Advise & Consent (1962)

Director:

Otto Preminger

Writers:

Allen Drury (novel)
Wendell Mayes (screenplay)

Release Date:

6 June 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Are the men and women of Washington really like this?

Plot:

Senate investigation into the President's newly nominated Secretary of State, gives light to a secret from the past, which may not only ruin the candidate, but the President's character as well.

Plot Keywords:

Senate | Blackmail | Ampersand In Title | Homosexuality | Pulitzer Prize Source

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Henry Fonda	...	Robert A. Leffingwell
Charles Laughton	...	Senator Seabright 'Seab' Cooley
Don Murray	...	Senator Brigham Anderson
Walter Pidgeon	...	Senate Majority Leader Bob Munson
Peter Lawford	...	Senator Lafe Smith
Gene Tierney	...	Dolly Harrison
Franchot Tone	...	The President
Lew Ayres	...	Vice President Harley Hudson
Burgess Meredith	...	Herbert Gelman
Eddie Hodges	...	Johnny Leffingwell
Paul Ford	...	Senator Stanley Danta
George Grizzard	...	Senator Fred Van Ackerman
Inga Swenson	...	Ellen Anderson
Frank Sinatra	...	Himself - on Recording at Gay Bar (voice) (archive sound)
Edward Andrews	...	Senator Orrin Knox

Runtime:

139 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:PG (TV rating) | UK:U (original rating) | West Germany:12 (f) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:12 | Australia:M | USA:Approved (PCA #20078)

Filming Locations:

Caucus Room, United States Capitol - 545 Seventh Street SE, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Company:

Otto Preminger Films

Trivia:

Director Otto Preminger offered the role of a Southern senator to Martin Luther King Jr., believing that the casting could have a positive impact (despite the fact that there were no black senators at the time). King declined after serious consideration, as he felt playing the role could cause hostility and hurt the civil rights movement.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Senator Brig Anderson (Don Murray) returns home after the black-tie party, he enters his bedroom and removes his tuxedo jacket. An undershirt is clearly visible under his dress shirt. He then goes into the bathroom and removes his tie, but having awakened his wife, comes back into the bedroom before taking off his shirt, at which point, he's no longer wearing an undershirt.

Quotes:

Robert Leffingwell: Son, this is a Washington, D.C. kind of lie. It's when the other person knows you're lying and also knows you know he knows.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Will & Grace: Advise and Resent (#2.15)" (2000)

Soundtrack:

The Song from Advise and Consent

The more things change....

It is interesting to watch the 1962 political drama "Advise & Consent" in 2007 and realize that U.S. politics and the background maneuvering that occurs when a president nominates someone for any government post has never changed. It is alternately interesting and frustrating to see what goes on in Washington behind closed doors. The great politicians know how to play the dirty game of compromise while others embarrass themselves by crossing the line.

If one looks at the last 45 years of U.S. politics after this movie was released and note the numerous real-life scandals, I can say that what is depicted in the movie is pretty close to reality, even though it's a fictional story. This entertaining film is through the observant eyes of producer/director Otto Preminger, a notable risk-taker who seem to have always made it his mission to shake up the Hays Office stranglehold on morals and what should be depicted on the big screen, and screenwriter Wendell Mayes, who adapted the original novel written by Allen Drury. I have never read the book but I understand that the movie was just an abridged version and I will have to say that Preminger and Mayes did a very good job.

From Henry Fonda as the Secretary of State nominee and Franchot Tone as the President, to Lew Ayres as the Vice President, Walter Pidgeon as the senator majority leader and, in his final role, Charles Laughton as the instigating senator from South Carolina, the strong cast, individually and collectively, gave impressive performances. Familiar character actors including Paul Ford (from The Phil Silvers Show), Edward Andrews, and Burgess Meredith were also very good. I was pleasantly surprised to see TV icon Betty White in a short but pointed performance as the only female Senate member.

One notably historic story plot line involved Don Murray as an influential senator who is simultaneously being blackmailed. I was more than a little bit surprised to see the depiction of apparently a closeted politician end up traveling outside D.C. to confront his supposed blackmailer. I found the situation rather funny and over-the-top. However, if you look at when this was made, it certainly fits the morals of that era. Arguably, what was shocking and shameful before the mid-1960s (blackmailing someone who might be gay) is not as shocking now (at least in some countries).

Overall, "Advise & Consent" is extremely entertaining. Alternately dramatic and sharply humorous, this movie kept my interest from beginning to end.