History Film / AdviseAndConsent

Drury followed the novel with five sequels, but [[FirstInstallmentWins they were neither as popular nor acclaimed as the original]], and subsequently were never made into films.

* LotsAndLotsOfCharacters: Not [[AdaptationDistillation as many as the novel]], where seemingly every Senator has at least a walk-on, but there's still a dozen major characters to keep track of.

A 1962 political drama film based on the bestselling, UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize-winning [[TheFilmOfTheBook 1959 novel of the same name]] by Allen Drury. Directed by Creator/OttoPreminger, the film stars Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/CharlesLaughton, Creator/DonMurray, Creator/WalterPidgeon, Creator/PeterLawford, Creator/GeneTierney, and Creator/FranchotTone, among others.

* CanonForeigner: Leffingwell's son, who is added in order to emphasize him and Anderson being NotSoDifferent.

* NotSoDifferent: Orrin Knox and the President absolutely loathe each other yet the novel routinely shows that the two men are very alike. Both love their country with a passion and both have a vision in mind for her future. Both are also absolutely sure that their vision is best and won't compromise on it. Their final Oval Office conversation makes it clear that if they had been willing to set aside their differences they could have been a great team.

Notable as the last film appearance for Laughton, who plays Sen. Cooley, the leader of the opposition to the President and to Leffingwell. And look for Creator/BettyWhite, who was not always old, in a small part as the Senate's lone female member.

The novel is not a RomanAClef, but it does depict incidents and character traits that would have been familiar to Americans who followed politics at the time. Most obviously, a president who is hiding the extent of his illness and who serves with an honest but out-of-the-loop Vice President would have evoked UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt and UsefulNotes/HarryTruman.

A 1962 political drama based on the bestselling, UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize-winning [[TheFilmOfTheBook 1959 novel of the same name]] by Allen Drury. Directed by Creator/OttoPreminger, the film stars Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/CharlesLaughton, Creator/DonMurray, Creator/WalterPidgeon, Creator/PeterLawford, Creator/GeneTierney, and Creator/FranchotTone, among others.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

A 1962 political drama based on the bestselling, UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize-winning [[FilmOfTheBook 1959 novel of the same name]] by Allen Drury. Directed by Creator/OttoPreminger, the film stars Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/CharlesLaughton, Creator/DonMurray, Creator/WalterPidgeon, Creator/PeterLawford, Creator/GeneTierney, and Creator/FranchotTone, among others.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Although UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode was still technically in effect, Otto Preminger barely bothered.
** An attractive woman is seen leaving a senator's hotel room first thing in the morning, wearing the same LittleBlackDress and [[PrettyinMink mink stole]] she was presumably wearing the night before. The majority leader then enters, finds the senator still in his bathrobe, and gently suggests that perhaps a senator should project more stability by getting married.
** This is the first American movie with a scene inside what is obviously a gay bar.
** It's also pretty strongly implied that Sen. Anderson and his wife aren't intimate very much.
** In a mild PrecisionFStrike, Dolly jokingly refers to herself as "an old bitch" in one scene.

* 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. ''Protect and Defend'' implies the books take place in the late 1980s or early 90s as the Speaker of the House is said to have been in Congress for forty years and his predecessor left his House seat to take a judgeship offered by President Truman.

** 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 NecessarilyEvil 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. Note that in the later novels of the series, Leffingwell undergoes character development leading to a HeelFaceTurn, [[spoiler:which ends up in his becoming Orrin Knox's Secretary of State in the series' last book, ''The Promise of Joy'']].

* AuthorTract: Again, averted by the adaptation. The book overtly villainizes the President and Leffingwell, and Drury's conservative politics dominate the story. Preminger offers a more nuanced, [[GrayAndGreyMorality though still cynical]] take on Washington politics.

** 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 NecessarilyEvil 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. Note that in the later novels of the series, Leffingwell undergoes character development leading to a HeelFaceTurn, which ends up in his becoming Orrin Knox's Secretary of State in the series' last book, ''The Promise of Joy''.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Seab Cooley is much more of a slimy character in the movie than he is in the book, because few of his PetTheDog moments made into the film, and his wanting revenge over a relatively minor slight Leffingwell once paid him personally is given as much weight as his actual political disagreement with Leffingwell's dovish politics.

* CrapsackWorld: A key element of the novel absent from the movie that distinctly shifts the tone. In the novel, the Soviet Union is the ascendant world power while the U.S. has largely fallen behind with virtually no hope of catching up. The Soviets achieve the first moon landing, have nuclear and conventional supremacy, and have turned almost the entire UN against America. [[spoiler:One of the alternate series endings, in ''Come Ninevah, Come Tyre'', sees the Soviets achieve complete world domination with the last U.S. President committing suicide out of guilt for letting it happen.]]

* 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.]] Even the alternate ending, ''The Promise of Joy'', is at best a BittersweetEnding since it concludes with [[spoiler: a nuclear war between China and Russia that leaves millions of people of dead, and now-President Knox weighing whether or not to intervene]].

** 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 NecessarilyEvil 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.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Seab Cooley. In the book, he and Senator Anderson make a pact to stop Leffingwell's nomination, with the unstated position that, if Anderson backed out, Cooley would be obligated to destroy him politically. But, later on, when Cooley visits Anderson and sees how he's coming apart at the seams due to the blackmail, Cooley offers to let him back out without cost. It's a huge moment for him, since Cooley had been gunning to destroy Leffingwell for a decade, but he'd rather lose this fight than lose Anderson as a friend.

A 1962 political drama based on the bestselling, UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize-winning [[FilmOfTheBook 1959 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.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Seab Cooley. In the book, he and Senator Anderson make a pact to stop Leffingwell's nomination, with the unstated position that, if Anderson backed out, Cooley would be obligated to destroy him politically. But, later on, when Cooley visits Anderson and sees how he's coming apart at the seams due to the blackmail, Cooley offers to let him back out without cost. It's a huge moment for him, since Cooley had been gunning to destroy Leffingwell for a decade, but he'd rather lose this fight then lose Anderson as a friend.

** Leffingwell, a nominee for Secretary of State that is controversial for his conciliatory approach to the Soviet Union, seem to be drawn from Alger Hiss, the American government official who was accused of spying for the Soviet Union. By the end it no longer really matters. The cross-examination of Leffingwell by the Senate subcommittee is strongly reminiscent of the Alger Hiss hearings.

** And the cross-examination of Leffingwell by the Senate subcommittee is strongly reminiscent of the Alger Hiss hearings.

* RedHerring: Sen. Munson, a widower, is carrying on an affair with a Washington society lady, Dolly Harrison (Gene Tierney). This seems like it will be important. It isn't.

** Sadly averted in the novel. Once Senator Anderson's homosexual affair comes to light, the editor of the Washington paper personally visits him to inform him that they won't be printing the story because it amounts to little more than petty character assassination. However, he also warns Anderson that someone, somewhere ''won't'' have any standards and will print it.

** Van Ackerman is based on Joe [=McCarthy=] (although Van Ackerman is a left-wing extremist rather than a right-winger). After the Army-[=McCarthy=] hearings and the censure vote of December 1954 against [=McCarthy=], he was shunned in the Senate for the remaining two years of his term, must as Van Ackerman's colleagues promise they will do i this film.