The Selling of Vince D'Angelo (1976)

Danny DeVito stars in and directs this critically acclaimed short film which was part of the ground breaking HBO/Cinemax anthology series, "Likely Stories." Danny plays corrupt Congressman Vince D'Angelo who is making a sleazy run to become Senator of New Jersey. In the process he spreads vicious rumors about his running mates and uses incendiary campaign commercials to get himself elected. His campaign is derailed when he is caught-on-tape giving a bribe to a G-man posing as a mobster. His response to the "Mobscam" debacle is to claim he was "conducting his own investigation" and then fakes an 11th hour assassination on himself to engender voter sympathy.