Tribute to Otto Preminger 2016 / Advise & Consent / USA 1962
A fundamental film on the American political system, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, takes a fascinating plunge into the world of intrigue and manipulation within the United States Senate. Will Secretary of State nominee Mr. Leffingwell (Henry Fonda) be confirmed over the calculated objections of Southern Senator Cooley (Charles Laughton) and his gang?
Preminger’s adaptation of the bestseller that won Allen Drury the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for fiction proved to be last century’s most remarkable film about American politics. The American president is convinced that Robert Leffingwell (Henry Fonda) is the best candidate possible to fill the suddenly vacated post of Secretary of State. The confirmation process by the Senate is no mere formality; a subcommittee appointed to evaluate the nominee discovers the dark side of Leffingwell’s past: ties to the Communist Party. The subsequent investigation and the attendant motives mustered from outside the capital represent the best of Preminger’s trademark directorial style. His examination of the procedures of fundamental American institutions, at first glance starkly analytical and surgically precise, offers up a fascinating group character study of senators for whom manipulation and intrigue are their stock in trade. The Senate chamber through the eyes of close cooperator Sam Leavitt – who uses long uninterrupted tracking shots to coolly yet intently focus on the action – naturally conforms to the parameters of a theater stage, while acting icons Charles Laughton and Walter Pidgeon turn in the requisite “histrionic” performances as a pair of worldly-wise politicians.
Karel Och
139 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Otto Preminger
/ Screenplay Wendell Mayes podle románu / based on the novel by Allen Drury
/ Dir. of Photography Sam Leavitt
/ Music Jerry Fielding
/ Editor Louis R. Loeffler
/ Art Director Lyle Wheeler, Eli Benneche
/ Producer Otto Preminger
/ Production Sigma Productions, Alpha Alpina
/ Cast Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray, Franchot Tone, Lew Ayres, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford
/ Sales Hollywood Classics
/ Contact Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archive
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Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archive
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