Having been reminded of seeing James Earl Jones live on stage in the star-studded revival of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, I decided to re-watch the 1964 movie that was made of Vidal’s play.

What was most interesting was that Vidal, being at home in both the theater and cinema worlds, adapted the play himself and wrote the screenplay. In the process, while he made pretty much the same points he had made in the play, he did so by very different means. He wasn’t content merely to “open up” the stage play which had been confined to the hotel rooms of the two main candidates vying for the presidential nomination of their political party in 1960, but he rewrote large portions of the play, which meant sacrificing some characters, greatly expanding the roles of other characters, and introducing brand new ones with new conflicts as well.

And no longer did the play take place in the days immediately preceding the nominating convention, but now it was unfolding during the convention itself, which allowed the cameras to travel to the convention floor with scenes of thousands of extras (and probably some inserted shots of previous conventions).

Almost a whole new work.

But Vidal presumably decided that a movie isn’t a play, so he was more than happy to sacrifice some of his best lines which were perhaps better suited to the theater than the movies.

It’s a very good movie based on a very good play. And if you’ve seen either the movie or the play, you’ll probably enjoy seeing the other version as well, because although some good bon mots are missing from the movie, there are some sight gags that couldn’t have been achieved in a playhouse.

I also decided to re-read the original play, which I bought in the paperback edition back in 1964, shortly after Randy Klopp and I had seen the movie at the Colonial Theater in Lebanon, PA.

And I discovered that Vidal had made some extensive revisions to the play for its revivals over the years. He removed a few contemporary references that later audiences might find baffling, and added a slew of additional witticisms.

Just confining myself to the original play, here are a few favorite lines.

In the stage directions describing the hotel rooms of the candidates:

The décor is early Conrad Hilton.

On hearing that Mrs. Gamadge, the national committee woman, is on her way to see them, one of the characters remarks:

The only known link between the NAACP and the Ku Klux Klan. How does she do it?

When Mrs. Gamadge arrives, she gives advice to the potential future First Lady:

When you’re the First Lady just remember this: don’t do too much…like Mrs. Roosevelt. The women didn’t like that. On the other hand, don’t do too little…like Mrs. Eisenhower. The women don’t like that either. All in all, Grace Coolidge was really the best, bless her heart. My husband had such a crush on her… 

In the first scene when former president Art Hockstader is talking to candidate William Russell, who is hoping for Hockstader’s endorsement:

HOCKSTADER

Bill, do you believe in God?

RUSSELL (Startled)

Do I…? Well, I was confirmed in the Episcopal Church.

HOCKSTADER

Hell, that wasn’t what I asked. I’m a Methodist and I’m still askin: do you believe there’s a God and a Day of Judgment and a Hereafter?

RUSSELL

No. I believe in us. In man.

HOCKSTADER (Nods)

I’ve often pretended I thought there was a God, for political purposes.

RUSSELL (Smiles)

So far I haven’t told a lie in this campaign. I’ve never used the word “God” in a speech.

HOCKSTADER

Well, the world’s changed since I was politickin. In those days you had to pour God over everything, like ketchup. 

 

In the next scene Hockstader is talking to Joe Cantwell who is also vying for his endorsement:

HOCKSTADER (Dryly)

Young man, you’ve done a remarkable job in the Senate. Most of the time.

CANTWELL (Quickly)

Most of the time?

HOCKSTADER (Nods)

There have been moments when I have questioned your methods.

CANTWELL

Well, you have to fight fire with fire, Mr. President.

HOCKSTADER

And the end justifies the means?

CANTWELL

Well, yes, sir. Yes. That is what I believe.

HOCKSTADER

Well, son, I have news for you about both politics and life… and may I say the two are exactly the same thing? There are no ends, Joe, only means.

And later on:

HOCKSTADER

It’s not that I mind your bein a bastard, don’t get me wrong there… It’s your bein such a stupid bastard that I object to.

And my favorite line is the final line:

The best man won!

Whether it is delivered sincerely or ironically or bitterly, you’ll have to read the play or go to see it or watch the movie to find out for yourself.

In his introduction to the play, Gore Vidal reflects on its genesis:

One day last July, the temperature went to ninety; the river turned a sullen gray; I crossed the brown lawn and started, irritably, to rethink The Tragic Muse. No, I did not like the method, I decided. It was all a trick, an easy parlor game. As if one were, in contemporary terms, to take…just, for example…a man of exemplary private life, yet monstrous public life, and contrast him to a man of “immoral” private life and exemplary public life. That was just the sort of thing [Henry] James would take on. How he would enjoy mechanically turning the screw upon each character. For sake of argument, make the two men politicians, perhaps fighting one another for the Presidency.

Then demonstrate how, in our confused age, morality means, simply, sex found out. To most Americans, cheating, character assassination, hypocrisy, self-seeking are taken quite for granted as the way things are, not pleasant perhaps but: son, you’ve got to look after number one because there’s a lot of competition and… By the time I got back to the house to escape the sun and The Tragic Muse revisited, I had the characters for The Best Man. 

The play is as relevant as ever. The Walnut Street Theatre was supposed to revive it 2020 and I was looking forward to their production, but of course, a certain virus had other ideas.

There are a couple of copies of the movie available on YouTube: for example, The Best Man