Movie Clips: The American President, 1995- A Movie About Romance and Hardball Politics

This piece was originally posted at FRS Daily Press

If you’re someone whose a political junky such as myself and you love watching political movies and political documentaries, than The American President is a very good movie. Because it’s about a President who at the beginning of the movie is pretty popular and is going into to his reelection campaign having not finished his whole agenda that he ran on, trying to finish that agenda with a crime bill and an energy bill.

And they go into how he and the White House work with Congress to get the votes to pass that agenda and how they set up the staff to do that. And how they work with special interest groups to get the support for their energy bill. If you’re someone who like romantic comedy’s that aren’t predictable and cheesy and are clever. Than The American President is a good movie, because it’s about a President whose a widower and the single parent of a daughter who’s somewhat lonely.

President Andrew Shepard meets an environmental lobbyist by accident, walks in on a meeting she’s having with his Chief of Staff. And he asks her to be his date at the next state dinner and even the process he goes through to make that happen is interesting because he calls her up at home. And she thinks the President is one of her friends impersonating the President. And makes fun of him, but the President doesn’t give up and calls her back to convince her he’s the President. The American President has hardball politics, romance and political scandal in about 105 minutes. A little something for everybody.

President Andrew Shepard, with a name like that he must be from New England, but he’s the former Governor of Wisconsin played by Michael Douglas. And this is one of his best roles because you see his ability to act and I’m not a big fan of most of his movies, but I believe he’s a great actor and you see his funny side in the movie and he can be very funny as well. He’s no Danny DeVito, but he can more than hold his own in comedy. Again plays the President who’s somewhat popular going in heading into an election year with still a big agenda to pass, and meets this environmental lobbyist played by Annette Bening who doesn’t like President Shepard’s Energy bill and they talk about it.

And the President and the lobbyist (sounds like the title of a movie) make a deal that if she can land half of the votes in the House for the bill she wants, he’ll get the other half. And at the end of the meeting he asks her on a date. She doesn’t take him seriously, threatens the President that he has to come through, or the President will lose the support of her group. The President gets his date and they hit it off and start an affair that causes the President trouble politically as well as with his agenda.

Again The American President is a movie that has hardball politics, romance, and political scandal. With the romance and with Senate Minority Leader Bob Rumson who’s also running for President making everything he can out of this affair even calling Sydney Ellen Wade a whore on national TV. And running as the Religious Right candidate for President, the Champion of Traditional Values. Running against a Liberal Democrat and a card caring member of the ACLU. And the scene towards the end of the movie, the press conference makes the whole thing worth watching where he sums up the whole movie in about five minutes.

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Picnic (1955) Starring William Holden & Kim Novak

Source:Stan Gunn– Kim Novak and William Holden in Picnic.

“William Holden & Kim Novak dance, from the movie “Picnic.”

I love this scene from the movie “Picnic” from director Josh Logan, released in 1955, based on the play by William Inge.

I’ve always identified, for whatever reason, with the character Hal Carter that Holden played in this film.

So many great lines in “Picnic.”

“You don’t love someone because they’re perfect, Mom.” Who hasn’t thought that at one time or another in their lives?

William Holden and Kim Novak were great in this, even though Holden thought he was too old to play the part of Hal. I heard he had to drink quite a bit to get up the nerve to do the “Moonglow” dancing scene in this clip.

So memorable. So perfect.

This clip appears courtesy of BFM Digital and IODA. The movie “Picnic” is owned and licensed by BFM Digital and IODA.”

From Stan Gunn 

“I used to have favorite movies when I was a kid. When you haven’t lived that long, and haven’t therefore seen many films, it’s not that hard to choose favorites. When I was ten, my three favorite movies were John Wayne’s ‘The Alamo,’ ‘The Three Hundred Spartans,’ and ‘The Journey to the Center of the Earth’ with James Mason and Pat Boone. Later in life, when you have a goodly number of movies under your belt, say in your twenties, you stop having a top three or top five and start categorizing: five best westerns, my top three monster movies, and so on.”

Source:The Wheezer Society– Kim Novak and William Holden.

From The Wheezer Society

Bill Holden, because he was funny and Kim Novak because she’s so sexy, gorgeous and baby-face adorable, were all the reasons I needed to watch this movie.

