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- Theatrical trailer
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Otto Preminger expanded his vision in the 1960s with a whole series of ambitious, expansive dramas with huge casts and big themes. Advise and Consent, an examination of deal making, party politics, and congressional diplomacy in Washington's legislative halls (based on the novel by Allen Drury), is one of his best. Preminger broke the blacklist with his previous film, Exodus, and it rings through in this drama about a controversial nominee for secretary of state (a confident, stately Henry Fonda) accused of being a Communist. The nomination process becomes the center ring of the political circus, with fidgety accuser Burgess Meredith in the spotlight; devious, silver-tongued Charles Laughton cracking the whip as a southern senator with a grudge against Fonda; and party whip Walter Pidgeon lining up votes behind the scenes. Arm twisting and diplomatic hardball turns to perjury and blackmail, and a melodramatic twist gives this lesson in party politics a salacious soap opera dimension. Preminger's style has been hailed as "objective," but it's really a matter of attentiveness: he gives all the character their due and their say, eschewing heroes and villains for an exploration of people clashing over opposing goals. In fact, the weakest elements of the film are the unscrupulous populist senator played by George Grizzard and the badly dated caricatures that populate a notorious underground club. The video preserves the handsome widescreen black-and-white photography, keeping Preminger's careful and measured editing intact. --Sean Axmaker
Product Description
Gripping, classic Washington drama dealing with the power plays that erupt when a controversial politician is nominated for Secretary of State. Director Otto Preminger elicits superb performances from an all-star cast that includes Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Burgess Meredith, Gene Tierney, and Peter Lawford. 138 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, Spanish, French; audio commentary; theatrical trailer. NOTE: This Title Is Out Of Print; Limit One Per Customer.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Talk about an all-star cast: when Otto Preminger brought Allan Drury's epic study of a Senate confirmation of a morally ambiguous nominee for Secretary of State, he got just about everyone in Hollywood to participate. Though the best roles go to Charles Laughton as a manipulative (but intensely likeable) South Carolina senator and Franchot Tone as the tortured President, not everyone got so lucky; the novel had so many characters that some big actors (like Gene Tierney, wasted as a Washington hostess) are pretty much trapped in throwaway roles.
Preminger was pretty progressive by Hollywood standards, and so the Senate he depicts is remarkably diverse, with senators of many ethnic backgrounds. There's a great cameo (the film's standout moment) from Betty White, who, as a shrewd Kansas senator, trounces George Grizzard, the despicable Senator Van Ackerman (from Wyoming, of course, so as to offend the least number of audience members possible) in open debate on the Senate floor. Preminger was really daring (for the time) in his willingness to tackle the subject of the blackmail of homosexuals in the film. It should be said, however, that the film's notorious depiction of a gay bar (the first Hollywood film to do so openly since the institution of the Hays code) as a nightmarish cesspool of vice, where the fat effeminate bartender hysterically beckons in the horrified Don Murray (see my title), probably did more to keep gay men in the closet in the Sixties than anything Hollywood ever did.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Advise and Consent is really quite a remarkable film. You'd have to search high and low to find a higher-caliber cast, the script's behind-the-scenes look at the reality of politics remains just a relevant today as it was in 1962, and the whole presentation is just flawless. Heck, even Peter Lawford's good in this movie. That Otto Preminger really knew what he was doing; the man still doesn't get all the credit he deserves. I think he must have had his own super-secret superior cameras because the clarity and overall video quality of this film is beyond amazing. This thing looks sharper and better than most movies being churned out today.
The basic premise of the film is rather simple. The President has nominated a controversial man to become Secretary of State, dropping the nomination like a little bomb on his own party and thus setting the stage for a good bit of ugliness in the Senate - with most of the trouble coming from the President's own majority party. On one end, there's a brash, still-wet-behind-the-ears primadonna who wants to use the media attention to make a name for himself; on the other end is an old curmudgeon of the Senate who opposes the nominee largely for personal reasons. The minority party (led by none other than Will "Grandpa Walton" Geer) pretty much sits back and enjoys the show- but this isn't fun and games, at all. The nominee faces charges that he was at one time a Communist, and the back alley manipulations of unscrupulous Senators push the chairman of the relevant subcommittee to the breaking point. The politics of this era played out in exaggeratedly civil terms, but deep down it was just as ugly as anything you'll see today on the floor of the Senate, where civility has quite disappeared.
