Penultimate feature from vet megger Vincent Sherman (a top second-rater*, mostly @ Warners in the ‘40s & ‘50s; tv after this), it’s a big, dopey cut-throat political drama, an overheated melodrama that feels like it was downsized from A-list to B somewhere along the way. (Easy to imagine it being ‘pitched’ with a starrier cast and glitzier production values.) Perhaps they were hoping to latch on to the big success Gore Vidal was currently having on B’way with THE BEST MAN (eventually done in ‘64 for United Artists), but with Presidential Convention skullduggery demoted to Machiavellian machinations for the Governorship of some unnamed MidWest state. Vying for the nomination, conniving Senator Don Ameche, corrupt District Attorney Jack Kelly and honest-to-a-fault Judge Efrem Zimbalist Jr. The gimmick is that everything turns on a largely unrelated murder case involving the nephew of current retiring Governor Herbert Marshall. It barely ties in with the campaign, but there’s more juicy interest away from the courtroom as Angie Dickinson pines for Judge Zimbalist over her Senator husband (Ameche) and with old pro politicos Jesse White & Carroll O’Connor dispensing political wisdom no one pays any attention to. It gets pretty outrageous at times (to welcome effect!, they even run over a kid to move the plot along), and it’s always nice to bump into Ray Danton, here doing what he can as defense attorney. But generally, in front & behind the camera, everyone‘s just going thru the motions on a film that hadn’t a chance.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: As mentioned above, Gore Vidal’s THE BEST MAN, a mediocre play that’s proved unexpectedly sturdy in revival. The 1964 film, very square, very watchable. OR: *See Sherman up his game with a fine Daniel Fuchs/Peter Viertel script on THE HARD WAY/’43, a tough as nails backstage meller with great perfs from Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie & Jack Carson.
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