History Film / AdviseAndConsent

** Van Ackerman is based on Joe [=McCarthy=] (although Van Ackerman is a left-wing extremist rather than a right-winger).

** Leffingwell, who if not exactly a hero, is much less villainous than the book's Leffingwell. He lies about his past but is highly conflicted about it, viewing it as a NecessaryEvil to achieve his high-minded goals and ultimately going through with it only to protect a friend whose reputation will also be ruined by the news. He also gets several PetTheDog scenes with his family. In the novel, Leffingwell is both a [[StrawmanPolitical liberal caricature]] and a VillainWithGoodPublicity; he shows no remorse for lying and actively participates in the conspiracy against Brig Anderson, which, in the film, takes place long after he has withdrawn from the public eye until after the confirmation.

A 1962 political drama based on the bestselling, UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize-winning [[FilmOfTheBook novel of the same name]] by Allen Drury. Directed by Creator/OttoPreminger, the film stars Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/CharlesLaughton, Don Murray, Creator/WalterPidgeon, Peter Lawford, Creator/GeneTierney, and Creator/FranchotTone, among others.

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/advise_and_consent_bass_blanche_320x447.jpg]]

* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: The President Scheming variety, although he's sincerely motivated to do what he thinks is best for the country.

* BuryYourGays: Sen. Anderson's gay romance while he was in the Army is about to be exposed, so he kills himself.

* NextSundayAD: The novels take place an indeterminate time in the future, with references to contemporary presidents and politicians sprinkled throughout the series. A minor subplot in the original book (written in 1959) involves the Soviets landing on the Moon, and in ''A Shade of Difference'' and ''Capable of Honor'' the still-ongoing Vietnam War is mentioned as concluded. Drury uses a sliding chronological scale, as the book's President succeeds whoever the real-world president was at the time it was written.

* HiddenDepths: In the novel, once Harley Hudson realizes that the President is indeed going to die soon and that the country will need him, he promptly [[TookaLevelinBadass takes a level in badass]] and becomes much more competent. He even manages to stare down the {{Jerkass}} Soviet ambassador. The ending of the novel implies that Hudson will be a capable if perhaps not extraordinary president. The film has a similar scene where he meets Sen. Anderson on his fateful plane ride to New York, and leaves him with the admiring impresson that the VP is "the most underestimated man in Washington."

** Subverted in the film, where Munson releases all the senators from the obligation of their pledged votes right before the final call. To the untrained eye of Van Ackerman, this ''looks'' like a clear-cut case, but to the rest of the cast it's apparant that ''without'' this magnanimous gesture distancing the nomination from the scandal surrounding Anderson's blackmail and suicide, the nomination would've gone down in flames like it does in the book. Thus, this is instead a case of the honorable thing ''also'' being the reasonable one.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Seab Cooley is much more of a slimy character in the movie than he is in the book, due to the fact that the chapters exploring his motivations for going after Leffingwell weren't translated over. Instead of genuinely being worried about Leffingwell's politics, Movie!Cooley just wants revenge for an insult years prior. None of his PetTheDog moments made into the film either.

* TheUnreveal: In the book, it's never revealed whether or not Leffingwell is still a communist sympathizer. By the end it no longer really matters. Later novels reveal that Leffingwell was a communist sympathizer in his younger years, but turned away from it before he entered government service.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Senate Majority Leader Munson (Pidgeon) gives two, one to Cooley for his scheming and a more forceful one to Van Ackerman for his role in the blackmail scheme.

* TheUnreveal: In the book, it's never revealed whether or not Leffingwell is still a communist sympathizer. By the end it no longer really matters.

* DownerEnding: If you like the first novel and the movie, don't read ''Come Nineveh, Come Tyre''. [[spoiler:In it, Harley Hudson and Orrin Knox get assassinated, Beth Knox is murdered by pro-communist terrorists, Bob Munson and Speaker Abbott lose their positions in Congress, and Ted Jason sells out the country to the Soviet Union after imprisoning Bob Leffingwell and the Joint Chiefs of Staff for opposing his plan. Then Jason commits suicide and Fred Van Ackerman is on the cusp of becoming a collaborationist dictator.]]

A 1962 political drama based on the bestselling, UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize-winning [[FilmOfTheBook novel of the same name]] by Allen Drury. Directed by Creator/OttoPreminger, the film stars Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/CharlesLaughton, Don Murray, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford, Creator/GeneTierney, and Franchot Tone, among others.

[[OurPresidentsAreDifferent The President]] makes a controversial nomination for Secretary of State, one Robert Leffingwell (Fonda), a man who advocates a more conciliatory approach to the SovietUnion with the hope of thawing the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. Political machinations ensue to get the U.S. Senate to [[TerminologyTitle "advise and consent"]] to the nomination.

** The loyal, friendly whip Stanley Danta seems to resemble HubertHumphrey.

* BewareTheSillyOnes: Seab Cooley deliberately plays up the image of being a LargeHam FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit who is out for petty revenge of a minor insult years prior from Bob Leffingwell. In actuality, even at his advanced age, Cooley is still one of the sharpest members of the Senate, manages to figure out who the third man was in Leffingwell's communist cell simply through logical deduction, and ''does'' have concerns with Leffingwell's politics, legitimate or not.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Leffingwell, who if not exactly a hero, is much less villainous than the book's Leffingwell. He lies about his past but is highly conflicted about it, viewing it as a NecessaryEvil to achieve his high-minded goals and ultimately going through with it only to protect a friend whose reputation will also be ruined by the news. He also gets several PetTheDog scenes with his family. In the novel, Leffingwell is both a [[StrawmanPolitical liberal caricature]] and a VillainWithGoodPublicity; he shows no remorse for lying and actively participates in the conspiracy against Brig Anderson, which, in the film, takes place long after he has withdrawn from the public eye until after the confirmation.

* HonorBeforeReason: Subverted in the film, where Munson releases all the senators from the obligation of their pledged votes right before the final call. To the untrained eye of Van Ackerman, this ''looks'' like a clear-cut case, but to the rest of the cast it's apparant that ''without'' this magnanimous gesture distancing the nomination from the scandal surrounding Anderson's blackmail and suicide, the nomination would've gone down in flames like it does in the book. Thus, this is instead a case of the honorable thing ''also'' being the reasonable one.

* DownerEnding: If you like the first novel and the movie, don't read the rest of the series. [[spoiler:In ''Come Nineveh, Come Tyre'', Harley Hudson and Orrin Knox get assassinated, Beth Knox is murdered by pro-communist terrorists, Bob Munson and Speaker Abbott lose their positions in Congress, and Ted Jason sells out the country to the Soviet Union after imprisoning Bob Leffingwell and the Joint Chiefs of Staff for opposing his plan. Then Jason commits suicide and Fred Van Ackerman is on the cusp of becoming a collaborationist dictator.]]

* NoPartyGiven: One character is the Senate majority leader, another is the Senate minority leader, but party names are never mentioned. The novel actually averts this if one pays close attention. Seab Cooley is mentioned in passing as having been first elected to the House on the same platform as Woodrow Wilson. That would make the Senate majority and the President Democrats and the Senate minority Republicans.