Poster Exhibit Spotlights Politics in Movies

Politically speaking, film industry curator Chris Horak was playing spin doctor Monday and doing a little damage control.

Horak was at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum, where he stepped in at the last moment to set up an exhibit of original movie poster art of political films made over the last 60 years.

The monthlong show opens today and is timed to correspond with the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

Museum officials spent months cajoling studios and private collectors into loaning the artwork. So many responded that Horak was hired Monday to sort through them and pick the most appropriate.

He quickly discovered that Republicans and Democrats are more likely to reach a consensus on tax reform before movie fans are going to agree on which film is best.

Museum tour guide Susan Alfaro stopped in her tracks when she walked into the gallery.

Sure, Alfaro agreed, “The Candidate,” Robert Redford’s cynical 1972 examination of media-age political campaigning, and “The Last Hurrah,” the 1958 film starring Spencer Tracy as a big city mayor in his final campaign, deserve to be in the exhibit.

But why was “Election,” a 1999 Matthew Broderick comedy, up on the wall? “I don’t see how that could be in here. It’s about a bunch of high school students campaigning for student body office,” groused Alfaro--herself a 16-year-old Fairfax High student.

Horak explained that “Election” fits nicely in the exhibit. “School elections are how kids learn about politics. They’re a microcosm of the real world,” he said.

Museum President Phyllis Caskey agreed that the 1964 thriller “Seven Days in May” and 1948’s moralistic “State of the Union” certainly needed to be included in the show.

But why was 1962’s tense Cold War epic of political assassination, “The Manchurian Candidate,” piled over at the side with castoffs that included 1939’s “Confessions of a Nazi Spy”?

She looked around the room for Horak. “I’m going to have to ask him about this,” she said.

Horak, of Pasadena, is a veteran of more than 20 years of curating movie-themed shows. He started his first day on the job at the nonprofit museum at 7021 Hollywood Blvd. by making up a new name for the exhibition.

Instead of the museum staff’s title, “The Candidates: From Primary to Election,” Horak substituted a more movie-fan-friendly name--”The Peoples’ Choice: Hollywood Looks at Politics.”

Filmmakers have cranked out more than 300 political movies over the years, Horak said. “For Hollywood, politics is a game of illusion--the same game that Hollywood plays,” he said.

Films such as 1941’s treatise on demigods, “Meet John Doe,” live on as cautionary tale for those worried about modern political campaigning, he said.

“Hollywood likes politics because there’s this perception of corruption, and corruption is always interesting,” Horak said.

The poster show was planned as a way of helping welcome Democrats to Hollywood this month, Caskey said. Three states have booked the museum for delegate parties during the convention and similar events are planned at movie studios around town, she said.

In the end, “The Manchurian Candidate” won. But because of space problems its place on Caskey’s wall came at the expense of 1995’s “The American President,” starring Michael Douglas and Annette Bening. “It’s a love story, not really a political story,” Horak said.

But space of another type probably will be on the minds of visiting political delegates, Horak said.

Most probably will head straight to the “Star Trek” exhibit on the other side of the museum, he said. “It’s a good bet they’ll remember that, not this.”