One day last week, TCM ran "Advise and Consent," a 1962 movie made from the book by Allen Drury published in 1959. This book won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960, and is (in my opinion) one of the best political novels ever. The film is almost as good as the book, just a few details changed for convenience. It concerns the Senate confirmation hearings on the President's nominee for Secretary of State, who in the 30s or 40s may have been a Communist. Here's the cast:
Henry Fonda as Robert A. Leffingwell (the nominee)
Charles Laughton as Senator Seab Cooley
Don Murray as Senator Brig Anderson
Walter Pidgeon as Senate Majority Leader Bob Munson
Peter Lawford as Senator Lafe Smith
Gene Tierney as Dolly Harrison
Franchot Tone as The President
Lew Ayres as Vice President Harley Hudson
Burgess Meredith as Herbert Gelman
Eddie Hodges as Johnny Leffingwell
Paul Ford as Senate Majority Whip Stanley Danta
George Grizzard as Senator Fred Van Ackerman
Inga Swenson as Ellen Anderson
Edward Andrews as Senator Orrin Knox
Paul McGrath as Hardiman Fletcher
Will Geer as Senate Minority Leader Warren Strickland
Betty White as Senator Bessie Adams
The bit part of Senator Adams was Betty White's first movie role. Sen. Munson was one of the late roles of Walter Pidgeon, an excellent and very good-looking actor.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Great movie
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
can't remember if I ever saw that.
I remember when I was a kid and EVERYBODY was reading Advise and Consent (Every adult, that is.) Somehow the title always puzzled me. I watched the movie recently and found it to be impressive, and I think the title became unpuzzling, though now it's puzzling again! There is probably a one sentence synopsis of the book or movie that would tell me why the title is a verb and ... a noun? I guess it's really two verbs. Man, is this really as complicated at it seems?
Your sister,
Trois
One more thing. When I watched the movie, I thought the Henry Fonda character's name was Mr. Laughingwell. That's what it sounded like, and I thought that was very ironic and meaningful.
Trois
The Constitution says something like, the President shall submit his nomination to the Senate for their "advice and consent."
Ah, so it is ADVICE and Consent, two nouns. That makes sense.
Okay. The Constitution says "advice and consent." However, the name of the book is "Advise and Consent." Now I'm really irritated. Why did what's-his-name title his book different from the original words in the Constitution? (Did he explain this to you?)
Ode to the Odd Word
Let me advise some advice,
When consenting to read books of fiction,
Don't question the title,
or the author for spite will
Just make you as mad as the diction!
Samuel Dobbs Mauby
Yes. He said it was a typo. He didn't specify whether the typo was in the Constitution or the book title.
And frankly, my dear...
Also, the book is fiction, while the Constitution is nonfiction.
Well, okee dokee.
I'm glad we got that settled. I was beginning to scratch my head.
Post a Comment