Advise & Consent (1962)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

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
Paul McGrath	...	Hardiman Fletcher aka James Morton
Will Geer	...	Senate Minority Leader Warren
Betty White	...	Senator Bessie Adams
Tom Helmore	...	British Ambassador
Rene Paul	...	French Ambassador
Paul Stevens	...	Louis Newborn
Russ Brown	...	Night Watchman - Mike
Malcolm Atterbury	...	Senator Tom August
Janet Jane Carty	...	Pidge Anderson
Hilary Eaves	...	Lady Maudulayne
Michele Montau	...	Celestine Barre
J. Edward McKinley	...	Senator Powell Hanson
Bill Quinn	...	Senator Paul Hendershot (as William Quinn)
Tiki Santos	...	Senator Kanaho
Raoul De Leon	...	Senator Velez
Chet Stratton	...	Reverend Carney Birch
Larry Tucker	...	Manuel
Bettie Johnson	...	Lafe's Girl
John Granger	...	Ray Shaff
Sid Gould	...	Gay Bar Bartender
Meyer Davis	...	Director of Orchestra (as Meyer Davis and his orchestra)
White House Correspondents Association	...	Themselves
White House Press Photographers Association	...	Themselves
Irv Kupcinet	...	Journalist
Robert C. Wilson	...	Journalist
Alan Emory	...	Journalist
Jesse Stearns Buscher	...	Journalist (as Jessie Stearns Buscher)
Milton Berliner	...	Journalist
Allan W. Cromley	...	Journalist (as Allen W. Cromley)
William Knighton	...	President of White House Correspondents Association
Guy M. Gillette	...	Senator Harper (as The Honorable Guy M. Gillette)
Henry Fountain Ashurst	...	Senator McCafferty (as The Honorable Henry Fountain Ashurst)
Raj Mallick	...	Indian Ambassador
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Leon Alton	...	Senator (uncredited)
Eddie Baker	...	Senator (uncredited)
Brandon Beach	...	Senator (uncredited)
Mario Cimino	...	Senator (uncredited)
Roger Clark	...	Senator (uncredited)
Harry Denny	...	Senator (uncredited)
George DeNormand	...	Senator (uncredited)
Cay Forrester	...	President's Secretary (uncredited)
Clive Halliday	...	Senator (uncredited)
Henry Jackson	...	Drink Refuser (uncredited)
Virgil Johanson	...	Senator (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp	...	Reporter in Senate Chamber (uncredited)
Al McGranary	...	Senator (uncredited)
Harold Miller	...	Senate Official (uncredited)
Paul Power	...	Senator (uncredited)
Maxwell Reed	...	Senator (uncredited)
Walter Reed	...	Senate Staff Clerk (uncredited)
Leoda Richards	...	Senator (uncredited)
Dick Ryan	...	Senator (uncredited)
Jeffrey Sayre	...	Senate Staff Clerk (uncredited)
Bernard Sell	...	Senator (uncredited)
Hal Taggart	...	Senator (uncredited)
Wayne Tucker	...	Journalist (uncredited)

Directed by
Otto Preminger

Writing credits
Allen Drury		(novel)
Wendell Mayes		(screenplay)

Produced by
Otto Preminger	....	producer

Original Music by
Jerry Fielding

Cinematography by
Sam Leavitt

Film Editing by
Louis R. Loeffler

Production Design by
Lyle R. Wheeler		(as Lyle Wheeler)

Set Decoration by
Eli Benneche

Makeup Department
Del Armstrong	....	makeup artist
Robert Jiras	....	makeup artist
Myrl Stoltz	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Jack McEdward	....	production manager
Henry Weinberger	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Charles Bohart	....	assistant director
Don Kranze	....	assistant director
L.V. McCardle Jr.	....	first assistant director
Larry Powell	....	assistant director

Art Department
Meyer Gordon	....	property master
Arnold Pine	....	construction manager

Sound Department
Leon Birnbaum	....	sound effects editor
William Hamilton	....	sound
Harold Lewis	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
James Almond	....	electrical supervisor
Saul Midwall	....	camera operator
Emil Oster	....	camera operator (as Emil Oster Jr.)
Morris Rosen	....	key grip
Al St. Hilaire	....	still photographer
Josh Weiner	....	still photographer

