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:

U.S. Senate | Politician | Blackmail | Airport | Closeted Homosexual

Awards:

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

Cast

Franchot Tone	...	The President
Lew Ayres	...	The Vice President
Henry Fonda	...	Robert Leffingwell
Walter Pidgeon	...	Senate Majority Leader
Charles Laughton	...	Senator Seabright Cooley
Don Murray	...	Senator Brigham Anderson
Peter Lawford	...	Senator Lafe Smith
Gene Tierney	...	Dolly Harrison
Burgess Meredith	...	Herbert Gelman
Eddie Hodges	...	Johnny Leffingwell
Paul Ford	...	Senator Stanley Danta
George Grizzard	...	Senator Fred Van Ackerman
Inga Swenson	...	Ellen Anderson
Paul McGrath	...	Hardiman Fletcher
Will Geer	...	Senate Minority Leader
Edward Andrews	...	Senator Orrin Knox
Betty White	...	Senator Bessie Adams
Malcolm Atterbury	...	Senator Tom August
J. Edward McKinley	...	Senator Powell Hanson
Bill Quinn	...	Senator Paul Hendershot (as William Quinn)
Tiki Santos	...	Senator Kanaho
Raoul De Leon	...	Senator Velez
Tom Helmore	...	British Ambassador
Hilary Eaves	...	Lady Maudulayne
Rene Paul	...	French Ambassador
Michele Montau	...	Celestine Barre
Raj Mallick	...	Indian Ambassador
Russ Brown	...	Night Watchman - Mike
Janet Jane Carty	...	Pidge Anderson
Chet Stratton	...	Rev. Carney Birch
Larry Tucker	...	Manuel
John Granger	...	Ray Shaff
Sid Gould	...	Bartender
Frank Sinatra	...	Himself - on Recording at Gay Bar (voice) (archive sound)
Paul Stevens	...	Louis Newborn
Bettie Johnson	...	Lafe's Girl
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)
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 Forester	...	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)
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		(director of photography)

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	....	hairdresser

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
Saul Bass	....	poster designer (uncredited)

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
Josh Weiner	....	stills
Al St. Hilaire	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Bill Blass	....	clothes designer: Miss Tierney
Hope Bryce	....	costume co-ordinator
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	....	titles designer
David De Silva	....	production assistant
Allen Drury	....	technical adviser
Kathleen Fagan	....	script supervisor
Florence Nerlinger	....	production secretary
Otto Preminger	....	presenter
Sol Schulman	....	furs
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)
• Alive Vertrieb und Marketing (2012) (Germany) (DVD)
• Aventi (2004) (France) (DVD)
• Hal Roach Studios Film Classics (1986) (USA) (VHS)
• Hal Roach Studios (1980s) (USA) (TV)
• Video Treasures (1980s) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)  union (as IATSE)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

139 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:M | USA:Approved (PCA #20078) | UK:PG (TV rating) | UK:X (original rating) | West Germany:12 (f) | Singapore:PG | UK:PG (video rating) (1998) | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Otto Preminger Films

Trivia:

Burgess Meredith, as Herbert Gelman, testifies against Leffingwell at the latter's confirmation hearing, claiming that the two of them were members of a Communist cell. In real life, Meredith was himself named an "unfriendly witness" by the House Un-American Activities Committee, which nearly ruined his career. Will Geer, who plays the Senate minority leader, was also blacklisted for refusing to name names before the same Committee.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Senator Brigham Anderson of Utah is shown in his home drinking from a distinctive fluted Coca-Cola bottle. Anderson (from his first name and home state) may be a Mormon; the novel states this explicitly, but the film does not. Regardless, contrary to what many believe, Mormons are not forbidden to drink caffeinated soft drinks.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[a boy is selling newspapers outside the U.S. Capitol, with the headline "Leffingwell Picked for Secretary of State"]
Paperboy:[to a customer] Thank you.
Stanley Danta:Morning, son.
Paperboy:[taking change from Danta] Good morning, senator... thank you.
[Danta gets into a taxicab]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Vito (2011)

Soundtrack:

The Song from Advise and Consent

A Necessity for Every Civics Class Everywhere

Henry Fonda has a way of playing the kind of man I would vote for. In 12 Angry Men, he's the only one of a dozen who's willing to consider every uncertain facet of circumstance, and succeeds in persuading the other eleven to do so. In Fail-Safe, he's an American president so painstakingly objective and diplomatic that he simply cannot escape the cataclysmically horrific facts of his situation. I'm unsure of whether or not it's just coincidence that Sidney Lumet's two masterpieces and Otto Preminger's Advise & Consent are all three phenomenal marvels of American cinema, but a pattern is clearly developed. What makes Advise & Consent intriguing, however, is that Fonda's on screen for less than half of the film. What Fonda says to defend his position as a nominee for Secretary of State is of astonishing insignificance compared to what's done behind his back, and what he does behind other backs, to approve or deny his appointment as head of foreign affairs.

