Gore Vidal’s most successful Broadway production, The Best Man, ran for 520 performances beginning in 1960. Nominated for six Tony awards, including Best Play, it was seen as a deliberate depiction of contemporary Democratic politics. Vidal's main character and hero, the very patrician and intellectual William Russell—played effortlessly by Henry Fonda in the film—is an homage to Adlai Stevenson, whom Vidal respected and admired. A coolly cynical exploration of the political process, it continues to speak to political reality and was revived in 2001 and 2012. It is also historically noteworthy for being the first Hollywood film to use the word “homosexual,” according to Variety.

Frank Capra was initially chosen to direct the film version, but Vidal said in a 2008 interview that his contract granted him the power to remove any director from the project. According to Vidal, Capra—who had famously tackled politics with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)—was “trying to turn this thing into the most unholy Jesus Christ Christian story that you ever saw, none of which was reflective of what I had written.” Vidal generally approved of Schaffner’s version, even making an appearance as a senator in the convention.