The only thing that has been lost over the decades since this film was released in 1962 is the close connection between the men on the screen and the actual power players of Washington during that era. The story was fictitious, but Pulitzer-Prize winning author Alan Drury crafted the novel upon which the film is based on real people and events. Peter Lawford, appropriately enough, played a Senator modeled on JFK, George Grizzard's character supposedly represented Joseph McCarthy (although I find him quite unlike that great patriot), etc. I thought this was going to be some subtle dramatization of McCarthy's crusade against Communists, but it goes much deeper into the heart of power than that. In fact, Robert Leffingwell (played masterfully by Henry Fonda), the nominee accused of Communist associations, gets surprisingly little screen time. Stealing the show, most viewers would agree, is Charles Laughton as the Honorable Senator from South Carolina, a man adamantly opposed to the President's nomination and willing to go to great lengths to see Mr. Leffingwell turned away at the gate. With his charming (albeit unauthentic) Southern drawl and constant the-cat-who-ate-the-canary facial expressions, he proves himself quite a force to be reckoned with. As the movie progresses, however, the focus shifts more and more toward Senator Bigham Anderson, the sub-committee chairman who eventually butts heads with the President and learns that the extraordinary act of putting principles over politics can be a dangerous business. Personally, though, I thought Walter Pidgeon gave the best performance of all in his role as the Senate Majority Leader, one of the few characters to emerge in the end as a man of both practicality and honor.
I have to think this was a pretty bold film for its time, particularly in terms of the story's most startling revelation. Nowadays, we know just how ugly politics really is, but I doubt too many men had shone a flashlight of truth into the Senate's hallowed halls before 1962. Sadly, today's audiences may find all the hullabaloo of this story exceedingly tame, yet there's no taking away from the power this film still possesses. Politics was, is, and always will be a sort of game to many elected officials. They get down in the mud and wallow largely because they enjoy it, especially if it gets their faces on the national news. Far too often, though, the games of these petty men and women are taken much too far, and that leads to tragedy - for individuals, for parties, and for the whole country. This film's truths are today's truths, and as long as Senators pitch hissy fits on all sides over the process of exercising their Constitutional duty to advise and consent and, more importantly, put their own selfish, vindictive motives over the interests of the men and women they are supposed to represent, this film will remain as relevant as it ever was.
The basic premise of the film is rather simple. The President has nominated a controversial man to become Secretary of State, dropping the nomination like a little bomb on his own party and thus setting the stage for a good bit of ugliness in the Senate - with most of the trouble coming from the President's own majority party. On one end, there's a brash, still-wet-behind-the-ears primadonna who wants to use the media attention to make a name for himself; on the other end is an old curmudgeon of the Senate who opposes the nominee largely for personal reasons. The minority party (led by none other than Will "Grandpa Walton" Geer) pretty much sits back and enjoys the show- but this isn't fun and games, at all. The nominee faces charges that he was at one time a Communist, and the back alley manipulations of unscrupulous Senators push the chairman of the relevant subcommittee to the breaking point. The politics of this era played out in exaggeratedly civil terms, but deep down it was just as ugly as anything you'll see today on the floor of the Senate, where civility has quite disappeared.
The only thing that has been lost over the decades since this film was released in 1962 is the close connection between the men on the screen and the actual power players of Washington during that era. The story was fictitious, but Pulitzer-Prize winning author Alan Drury crafted the novel upon which the film is based on real people and events. Peter Lawford, appropriately enough, played a Senator modeled on JFK, George Grizzard's character supposedly represented Joseph McCarthy (although I find him quite unlike that great patriot), etc. I thought this was going to be some subtle dramatization of McCarthy's crusade against Communists, but it goes much deeper into the heart of power than that. In fact, Robert Leffingwell (played masterfully by Henry Fonda), the nominee accused of Communist associations, gets surprisingly little screen time. Stealing the show, most viewers would agree, is Charles Laughton as the Honorable Senator from South Carolina, a man adamantly opposed to the President's nomination and willing to go to great lengths to see Mr. Leffingwell turned away at the gate. With his charming (albeit unauthentic) Southern drawl and constant the-cat-who-ate-the-canary facial expressions, he proves himself quite a force to be reckoned with. As the movie progresses, however, the focus shifts more and more toward Senator Bigham Anderson, the sub-committee chairman who eventually butts heads with the President and learns that the extraordinary act of putting principles over politics can be a dangerous business. Personally, though, I thought Walter Pidgeon gave the best performance of all in his role as the Senate Majority Leader, one of the few characters to emerge in the end as a man of both practicality and honor.
