Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, and written by Gore Vidal, this excellent political campaign drama stars Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson as the two frontrunner candidates hoping to be selected as the Presidential nominee at their party's convention. Lee Tracy (giving his final feature film performance), who received his only Academy recognition with a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role, plays the "hick" President of the United States, who's secretly dying from cancer but still wields a lot of power in the process.Surprisingly still relevant for today, the film delivers an insightful, biting look at the behind the scenes wrangling, wheeling and dealing, that must go on at a wide open political convention where no clear candidate is the right choice, or has sewn up the position in advance: dirty politics, questions of character, decisions as to whether to use damning evidence against one's opponent which may jeopardize the party's chances of winning the overall election, etc..Fonda plays Secretary of State William 'Bill' Russell, whose marriage to his British wife Alice (Margaret Leighton) has been over for a long time due to his multiple affairs over the years. However, on the eve of the convention and for the purposes of his Presidential (and her First Lady) aspirations, the two agree to a "treaty" - to pretend to be as one so that he might win the nomination and (almost by default) then the presidency. She must then deal with Sue Ellen Gamadge (Ann Sothern), a powerful lobbyist who represents women's issues for the party. Russell is thought to be an intellectual who thinks about every issue (perhaps too) thoroughly, which causes some like President Art Hockstader (Tracy) to question his decisiveness. Kevin McCarthy plays Russell's campaign manager Dick Jensen.Robertson plays working man hero and Senator Joe Cantwell, who'd made a name for himself linking the Mafia with communism and writing a book titled the "Enemy Around Us"; Edie Adams plays his loving wife Mabel, the mother of their three children. Gene Raymond plays Joe's brother Don, (a former Senator?) who'd lost to Hockstader in a Presidential campaign of his own years earlier and now acts as Joe's campaign manager. Shelley Berman plays Sheldon Bascomb, a man who surfaces out of Joe's military past with a secret that might destroy his chances of earning his party's nomination - especially since Joe is supported by the conservative wing of the party.Cantwell has a bombshell of his own to drop, a psychiatric evaluation of Russell that calls into question the Secretary of State's mental health, labeling him a manic depressive that might crack under stress. Though Cantwell thinks of bringing this information to the light of day as a public service, his telling this to Hockstader so enrages the President that he withdraws his planned endorsement of ruthless Joe, calling him stupid for using a "cannon to crush a bug". Hockstader then works behind the scenes for Russell, though later lectures him about his indecisiveness to use Bascomb's dirt about Cantwell.Mahalia Jackson appears as herself, singing at the pre-convention banquet; Howard K. Smith also appears as himself, the news anchor correspondent during the convention. John Henry Faulk plays a southern state "Sons of the Confederacy" Governor T.T. Claypoole, who Hockstader kids is a progressive liberal; T.T. is instead a candidate who's not shy about voicing his racial prejudices and is slippery with his loyalties to either of the frontrunners, holding out for whomever will promise him a spot on the ticket as the vice presidential candidate. William Ebersol plays a relatively unknown candidate, western state Governor John Merwin, and Richard Arlen plays the other candidate, the former Attorney General now Senator Oscar Anderson. George Furth plays the President's secretary, aide.

Putzberger "The Best Man" is the kind of verbally rich, visually spare docudrama that was released every few years in the late 1950s and early 1960s, most of them signaling their intellectual seriousness with black-and-white cinematography and Henry Fonda. (See "Twelve Angry Men" and "Fail Safe" for other entries in this genre.) And here is Henry again, barely disguised as Adlai Stevenson -- he's a brainy former Secretary of State running for President. As a classic Hollywood leading man, Henry had an honorable career playing various versions of himself. In "The Best Man" he is Flawed But Decent Henry, a charming but depressive liberal stuck in a bad marriage, and he's even more convincing than usual, since this version might be closer to the real man than many of the nobler characters he played. Henry's foil is a wild-eyed, perfectly coiffed Cliff Robertson as a ruthless Senator who is vying for the nomination at the nominating convention of the unnamed party to which they belong. The stars do just fine, but the best performance is given by Lee Tracy (whoever the hell he was) as a dying former president whose folksy, Truman-esque (as in Harry, not Capote) demeanor masks a devious insight into men's characters and psychology. The women in the movie are mainly decorative, as befits a movie called "The Best Man" -- they all wear ridiculous blonde bouffants and dutifully step aside when it's time to talk politics. At least Margaret Leighton, as Fonda's estranged wife, is allowed to some depth, although she's a bit of a stereotypical mid-century neurotic housewife, albeit one with a fairly soft edge.Gore Vidal wrote "The Best Man," and as a film, it's okay . . . genuinely suspenseful, and there's a nice contrast of dialogue between Fonda's glib eloquence, Tracy's homespun sophistry and Robertson's clipped aggressiveness. However, the camera work is bland and the use of stock footage and music is awkward to the point of jarring. As an analysis of American politics in 1964, it's pretty decent . . . Vidal has spent his life around this stuff, so he efficiently but effectively portrays the horse-trading and hypocrisy endemic to the profession. But "The Best Man" is most moving as an elegy. The kind of divided convention depicted in "The Best Man" is impossible today thanks to the Primary system. Also, Vidal is eulogizing the kind of public intellectual that Stevenson epitomized -- the cancer-stricken old President is named "Hockstader" in an apparent homage to the great American political writer Richard Hofstadter, and Henry's closest adviser, played by Kevin McCarthy, sports the bow tie and blazer that symbolize Ivy League credentials. Robertson's simian Senator seems to be the bastard child of John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, a handsome but unscrupulous Red-baiter with a beautiful but stupid wife (Vidal was no fan of Jackie Kennedy, to whom he was related). "The Best Man" captures the brief moment in American politics when it seemed possible that intellect would triumph over populism, a possibility that Vidal realized is unlikely since he's smarter than Aaron Sorkin.

