Robert Redford and Melvyn Douglas, The Candidate (1972)
While The Candidate is a 1972 film and, therefore, much more modern than the films I normally showcase on Hollywood Yesterday, I have a reason that can be summed up in two words: Melvyn Douglas.
As I’ve often said, he’s one of my absolute favorites – right up there in rarefied air breathed by Humphrey Bogart, Buster Keaton, and a gentleman named James Stewart. Right. There. With. Them.
While Douglas didn’t have the same number of much-ballyhooed blockbuster movies some of his contemporaries enjoyed, he was (make no mistake about it) as gifted an actor as any. Better than many, if we’re being honest.
He was the reason I watched this film and is definitely one of the reasons I enjoyed it as much as I did. He and Robert Redford were excellent in this fun (not to be taken overly-seriously for crying out loud) movie.
Below are a few fast facts about The Candidate:
- Groucho Marx has an uncredited cameo in this movie – it would be his last screen appearance.
- Robert Redford plays Bill McKay, a candidate for the U.S. Senate from California.
- A prop campaign button from The Candidate is on display at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History in Washington… alongside other authentic campaign buttons.
-
Was shot in just 41 days.