Oscar Profile #563: Advise & Consent

Last week I profiled five female stars of Auntie Mame. This week the accent is on the male stars of Otto Preminger’s 1962 political drama, Advise & Consent.

Based on Allen Drury’s 1959 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Advise & Consent, the film’s narrative is about the Senate investigation into the nomination of the President’s candidate for Secretary of State. The screenplay is by Wendell Mayes who received an Oscar nomination three years earlier for his adaptation of Robert Traver’s novel, which was also directed by Preminger.

Although the film received a National Board of Review nomination for Burgess Meredith and a posthumous BAFTA nomination for Charles Laughton, it failed to be nominated for a single Oscar. Not to worry, the film is packed with fine performances from its entire cast including Oscar winners Henry Fonda and Charles Laughton, and nominees Don Murray, Walter Pidgeon, Gene Tierney, Franchot Tone, Lew Ayres, and Burgess Meredith. Cinematography is by Sam Leavitt, himself an Oscar winner for The Defiant Ones four years earlier.

Fonda plays the candidate for Secretary of State, Laughton a wily Southern senator, Murray a closeted gay senator, Pidgeon the Senate Majority Leader, Tierney a Washington party giver, Tone the President, Ayres the Vice President, and Meredith a sleazy opposition party witness. Also in the cast are Eddie Hodges (A Hole in the Head, Paul Ford (The Music Man, Inga Swenson (The Miracle Worker), George Grizzard (From the Terrace), Edward Andrews (Tea and Sympathy, and Betty White in her film debut. Murray, Swanson, Hodges, and White are the only principal players still alive.

Even with limiting the five profiled to ale cast members, it was still a daunting task to whittle it down to five. Fonda, Laughton, Murray, and Pidgeon were easy choices. The fifth was a tossup between Tone, Ayres, and Meredith. I decided on Ayres because he has the film’s great last line.

HENRY FONDA (1905-1982)

Fonda had a long, successful career atop the Hollywood ladder, starring in such classics as Jezebel, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Grapes of Wrath (his first Oscar nomination), The Lady Eve, Fort Apache, Mister Roberts, and 12 Angry Men before essaying his candidate for Secretary of State in Advise & Consent. Two years later he played a candidate for President in The Best Man. Subsequent films included Spencer’s Mountain, Yours, Mine and Ours, The Boston Stranger, and On Golden Pond for which he finally won an Oscar shortly before his death.

CHARLES LAUGHTON (1899-1962)

Laughton won an Oscar for The Private Life of Henry VIII. He was subsequently nominated for Mutiny on the Bounty and Witness for the Prosecution and was equally fine in such films as Ruggles of Red Gap, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, It Started with Eve, This Land Is Mine, The Canterville Ghost, The Suspect, Arch of Triumph, The Big Clock The Blue Veil, O. Henry’s Full House, Young Bess, Hobson’s Choice, and Spartacus before his wily Southern senator in Advise & Consent, his final film.

DON MURRAY (1929- )

A familiar face in TV dramas from 1950 on, Murray made his film debut in 1956’s Bus Stop opposite Marilyn Monroe as the naïve cowboy who wants to marry the rambunctious star-in-the-making Monroe portrays. High profile roles in such films as The Bachelor Party, A Hatful of Rain, Shake Hand with the Devil, snf The Hoodlum Priest before his standout role as the closeted gay senator in Advise & Consent enriched his portfolio even further. Subsequent films have included Escape from East Berlin, Baby the Rain Must Fall, and Endless Love. He has the lead in 2021’s The Promise at 92.

WALTER PIDGEON (1897-1984)

In films since 1926, Pidgeon’s breakout roles didn’t come until 1941’s Blossoms in the Dust and How Green Was My Valley, followed by back-to-back Oscar nominations for Mrs. Miniver and Madame Curie. Subsequent films have included Mrs. Parkington, The Secret Heart, Command Decisoin, The Red Danube, Million Dollar Mermaid, The Bad and the Beautiful, Executive Suite, and Forbidden Planet before Advise & Consent and Funny Girl and Sextette after.

LEW AYRES (1908-1996)

Ayres’ first credited role was in 1929’s The Kiss opposite Greta Garbo immediately followed by the lead in the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front. Subsequent films included Holiday and the Dr. Kildare prior to his heroic wartime service as a medic despite his conscientious objection status. His sole Oscar nomination for 1948’s Johnny Belinda opposite Jane Wyman who won. Much on TV in the 1940s, Advise & Consent revived his screen career, interspersed with more TV work. Subsequent films included The Carpetbaggers, The Biscuit Eater, and Damien: Omen II, his last theatrical film.