Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Hearings to confirm a questionable nominee for secretary of state erupt into political gamesmanship and scandal. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/19/2006 Starring: Henry Fonda Walter Pidgeon Run time: 138 minutes Rating: Nr

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

Rating : - A Stalemate of Conscience
Imagine a film where dialogue was so taut and so well spoken that it became the central conveyor of the plot. That sort of film lives mostly in yesteryear, and it lives magnificently in "Advise and Consent", a riveting examination of the ongoing struggle between the basest instincts and noblest ideals of our elected officials.

The plot line is keyed to the nomination for high public office of a former University of Chicago professor accused of consorting with radicals. (Coming off the 2008 U.S. presidential election, does this sound familiar?) The nomination sets off the usual legislative maneuvering and partisan gamesmanship, convincingly brought to life by great ensemble acting and peppered with wonderful performances by Charles Laughton, Walter Pidgeon, George Grizzard and Burgess Meredith. (The establishing shot of Laughton bedecked in South Carolina finery and stepping off a circa-1960 DC streetcar is perfect, and Meredith puts in a great smoky-voiced, conspiratorial turn as a flunky accuser.) For political junkies, the black-and-white shots of the Capitol, National Mall and then-Washington National Airport are gems, and the real-life, high-toned parlance used by members of the Senate "club" and written into the script provides delicious irony to the intrigue being practiced by the same, ostensibly high-minded gatekeepers of democracy.

"Advise and Consent" offers for consideration two public figures with secrets (Don Murray, as a Senator, and Henry Fonda, as nominee for Secretary of State) and through them and their supporters asks several Big Questions: When should an individual make a personal sacrifice for the public good? At what point should elected officials put aside party for principle? How can public dialogue remain civil when opposing forces are dug in for the long fight?

In the end, it's a stalemate of conscience that resolves the entire affair, leaving it up to the next wave of leadership (the Vice President from Delaware, another 2008 coincidence) to try - yet again - to marry democracy, principle and the political process in a more ethical manner.

A well-honed screenplay, superb acting and great ideas with a capital "I" continue to make "Advise and Consent" one of my favorites.

(Footnote: Director Otto Preminger is reported to have offered the role of a U.S. Senator from Georgia to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. According to a 2007 biography of Preminger, Rev. King accepted, then backed off. Imagine the possibilities...)