Another parallel more pertinent to Preminger's film as a whole is Network. Decades after its release, no matter how iconic or influential it's become in American culture, not only has its unsettling, paradigm-shifting conveyance been completely overlooked, but the very reverse it warns against has happened. In Advise & Consent's case, we continually take for granted that the President is responsible for every single bill, law, regulation, deregulation that's put into practice, as if he waves a wand or pushes a button, rather than if we were to just watch this story. Watch, realize in its mesmerizing realism a chronicle of just how little power a president has. The president has the last word, says whether he likes something or not, but he's nothing more than a glorified bureaucrat. He has his vision, views, ideas, but what of the hundreds upon hundreds of officials he must answer to, wait for, consider the visions and views of, before something's actually done? Otto Preminger, one of the edgiest, darkest filmmakers of the studio era, gives us a political chronicle wherein the President is known simply as…the President. We never catch his name. Even in 1962, Preminger, original novelist Allen Drury and screenwriter Wendell Mayes, could see clearly that after all those yard signs, banners, campaign ads, the lionized images of men who seemingly lead us in all our decisions, acts and deeds as a people mean very little. What does mean something? Our own acts and deeds. Our own standards. What are we willing to accept? How much of us are willing to accept it while the rest of us stay behind wallowing in tradition and fear? Those more vulnerable than those like Charles Laughton's Seabright Cooley, who's so eloquent and confident in his robust figure and white suit that we're hardly aware or even expectant to see Franchot Tone's President.

The film seems to culminate into a focus on rookie Senator Brigham Anderson, played by Don Murray, who has a past, or an identity, that a Barney Frank or Gerry Studds couldn't have been so open about in 1962. Again, Preminger was an extraordinary filmmaker not simply because of his capacity for deliberately, subtly, beautifully constructed compositions and the architecture of tension that could de-vein a shrimp---all penetratingly evident here---but his penchant for bringing things to the screen that would deliver a well-deserved kick in Hays' balls. Things that opened doors and minds for the generations beholding it in theaters at the time, whether they were prepared or not. What should he have done? Waited till they were prepared to see heroin addiction, grisly consequences of rape, the repression of homosexuality? HAHAHAHAHA! When would that have been? Now?! Phffft! Good ole Rose Nylund has a bit part as a female Senator, for instance. In the close confines of the Senate floor, it's accepted. There's the abstract feeling that the masses outside of it would've been more surprised at her sex. But don't get me wrong. Advise & Consent is not just a masterpiece in my eyes purely because it's some sort of liberal parable. It isn't. Indeed, Wyoming Senator Fred Van Ackerman, played with unabashed unscrupulousness by George Grizzard, is apparently a liberal, which is educational for me, a young 2010 man who has never seen liberalism as oppressive, much less the sort who would want Fonda's nomination withdrawn, to the extent that blackmail of a closet homosexual would seem justified. Advise & Consent is not a politically radical chestnut but a docudrama of what happens behind the voters' backs. What Liberal and Conservative mean now bear little direct context with what they meant in 1962.

But what they meant then is certainly frightening: Preminger's not only extremely clever in his casting, but publicly vindictive in it. Burgess Meredith, who was blacklisted in the 1950s, here plays a witness who testifies that Fonda has a Communist past. Perhaps now in a less fascist time in our country it's clearer that whether or not Fonda does is beside the point. Walter Pidgeon's perfect for the strongest ally of the President. He's perfect for the strongest ally of anybody! Look at the unaffectedness of this man. No matter what role, what film, he's as natural as dust in the wind. And he befits the age and weather-beaten disposition of his character, named Bob Munson: There couldn't be a more perfect name for this character. And Preminger actually casts Gene Tierney as a person this time. As a student filmmaker with attractive female friends, I know how he feels, frankly. You try to cast them according to their talent but it's difficult to see past astonishing curves. Nevertheless, we get from her one of the most relatable scenes I've ever seen, prudish affluent American women, grown, socially active, trying to get straight what the functions of Congress actually are.