I have to think this was a pretty bold film for its time, particularly in terms of the story's most startling revelation. Nowadays, we know just how ugly politics really is, but I doubt too many men had shone a flashlight of truth into the Senate's hallowed halls before 1962. Sadly, today's audiences may find all the hullabaloo of this story exceedingly tame, yet there's no taking away from the power this film still possesses. Politics was, is, and always will be a sort of game to many elected officials. They get down in the mud and wallow largely because they enjoy it, especially if it gets their faces on the national news. Far too often, though, the games of these petty men and women are taken much too far, and that leads to tragedy - for individuals, for parties, and for the whole country. This film's truths are today's truths, and as long as Senators pitch hissy fits on all sides over the process of exercising their Constitutional duty to advise and consent and, more importantly, put their own selfish, vindictive motives over the interests of the men and women they are supposed to represent, this film will remain as relevant as it ever was.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape|Amazon Verified Purchase
This ultra-realistic 1962 drama of the goings-on in Washington, D.C. must rank as one of the best films of its type ever made. It's a lengthy one (2 hrs., 19 min.), but it never gets dry. The many veteran actors assembled to comprise this cast see to that. The roster includes Henry Fonda, Franchot Tone, Charles Laughton, Lew Ayres, Walter Pidgeon, and Burgess Meredith! There's also Don Murray, who probably gets more screen time here than anyone else. And I think Murray shines bright in his role as the senator with a deep, dark secret! Pidgeon is also particularly convincing in this film. This was Mr. Laughton's final motion picture.
If you've never seen Advise & Consent ..... then get it today! It's a thoroughly engrossing and powerful movie experience!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Old Time Hollywood Picture
By old time hollywood picture I mean the type made when a number of actors and Hollywood big shots felt there was an important story about society that needed to be told. Read more
Published 14 hours ago by Tony Marquise Jr.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat dated, but still relevant
I bought this dvd to show to high school seniors in a government class. While the dialog was somewhat difficult for some of them to follow, and I had to explain why one of the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by michael a sprenger
5.0 out of 5 stars
Preminger at his best
One of the best political films I've seen.. lots of great behind the scenes shots, filmed during the Kennedy administration
Published 1 month ago by Mark C Enders
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Insight into Congressional Stereotypes
I used this movie in a course on Congress to study common stereotypes about the institution and its members. Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. Wesley Leckrone
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Story
This story is as current and dramatic as it was when it first came out. The cast is among the best ever seen.
Published 2 months ago by Lawrence J. Eberlin
5.0 out of 5 stars
See it now!!
If you've been paying attention to what's going on in Washington these days, you know that there is a big squabble in the Senate over the appointment of Sen Chuck Hagel as Sec of... Read more
Published 2 months ago by topgun
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Fortunately, our country always manages to survive patriots like...
ADVISE AND CONSENT (1962) marked the final screen appearance of Charles Laughton.
Here, Laughton is the curmudgeonly senior senator from South Carolina, 'Seab' Cooley. Read more
Here, Laughton is the curmudgeonly senior senator from South Carolina, 'Seab' Cooley. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Annie Van Auken
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding
Fabulous cast. Wonderful political movie giving great incite into the workings of the Advise and Consent process and the Senate as a whole at a time when politics had a lot more... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Bill O'Neill
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Political Thriller (Classoc)
It's like a "good ole' actors reunion: Headed by Walter Pidgeon (I would say), he plays the BIG role (as he did). Read more
Published 4 months ago by SUSAN HEIDARIFAR
1.0 out of 5 stars
purchase of Advise and Consent in vhs format
Extremely very poor quality of product. Picture not clear, unresolved tracking problems. Excellent movie from the 60's spoiled by product quality.
Published 4 months ago by Gloria
