Richie-67-485852 All your old and familiar faces in this one giving us great performances without effort thus the mark of professionalism at work. Good story and inside showings of what goes on in Washington at the upper levels. Of course the movie is dated with dress, landlines, cars and especially air travel but the dialog holds well. You will get a kick of how Senators were treated back then, what they discussed and of course all the game-playing too. Memorable scene of the homosexual world and all that comes with it about 60 years ago.

SnoopyStyle Robert Leffingwell (Henry Fonda) is the president's liberal pick for Secretary of State which needs to be approved by the Senate. Majority Leader Bob Munson (Walter Pidgeon) works hard to support the president as well as Majority Whip Stanley Danta (Paul Ford) and womanizer Lafe Smith (Peter Lawford) of Rhode Island. Fellow party member hawk Seeb Cooley (Charles Laughton) of South Carolina holds a grudge and opposes the nomination. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee appoints a subcommittee chaired by idealistic Brig Anderson (Don Murray) of Utah to evaluate the nominee. However, Leffingwell's Communist past surfaces and political intrigue intensifies. Vice President Harley Hudson (Lew Ayres) presides over the Senate and is an often ignored figure.This Otto Preminger film has a lot of sly digs at the murky labyrinth of the Senate world. It's filled with amazing actors. Charles Laughton chews up his scenes. The story can get a little murky and confused with all the different players around. It's a very admirable movie but I wish it follows one main character all the way through. Everybody agrees on its relevance and its realism. The politics is a little outdated today. Seeb is a much greater portion of politics today but it's more reasonable for when this film came out. I just don't think that it's exciting enough. I also have a minor problem with the ending. It's not what I hoped for.

JasparLamarCrabb If not the best film about American politics, it's certainly in the pantheon. Director Otto Preminger's version of the Allen Drury novel keeps things very ambiguous while peeling away the layers of infighting & scandal that go into keeping Washington running. He's assembled a great cast including Henry Fonda as a very controversial figure up for the Secretary of State nomination. Fonda, always perfect playing FLAWED men, is spot on. There's no question he has some sort of skeletons in his closet, but getting them out proves to be very challenging. In true Washingtonian fashion, Fonda's nomination takes second place to the brutal, often lurid, bickering of senators who'll stop at nothing to get their agendas through. Preminger gives equal time to all (never letting on who is Democrat & who is Republican). Walter Pidgeon is the savvy Senate Majority leader and he gives what is probably his best performance. He's well matched with Charles Laughton (as an ornery and very willful southern senator). The supporting cast includes Don Murray, Peter Lawford, Paul Ford, Betty White and Gene Tierney as a society doyenne. George Grizzard, in his film debut, steals the movie as a conniving junior senator and Burgess Meredith has a great, almost sad, cameo giving not too credible testimony against Fonda.

mark.waltz Soon to be celebrating its 50th Anniversary, this political drama of senatorial disputes over the President's choice of a replacement for the recently deceased Secretary of State is right on the money in the sense of its closeness to the current political climate, both statewide and nationwide. In an era when people are losing faith in the people they've elected to government office, this film is almost serio-comic in its look at the political squabbling still going on today. (Just watch C-Span after viewing this to compare!) The movie is overstuffed with stars, both old and new, and it is hard sometimes to keep track of who is on what side and pay close attention to each performance. Henry Fonda plays the chosen Secretary of State replacement, but he isn't the focus. That responsibility goes to another legend, Walter Pidgeon, as the Senate Majority Leader, and young Don Murray as the head of the committee questioning Fonda. In his last film role, Charles Laughton gives an almost haunting performance as the senior senator opposing Pidgeon's support of Fonda as SOS. It is difficult to tell whether it is his performance or his obvious health issues that makes his quiet performance so mesmerizing. Burgess Meredith, a veteran of several Otto Preminger films, underacts unlike his overly hammy performance in the camp classic "Hurry Sundown" and others.The lovely Gene Tierney, who was Preminger's heroine in the classic film noir "Laura", is wasted here as a Washington hostess. She is still lovely, but the role lacks any real meat. Betty White adds a humorous touch in her brief role as the only female Senator shown on screen, one of the few film roles she would do before her iconic TV roles on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Golden Girls". A few other actors later popular on TV include Will Geer ("The Waltons") as the Senate Minority Leader and Broadway musical veteran Inga Swenson ("Benson"), who is totally unrecognizable.There's only a limited amount of domestic drama to offset all of the political intrigue, mostly surrounding Don Murray's character who faces a shocking blackmail attempt involving a homosexual encounter he had years ago. Preminger takes the cameras into a Washington DC gay bar where Murray goes to confront his old lover and is disgusted by what he sees. Preminger doesn't take a stance for or against the gay lifestyle, but simply presents it "as is" long before Stonewall where the "fringe of society" could not be out in the open. His direction is never boring, and the camera shots of the underground tram system (previously seen in MGM's "Washington Story") is quite interesting as well.It is also interesting to see Senators walking around Washington DC as if they could never be recognized, something which could never happen today. As both a historical and unchanged view of what man's disagreements politically can do to their effectiveness on the job, "Advise and Consent" is both ironic and frightening over the power we give the people we elect.