This movie and scene reminds me a little of the movie Dirty Dancing with Patrick Swayze and Linda Gray, where the Jennifer Gray character’s family especially her father (played by the great Jerry Orbach) didn’t want his daughter involved at all with the Swayze character. And yet the young couple dances beautifully together in that great scene at the end of the movie where the Time of My Life video is shot. Which is a great song, by the way.

Picnic, is not a great movie and certainly not one of my favorite movies, but there’s a lot to like about the movie. And I think the best thing about this movie is how real, innocent and honest it is. You have this upper-middle class young woman in Kim Novak who seems to have it all going for her in life. And yet she’s not happy who meets the drifter (played by Bill Holden) who seems to be just passing through. He simply loves living and being alive and being free and not worried about pleasing anyone, or thinking he has to be anyone other than himself. And they meet each other in this small town.

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Boys Night Out (1962) Starring Kim Novak

Source:TCM– Hollywood Goddess Kim Novak, starring in Boys Night Out (1962)

“Boys’ Night Out Original Trailer”

From TCM 

“Fred, George, Doug and Howie are quickly reaching middle-age. Three of them are married, only Fred is still a bachelor. They want something different than their ordinary marriages, children and TV-dinners. In secret, they get themselves an apartment with a beautiful young woman, Kathy, for romantic rendezvous. But Kathy does not tell them that she is a sociology student researching the sexual life of the white middle-class male. Written by Mattias Thuresson.”

Source:IMDB– Boys Night Out, looking for Kim Novak.

From IMDB 

This photo I believe is from the original or official trailer of Boys Night Out. But the video that this photo is from is not currently available online right now.

Source:The Daily Press– Kathy (played by Kim Novak) observing her potential guinea pigs.

Kim Novak was a Hollywood Goddess who combined gorgeous baby-face looks to go with a body, that could have four guys thinking of nothing but her as she showed in this movie. Especially when you have four three bored, middle-aged married men who are looking for excitement in their sex life. And a young man in Jim Garner’s character who could probably marry any woman that he wants, but hasn’t decided to settle down and do that. Compared with the other three guys at least Garner looks like the obvious choice here. But doesn’t seem ready for a serious romance yet.

The plot of this movie (in case anyone is wondering) is four friends who live in Greenwich, Connecticut who all commute to New York together where they work on the same train. They see Fred’s (James Garner) cheating boss at a bar one night after work. And they get to talking about how this guy is pulling this extra relationship off without his wife knowing about it.

They figure that Fred’s boss must have an extra apartment in New York where he takes his mistress, or has her stay there. And get the idea that maybe they should all chip in rent a separate apartment for themselves for their new girl that they would share with each other. To bring some excitement to their love lives.

The guys send Fred to find and rent their New York apartment for them that they would all chip in and pay for. By chance Cathy (played by Kim Novak) is looking for the same apartment that Fred has just rented. But again the guys are looking for a woman to share their apartment with that they would share.

And Fred explains to Cathy that he and his buddies are looking for a housekeeper to take care of the apartment and that should could live in as well. Where this movie gets pretty interesting is that Cathy is no housekeeper, but a sociology graduate looking to write a paper on the modern suburban male. And takes the job to do the research for her paper.

What Cathy does with this let’s call it experiment, is make each men think that she’s giving them what they’re looking for in their married life besides excitement.

Cathy lets Doug (played by Howard Duff) fix things around the house. Something that his wife doesn’t let him do at home and always calls the repairman.

She lets Howie (played by Howard Morris) eat whatever he wants and gives him all types of different foods and meals that he’s not getting at home.

She lets George (played by Tony Randall) say whatever he wants and lets him finishes his sentences. His wife shuts him up or changes the subject constantly at home. She makes these men feel special and needed when she only wants to do research on them for her paper.

If you’re familiar with The Chapman Report which I believe came out the same year as Boys Night Out which is also about sex and love life in the 1960s, I think you would like Boys Night Out as well. Both movies are about a cultural transition that America was just starting and going through in the early 1960s.

I guess one of the funny things about this movie is that it is pretty innocent. You have three married men who want excitement in their lives who don’t actually do anything with the woman they see as their mistress in Cathy. Because she won’t let them, because she’s only interested in the bachelor who is Fred played by Jim Garner. Who is interested in her.

You can also see this post on Blogger.

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