Advise and Consent

Otto Preminger's Advise and Consent (1962) is better-remembered for its racy incidental content than its story. Too bad, since it's a well-tuned political procedural. Preminger adapts Allen Drury's novel into a compelling drama, expertly crafted and perfectly cast.
The ailing President (Franchot Tone) nominates Robert Leffingwell (Henry Fonda) as his new Secretary of State. A fierce battle occurs in the Senate, with conservative Senator Cooley (Charles Laughton) stonewalling Leffingwell's confirmation. He produces Herbert Gelman (Burgess Meredith), who claims Leffingwell is a Communist, throwing the hearings into chaos. The Administration and its opposition exchange underhand tactics, launching character assassination over unsuitable politics, mental illness and sexual deviancy.
Advise and Consent is dense but remarkably streamlined, Preminger juggling multiple plotlines with ease. Wendell Mayes' script evokes assorted controversial politicos: Cooley's a Richard Russell/Strom Thurmond mix, Gelman a shambling Whittaker Chambers, Senator Anderson (Don Murray) replicating Lester C. Hunt's downfall. And Cantwell's conciliatory views on the Cold War recalls "eggheads" from Alger Hiss to Adlai Stevenson. This grounds Consent in real-world politics, granting it credibility.
Consent provides an acid expose of Washington chicanery. Preminger relishes the backstage maneuvers underpinning the Senate's pompous speeches about democracy. The President threatens Anderson for putting principle over party; soon his wife's (Inga Swenson) receiving anonymous phone calls about "what happened in Hawaii." Cooley invites the unreliable Gelman, his mere presence trapping Leffingwell in a pointless lie. Then events let the Vice President (Lew Ayres) upend everything with an eleventh-hour power play.
Preminger enjoyed pushing studio buttons, from Anatomy of a Murder's racy courtroom dialog to having blacklisted Dalton Trumbo write Exodus. Advise and Consent's depiction of Congressional promiscuity (having affairs seems second nature) and backbiting destroys memories of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. One Senator's exposed as a homosexual, culminating in a visit to a seedy gay bar (surely a Hollywood first!). Each side casually employs smears and blackmail: vague accusations of Communism or deviancy are enough to ruin someone's career.
Preminger's cynicism won't shock modern viewers, suffused with post-Watergate paranoia, cable news and tabloid outrage. Today sex scandals, corruption and underhand smears are accepted facets of political life. Fiction increasingly rejects The West Wing's sunny idealism for Machiavelli-on-the-Potomac sagas like House of Cards; even Steven Spielberg's Lincoln ties the Great Emancipator with dirty politicking. Fortunately, Advise and Consent is engaging enough not to seem quaint.
Henry Fonda proves brilliant casting. Seemingly upright and noble, he proves thin-skinned, defensive, blaming others for his own dishonesty. It's Fonda's best performance of the 1960s, save Once Upon a Time in the West. Charles Laughton relishes his final role, a "powerful, devious friend" even slimier than his Spartacus character. Walter Pidgeon provides ballast as the outwardly-honorable Majority Leader. Don Murray and George Grizzard play younger Senators outclassed by such august schemers.
Other politicos are played by Franchot Tone, Lew Ayres, Peter Lawford, Will Geer and Edward Andrews, each getting several meaty scenes. Arizona Senator Henry F. Ashurst ("Opposed, sir!") cameos. Betty White plays a Senator modeled on Margaret Chase Smith. Burgess Meredith gets a brilliant bit part: harried, confused and pitiable, he nearly steals the movie. Inga Swenson does well as Anderson's confused wife. In contrast, Gene Tierney's wasted as Pidgeon's mistress.
Like The Best Man (1964), Advise and Consent seems remarkably prescient. A 1962 viewer might view Preminger's film as too scabrous, too distrusting by half. A 2014 viewer, with a half-century of hindsight and daily reminders on CNN, won't have that luxury.