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| Charles Laughton And Walter Pidgeon |
Advise & Consent — The 1962 film was criticized at the time
for suggesting that some of our politicians were corrupt and that the making of
laws was not always in the best interests of the citizenry. Otto
Preminger directed this film based on Allen
Drury’s best-seller by the same name. Historians and those around long
enough might well pick up allusions to real-life personages. The film is also loaded with some of
Hollywood’s best character actors. My
favorites here are Charles Laughton
who played a particularly nasty southern Senator and Lew Ayres as the ineffectual vice president. Look for Franchot Tone, Gene Tierney,
Henry Fonda, Walter Pidgeon, Paul Ford,
Burgess Meredith, Don Murray and Peter Lawford as well as a cameo by Betty White. It might be interesting to note that this moderately
cynical film was released a year before Kennedy’s assassination and before
other events (Vietnam for one) also pointed to the loss of America’s innocence
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| Broderick Crawford |
All The King’s Men – People of my advanced age will always
remember a hefty, gravel-voiced Broderick
Crawford standing just outside his cop car yelling “ten four” into the
radio mic on TV’s “Highway Patrol.” However he had quite a film career before
he was squeezed into the small screen.
And his performance here earned him an Academy Award. Robert Penn Warren wrote this fine
novel that was the basis of several adaptations, including this 1949 U.S. film
and a second not particularly successful remake in 2006. In addition to
Crawford as a Huey Long –type
politician, Joanne Dru, John Ireland, John Derek and Mercedes
McCambridge (who also picked up an Academy Award), starred. Character actor
Paul Ford played a similar roles in both films in today’s pairing. Directed by Robert Rossen, this is generally
considered to be an essentially true story and cinema noir at its best .
Cocktails of any type (with or without alcohol) or Southern
Comfort might go well with this double feature.
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