Like a lot of "political" movies (including another of Henry Fonda's, "Advise and Consent"), this one just hasn't aged well. It has a roman-a-clef aspect to it, with Fonda playing the "Adlai Stevenson indecisive type" and Cliff Robertson as the "Richard Nixon cut-throat type" and it's very much a period piece.
I might have ranked it lower, but I give it a 5/10 for a really good (but all too short) performance by Ann Sothern as "Sue Ellen Gamadge," a National Committeewoman and charmingly conniving back-room wheeler-dealer. It's not one of Ann's great performances (she's got too little screen time), but she shows that talent of hers for adding a comic touch to a dramatic character without destroying the drama, as she did most famously in "The Whales of August."
All of the performances in "The Best Man" are decent, but this certainly isn't one of Henry Fonda's great movies. Still, it's worth watching at least by any fan of Ann Sothern who really wants to see an example of the breadth of her acting talent.
I might have ranked it lower, but I give it a 5/10 for a really good (but all too short) performance by Ann Sothern as "Sue Ellen Gamadge," a National Committeewoman and charmingly conniving back-room wheeler-dealer. It's not one of Ann's great performances (she's got too little screen time), but she shows that talent of hers for adding a comic touch to a dramatic character without destroying the drama, as she did most famously in "The Whales of August."
All of the performances in "The Best Man" are decent, but this certainly isn't one of Henry Fonda's great movies. Still, it's worth watching at least by any fan of Ann Sothern who really wants to see an example of the breadth of her acting talent.