"The Best Man" - Dirty Tricks and Backroom Politics

I'm not sure how viewers with a right-of-center bent will react after seeing the 1964 film, "The Best Man," but leaning more comfortably to the left as I do, it paints a gripping, if a bit idealistic, view of how I'd like our best-of-breed politicians to behave in times of personal and professional crisis.  Not like Cliff Robertson, demagogic party nominee, Joe Cantwell, an ostensibly rags to riches combination of Huey Long, Richard Nixon, Joe McCarthy, and countless other shamelessly power-grabbing politicos. More like former President Art Hockstader, as played by erstwhile wisecracking character actor, Lee Tracy, who in Trumanesque fashion attempts to size up his potential successors to assess their ability to be cool, detached and decisive under stress.  And most definitely like Henry Fonda as William Russell, an idealized incarnation of 50's presidential candidate, Adlai Stevenson, deemed by some of his own supporters to be too smart to be electable, and all the while attempting to maintain a dangerous balance between his principles and his politics.

The plot pivots on the moral dilemma Russell faces when responding to party rival Cantwell's threat to publish the results of a psychological exam that will bring into question Russell's ability to perform under stress as President.  As voting is taking place on the floor of the convention, the two front-running candidates jockey for support, dangerously upping the ante as successive ballots fail to produce a clear winner.

Released in April 1964, a mere six months after the Kennedy assassination, the film is snappy, smart, cynical and incisive, casting a damning yet, in the end, cautiously optimistic view on the American political scene.  It's a far cry from the world of Frank Capra’s “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," where things can get pretty rough, but through persistence, good ultimately prevails.   With its sparse musical score, brisk pacing, superior acting, and ever timely subject matter, the film holds up extremely well after nearly 50 years.  I deem it a must-see and give it a rating of 9 out of 10.