I saw Otto Preminger's Advise and Consent in 1981 or 1982 on, I think, KSTW or WTBS, and I have loved this movie for 35 years. It's a complex story of politics, and the thuggery that walks hand in hand with it. The review on IMDb by "Snow Leopard" on 22 November 2005 is excellent, so I won't belabor this review with a synopsis. Ten years after I saw the film--and I read the series of books in the '80s--Advise and Consent became all too real. President George H. W. Bush nominated the head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Clarence Thomas, to the Supreme Court. The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Joe Biden, assured the President that the nominee would work out well. Thomas was being nominated to replace Thurgood Marshall, and Bush was interested in putting another African-American on the SCOTUS bench.Only one problem. Clarence Thomas was a conservative, and a black Republican must be destroyed at all costs.So, raw interview information by the FBI (what everyone who has an important job to do in the Executive Branch has to go through; all information, true or false, is collected) got dumped into the public trough. A former aide or secretary--I can't remember--had accused Thomas of sexual harassment. Anita Hill's private interview with the FBI had gone public.It appeared the nominee's chances had been mortally wounded.Everyone took sides. Feminists said that it didn't matter if it was true, that the mere accusation was proof enough. Conservatives huffed and flustered and wished Bush had picked somebody different. Liberals, smelling blood began, in Thomas' words, "a high-tech lynching." When the anger and the nastiness and the general behavior that makes Americans hate politics cleared, Thomas was confirmed by a majority of 4 votes.It was like watching Advise and Consent in real life. The good guys, the bad guys, the thugs, cretins, and other media were all there. Talk about life imitating art! Sheesh!Besides the excellent performances, the realistic settings, and the general feeling that Preminger got it right, Advise and Consent is the sort of movie you can watch if you want to know how Washington really works.

As a Director Otto Preminger got by on His Ego and Ability to Attract Big Money Productions and Big Name Stars. But as an Auteur He left a lot to be Desired. It was His Lack of Artistic Talent and His Heavy Handedness that Tended to make His Films Look Staged and Very Hollywood Esque. But the Bombastic Preminger Must, at Least, be Given High Marks for "Attempting" to take on Controversial and Taboo Subjects.But as can be Witnessed Viewing His Films the Egomaniac had Slight Insight into the Subjects. One can Only Assume that Beneath all the Controversy was more of a Money Making Gimmick than a Real Concern for Exposing the Underbelly and Bring Some Light to the Darkness.In this Mediocre Political Melodrama that Vision can be Viewed in the Way that the Gay Lifestyle was Portrayed. With Self Congratulatory Scenes Distorted to Damaging Displays of Savory Stereotypes, like the Obese, Bearded, Self-Absorbed, Cat Loving Gay Pimp Offering a Hideaway Boudoir. Add to that the Leering and Slobbering Patrons of a Gay Bar in a Scene that Ends with a not so Subtle Slinging of Mud.That is the Ham-Fisted Preminger Giving us a "Controversial" Film with Undertones of Real Life Politics like the Mccarthy Hearings and Bully Boy Tactics with a Literal Gang (Staff) of Well Dressed Thugs Goose Stepping Around Corridors of Power. There are some Good Performances here as can be Expected from such a Good Cast, but the Movie is just So Much Preminger and Not Enough of say, Frankenheimer or Rod Serling. That's where the Real Style and Sting can be Found.

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.

Taking on the world of Washington with the same ponderous and sober eye that he focused on jurisprudence in "Anatomy of a Murder", Preminger has styled a political drama that never seems false and never bores but also never really surprises or inspires.Half the fun is in trying to identify the real historical figures who provide the basis for the fiction. Offhand, I felt that Franchot Tone's President was similar to FDR, especially in how the situation develops with his nervous and self-doubting VP, played by Lew Ayres. Following that thread of thought, there seems to be a bit of Henry Wallace in Henry Fonda's Leffingwell, the nominee for Secretary of State. The film's main plot concerns the battle for Leffingwell's nomination, which eventually involves sordid blackmail regarding past homosexual affairs on the part of the junior Congressman from Utah (Don Murray). The anchor performances in the film come from Walter Pidgeon and Charles Laughton, who play a couple of grizzled Senate veterans locked in a sometimes subtle battle over the confirmation.All the performances are solid, even Gene Tierney's (sorry for the backhand compliment, Gene, but you deserve it..... what did Preminger have for her anyway?). She stands in for Mrs./Ms. Merriwether Post, even inhabiting her old house uptown. Peter Lawford is also surprisingly good as (this time not surprisingly) a thinly veiled John Kennedy stand-in (in his introductory scene, we observe a fashionably dressed blonde exiting his hotel room). There's a brief scene where Betty White plays a Senator from Kansas, which is a real treat for today's audiences.The film has a minimum of patriotic mumbo-jumbo, and for that we can be thankful.... Preminger does not fall into the classic Capra trap of condemning what he loves the most, and giving us a worshipful paean to a corrupt system after having shown us all the warts. But he does portray the gay blackmail angle in a way that's unfortunately homophobic, even if we try to give the film some slack for the change in the times. Why was Ray's (John Granger) friend depicted as such a slovenly pimp? Why was the gay bar depicted in such a seedy and shadowy manner (the boys at the bar lasciviously staring at Murray as he enters)? Why, oh why, did Murray have to push Granger into a gutter at the end of his scene? I understand that Murray was portraying some kind of self-loathing Mormon who had lapsed into homosexuality, but that was all the film gave us of Granger and it left plenty of space for the homophobes in the audience to walk out cheerful about seeing a queer having his face pushed in the mud.All in all, though, I liked the film. It's a bit dated... if you disagree with me, think about how different this film would be if it had been produced after Watergate and Vietnam. The film practically glows with its respect for the crusty old Senators played by Pidgeon and Laughton, reserving all its dire condemnation for the young upstart Senator played by George Grizzard with his "brain trust" -- the whiff of misplaced nostalgia is hard to avoid. Still, it is a diverting film full of excellent performances (including Grizzard's), so it is well worth watching at least once considering how few intelligent films have been produced dealing with our sordid national politics.