Year of Release: 1964Country of Origin: USA
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Cast: Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Lee Tracy, Edie Adams, Margaret Leighton
Plot outline: The other party is in disarray. Five men vie for the party nomination for president. No one has a majority (IMDb).
Based on the play of the same title by Gore Vidal, this movie is a hypothetical battle between two front-running candidates on the eve of the balloting at a presidential nominating convention. The drama of this confrontation, happening in the midst of a hot and howling but strangely oblivious convention, is shockingly intense. That is because Schaffner has shrewdly directed the movie to emphasize the rasp of a convention as well as of individuals. While the personal hostility between two taut and determined men is stingingly shown in the foreground, the atmosphere of all that's going on around is caught in brilliant simulation and made to crackle with the tensions of a mob. Henry Fonda gets precisely the mixture of hot ambition and cool humility to make the presidential aspirations of an evident egghead credible. And he is able to play a participant in a threatened retaliatory smear with the becoming distaste of a gentleman and yet with a certain bright-eyed zeal. In the end, of course, his behavior is that of a starry idealist. As his rigid and ruthless rival, Cliff Robertson is excellent, too - a fair reflection of a type of opportunist that has been all too evident on political scene. And as the shrewd and conniving former President, Lee Tracy comes charging through with a performance that prickles with witty cynicism and drips with phony sentiment. Kevin McCarthy as Fonda's henchman who pulls the political tricks, Ann Sothern as a brassy and brutal manipulator of the "women's vote", John Henry Faulk as a Southern politician and William R. Ebersol as a lily-white dark horse stand out in a cast that is notable for its authenticity. (NYT)
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
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