The Best Man

Legend suggests that the future Republican American President Ronald Reagan, late in his previous career as a Hollywood actor, was rejected for a role in this film because a studio executive at United Artists didn't think he had "that presidential look". However, Gore Vidal, in one of his several essays attacking Reagan's presidency, says that Reagan was actually considered for the role of Joe Cantwell during preparations for the first Broadway production of his original play in 1960. (Frank Lovejoy eventually played Cantwell on stage). 1964, the year the film version appeared, was the year Reagan decisively left acting for politics, so Vidal's version of the story is the more likely.

Near the end of the film, while with his wife in a car on the way to the convention center, we see traffic in the opposing lanes. A white Cadillac passes by and about two seconds later those same cars, including the white Caddy, pass again.

During the opening credits, a picture of every single U.S. President appears in order, from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson.

Featured in AFI Life Achievement Award: AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Henry Fonda (1978)