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Bill Blass	....	costume designer: Miss Tierney
Hope Bryce	....	costume coordinator
Michael J. Harte	....	wardrobe (as Michael Harte)
Joe King	....	wardrobe
Adele Parmenter	....	wardrobe

Music Department
Lee Osborne	....	music editor
Murray Spivack	....	music recordist

Other crew
Saul Bass	....	title designer
David De Silva	....	production assistant
Allen Drury	....	technical advisor
Kathleen Fagan	....	script supervisor
Florence Nerlinger	....	production secretary
Sol Schulman	....	furrier
Max Slater	....	assistant to producer
Harry Winston	....	diamond jewelry

Production Companies

• Otto Preminger Films (as Sigma Productions)

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1962) (USA) (theatrical) (as Columbia Pictures Corporation)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1966) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Columbia-Bavaria Filmgesellschaft m.b.H. (1962) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Aventi (2004) (France) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

139 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

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:

Although the character of The President (played by Franchot Tone carries no role name, at one point in the script Munson (played by Walter Pidgeon) calls him "Russ".

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 "Home Improvement: Advise and Repent (#5.5)" (1995)

Soundtrack:

The Song from Advise and Consent

Even more relevant today than in 1962

Although I had seen it when it first came out (I was 18) and again about about 6 months ago (Winter, 2004), this screening (May, 2005) was even more insightful.

It really has aged very well, and is, obviously, at least as relevant today as it was in 1962 --"realistic" in its depiction of the congressional situation in its own day, positively prescient in its relation to our own.

Fonda is good, but curiously second fiddle to the other, more subtle characters.

It's Walter Pigeon's best flick (by far), well cast as the Senate Majority Leader and he carries the role off with an almost Shakespearean aplomb.

Almost Charles Laughton's best (only because that's a very hard call), with his hopelessly crumpled white suit and hat, shufflin' gait, positively Irvinesque homespun witticisms and wonderful, drawling, contemptuous "Mis-ter Rob-ert A. Leff-in-well".

Might be Franchot Tone's best, as well, as the ailing, frail, chain-smoking president, a little bit too close to Life (filmed 6 years before he died of lung cancer).

Gene Tierney is very good as the D.C. socialite hostess "Dolly Harrison" --a character clearly based on Averill Harriman's wife Pamela or, as a type, a later Katherine Graham.

Definitely Peter Lawford's best film --which, admittedly, is not saying much, but he's very well cast as a rather dissolute, philandering Kennedyesque senator who is, nonetheless, not without his Qualities.

Lew Ayres' Casper Milquetoast "Vice President Harley M. Hudson" is an excellently wrought character, from his "bucket of warm spit" role as the impotent President of the Senate to the wonderful twist he gives it at the end, which expounds quite beautifully the subtleties and definitiveness of the Reality of Power.

The scenes of D.C. are positively nostalgic --imagine anyone being able to catch a cab to the capital and then walk right up the steps and go inside ; or an aged night-watchman making his rounds as *the* Security for the inside of the Senate building.

As are the various aspects of the underground "Gay Scene" in NYC with the wonderfully cast Larry Tucker, Jerry Fielding's fine music and "the voice of Frank Sinatra" (as credited). (Some might object to the "clichés" in these scenes, but, to me, those clichés are part and parcel of the ambiance of the period of the film and the culture it portrays and should be seen as such --rather like appreciating the overt racism in "Birth of a Nation" for what it is. I am glad that Preminger didn't "sanitize" his presentation of this matter, especially given the crucial nature of it to the plot of the film.)

But the contrast between the civility --albeit occasionally a rather raw one-- of the senate of circa 1960 and that of the present day is not nostalgic quite so much as it is just heart-rending ("The World We Have Lost"), and the roots of our present grotesque, take-no-prisoners congressional savagery are fully exposed in the intertwined plot lines of McCarthyesque ideological rigidity and homosexual blackmail.

All in all, a "Roman à Clef" to the political world of 1960's Washington, vividly relevant to our own time.