1962 - ADVICE AND CONSENT, dated political drama but very entertaining

One of the better Otto Preminger films and he doesn't have a lot of good ones.  Advice and Consent is set in early 1960's Washington DC.  The story comes out of the President's desire to appoint a liberal to the Secretary of State position.  This starts a whole series of political maneuverings between the Democratic and Republican Senate.  Back in the 1960's being a "Liberal" was code for Communist.  Of course in today's political climate you could replace the word liberal with "immigrant."  

Henry Fonda is the Secretary of State candidate who seems to good to be true.  Walter Pidgeon is the Senate Majority Leader charged with getting him approved by the Senate. Charles Laughton (in his final performance before his death) plays a clever Republican Southern Senator out to defeat the nomination.  Actually the whole film is fairly well cast and it includes one of Preminger's favorite actors Burgess Meredith in a small role.

The film certainly has it's dated aspects particularly in it's treatment of as it was called back then homosexuality.  Preminger was a noted liberal but in the scenes set in a gay bar, there is certainly a large amount of sensationalized leering going on.

 

Preminger was also what was called an independent producer who for the most part kept complete control over his productions.  In fact Burgess Meredith has mentioned that between camera setups Preminger would be at his desk issuing paychecks for the cast and crew.  Preminger liked to shoot on location as much as possible so we get lots of vintage shots of 1960's Washington D.C.  He also liked to employ long extended takes.  For this film veteran cinematographer Sam Leavitt executed them with a high degree of skill considering on location photography isn't always the easiest thing to photograph.  At times Advice and Consent has the look of a documentary.  

 

Advice and Consent is a good political film which holds the viewer's interest with all the shenanigans that the senators have going on.  Does it portray a true picture of Washington D.C?  Probably not but it is a very entertaining political drama

Written by veteran screenwriter Wendell Mayes, the running time is 138 minutes.