If you don't fight, this job is not for you -- and it never will be.
On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, 1964's The Best Man -- a fictional account of the behind-the-scenes wrangling for votes at a political convention -- couldn't be more timely. Written by Gore Vidal and based on his play of the same name, the film was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starred Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson as the two frontrunners (in a field of five -- imagine that, a political convention where the nominee isn't a foregone conclusion). Fonda is the secretary of state, a decent man with marital problems and a history of mental instability that Robertson, a senator who portrays himself as a man of the people, threatens to expose. Both of them crave the endorsement of the ailing president (Lee Tracy), who tries to spur Fonda on to fight back against Robertson's smear tactics.
An opportunity to do just that arises in the form of Shelley Berman as a nervous businessman who knew Robertson in the Army and has some dirt on him. Fonda's campaign manager (Kevin McCarthy) urges him to use the information, leading to a face-to-face showdown between the adversaries far away from the convention floor. The film also stars Margaret Leighton as Fonda's wife, who calls a temporary truce so they can put forth a unified front, Edie Adams as Robertson's wife, who worries about the skeleton rattling around in his closet, and Ann Sothern as a pushy delegate who claims to speak for all women. It seems like everyone has advice for Fonda, though, which makes it difficult for him to stick to his guns. Whether he'll choose to fire them or not is the question.