Advise and Consent

Advise and Consent, directed by Otto Preminger and released by Columbia in 1962, was based on a novel by Allen Drury. The plot centered around the U.S. Senate debating the nomination of a Secretary of State and all the wheeling, dealing and backstabbing that took place. In some ways it's fascinating, but ultimately is an antiquated bit of sensationalism that is more bark than bite.

Henry Fonda plays the nominee, a man who is interested in negotiating with the communists. The President (Franchot Tone) is ill, and believes strongly in Fonda. The majority leader of the Senate (Walter Pidgeon) backs his president, but another member of the party, a seersucker-wearing Southerner (Charles Laughton) is strongly opposed. The various senators line up and take sides, while a young senator from Utah (Don Murray), who is named chairman of the committee that will hold the hearings, is objective.

Laughton digs up a man from Fonda's past (Burgess Meredith) who swears that Fonda was a communist, but his testimony is ripped to shreds. Then, a firebrand senator (George Grizzard) tries to blackmail Murray, who has a homosexual affair in his past. The vote comes down to a tie, and the Vice-President has to cast a tie-breaking vote. There's much, much more, but I don't want to spoil it for those who are interested.

The first thing you have to do when watching this film is get over the logistical problems. For one thing, we don't see any of the senator's staffs. As I understand how things work in Washington, everything is done by aides, and that we don't see nary a one (except for secretaries) is a huge fantasy. Of course, this had to be done for expediency, as did the scenes of the hearings themselves, when the Senators ask just a couple of questions, and Fonda doesn't even make an opening statement. A real hearing on a controversial nominee (think Clarence Thomas) can take days. Then there's Laughton, who when he asks questions, gets up and strolls around the hearing room like a country lawyer. Finally there's the amazing scene in which the Vice-President flies commercial, with no Secret Service protection!

So, if this film isn't realistic, it does have its fun moments. Because the Senators are never identified as Republicans or Democrats, or even liberals and conservatives, there's a parallel universe sort of feeling. Peter Lawford plays a Kennedy-esque senator (an interesting choice, since he was a Kennedy by marriage), and Murray, from Utah and with the first name of "Brigham" is clearly supposed to be a Mormon. Laughton is like Strom Thurmond and Sam Ervin and Foghorn Leghorn rolled into one, and he's very entertaining.

I think this film may be of far more interest to historians, though. The two bugaboos are communism and homosexuality, and the film would seem to be saying that of the two, homosexuality is the far more egregious sin. There's a scene in a New York City gay bar which makes gay men look as if they come from another planet--a scary one, at that. It must have been one of the first Hollywood films to depict gay life, and it wasn't a good start.