jpileggi-1 Political movies of the past 25 years usually involve juxtaposed actual news footage, or far fetched conspiracies replete with multiple murders, action heroes and Femme Fatales. The "Best Man" is from a simpler (better?) time, and challenges a viewer to ask "what would I do?" in the situation confronting Henry Fonda's presidential candidate Bill Russell.Oh sure, political conventions probably never actually played out in the manner portrayed, but who cares? The platform for a delightfully arrogant and power hungry Cliff Robertson is a hoot, and, as always, Henry Fonda just flat out looks like a President.Fans of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" will love the quirky Shelly Berman character, and those of us old enough to remember the Muriel Cigar commercials can recall what a babe Edie Adams was. Catching it on TCM is wonderful, as the absence of commercial interruption enhances the story line and pacing. Enjoy it.

theowinthrop Although dated because Gore Vidal placed too much emphasis on the importance of a convention, THE BEST MAN is one of those movies that should be shown the week just before a Presidential primary, convention, debate, or election is held. It is an important statement on what the public really deserves from its leaders, and also what the public frequently ends up getting.The date of the events would be roughly 1968 or possibly 1972, as Joe Cantwell (Clift Robertson's character) served in World War II. The World War II Presidents lasted from General Eisenhower to George H. W. Bush, but the youth of Cantwell limits his having a run after 1972. Cantwell (as was pointed out in another review) is based on Joe McCarthy, although the candidates seem to be Democrats, not Republicans. To be fair he is an amalgam of several figures: Huey Long (with Gene Raymond as a brother Earl - although Earl is made the older brother), and Estes Kefauver, the Tennessee Democratic Senator who fought the Mafia and ended up Stevenson's rival in 1956, and then his Vice Presidential running-mate. Cantwell has made a hard-hitting reputation against communists and mobsters. But he does not care what methods he uses to achieve his goals. At one point one sees him strong-arming delegates through blackmail.As was pointed out his rival, William Russell, is based on two time candidate and loser Adlai Stevenson. Russell actually has an even earlier lineage. His name is the same as Lord William Russell, a 17th Century Whig "liberal" nobleman, and political writer, who was executed for treason in a questionable trial in 1683 in what was called "the Rye House Plot" (supposedly against the life of King Charles II and his brother the Duke of York). Gore Vidal obviously chose the name to suggest a hopelessness in the man's ambitions from the start.Russell also turns out to have had a nervous breakdown of a quasi-violent nature that was covered up by the then President Art Hochstedter (Lee Tracy). This is based on the tragedy (in the Truman Administration) of our first Secretary of Defence, the brilliant James Forresthal, who killed killed himself (threw himself out of a window) from a hospital he was being treated at in 1949. Russell (in Vidal's fiction) was Hochstedter's Secretary of State at the time of his breakdown.Cantwell has massive appeal to the group that Nixon would label "the silent majority". He is one of them, and he knows that they think the way he does. To achieve what they want they will do anything. He has a contempt for effete, liberals like Russell. Russell, who has written a book on his views of the world (similar to Democrat - turned Republican - Wendell Wilkie), loathes Cantwell and his strong arm methods. Russell is married (his wife is played by Margaret Leighton). She resents his womanizing, but like Eleanor Roosevelt admires the man - and will support him if he will refrain from humiliating her in the White House. Cantwell is a family man with children (his wife is played by Edie Adams). He does compartmentalize home-life and political being, but Adams also understands this.Cantwell is ready to spring the report his brother acquired of the nervous breakdown of Russell. But Russell's assistant (Kevin McCarthy) has found evidence of a nasty rumor about Cantwell in the army. A fellow soldier stationed with Cantwell (Shelley Berman) is ready to expose that Cantwell had a homosexual episode while in the service.Both candidates hope to get ex-President Hochstedter's blessing for the nomination. But though he likes Russell, Hochstedter doubts Russell's fighting ability and decisiveness. Hochstedter hates Cantwell (who openly despises him as well), but he knows Cantwell can fight. But he is aware that Cantwell (to win his point) can overkill ridiculously. He also is aware that for himself time may be running out.Other figures are on the sidelines: A southern governor who wants to put a stop to this nonsense about integration (played by blacklist hero John Henry Faulk), an outspoken "Pearl Mesta" type of Washington hostess, giving social tips to the potential first ladies (Ann Southern). And other favorite son candidates, including Richard Arlen.Gore Vidal's family has been involved in American politics for many decades, his grandfather being Senator Thomas Gore of Oklahoma. Distantly he is related to our former Vice Presient Al Gore. So he has made his fable of politics very rich and thought provoking. Who indeed should our political fates be in the hands of? His conclusion is as clever as his viewpoints are wise.