While I was home raging at Northwest Airlines earlier, Turner Classic Movies was showing The Best Man, and I watched a few minutes of it. I’ve seen most of it before, although I haven’t yet watched it from the beginning.

It’s a good little film from 1964, written by Gore Vidal (!), and I was surprised I’d never heard of it before. Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson play competing presidential candidates during their party’s nominating convention (back in the days when conventions actually played a role in deciding the nominee).

Fonda is, not surprisingly, a high-minded (albeit philandering) intellectual, while Robertson is an intense, win-at-any-cost politician who has some dirt on Fonda’s character but also has secrets of his own. Kevin McCarthy, best known for “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” plays Fonda’s campaign manager.

The movie is well-acted and (IMHO) entertaining, definitely worth a look.