The issue here is the President's wish to turn Henry Fonda into his secretary of state. Naturally such an important nomination must be investigated carefully, so Henry Fonda is investigated with some unpleasantness turning up in the form of old ghosts and sins, that anyone would rather forget, but old sins have a ghoulish habit of never leaving you quite alone in peace. During the course of the inverstigations and battles pro and contra the nomination, even worse ghosts turn up from the war, and Don Murray as the leader of the opposition against the nomination ends up in bad trouble, which he can't handle, and that triggers the tragedy with very unexpected turnouts. Charles Laughton as the main conservative leader against the nomination has a key role here but keeps well in charge of the labyrinth of unexpected events as an old untouchable curmudgeon of the senate, while Walter Pidgeon as the majority leader tries his best to manoeuvre the threatened ship of the senate through the shallows like a qualified pilot. What really wakes up the film is Burgess Meredith as he is called to give testimony and happens to jeopardize the whole thing by opening Pandora's box of old sins and lies. Lew Ayres as the Vice President also plays one of the most important roles, although his main job is to be strictly formal the whole way, but even he is called out on unexpected byways. In brief, the adventure of this almost documentary of senate proceedings amounts to a towering can of worms that constantly gets more heated, while eventually Walter Pidgeon gets the last word to soothe over the general uproar while Charles Laughton gets more established than ever. The most fascinating quality of this film is the insight you get into the work of the senate, which is invaluable and which must place this film as one of Otto Preminger's most prominent and important ones, as well as one of the most major films of American inside politics.
Review of Advise & Consent
