Burgess Meredith, as Herbert Gelman, testifies against Leffingwell at the latter's confirmation hearing, claiming that the two of them were members of a Communist cell. In real life, Meredith was himself named an "unfriendly witness" by the House Un-American Activities Committee, which nearly ruined his career. Will Geer, who plays the Senate minority leader, was also blacklisted for refusing to name names before the same Committee.
Charles Laughton's final film.
Although the character of The President (played by Franchot Tone) carries no role name, at one point in the script Munson (played by Walter Pidgeon) calls him "Russ".
Average Shot Length (ASL) = 18 seconds
Director Otto Preminger offered the role of a Southern senator to Martin Luther King Jr., believing that the casting could have a positive impact (despite the fact that there were no black senators at the time). King declined after serious consideration, as he felt playing the role could cause hostility and hurt the civil rights movement.
For the scenes taking place inside the US Senate, Columbia dusted off its senate set built for Mr Smith Goes to Washington.
The blackmail attempt is based on the case of Wyoming Senator Lester C. Hunt, who was blackmailed by members of the Republican Party. Hunt was told by Sen. Styles Bridges that if he ran for re-election that November, the details of his son's arrest (for soliciting prostitution from a male undercover officer) would end up "in every mailbox in Wyoming". Hunt eventually agreed to step down, but eleven days later committed suicide in the Capitol.
The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Allen Drury, who was a congressional correspondent for The New York Times during the 1950s, while he was writing the book. Nearly every character is based on a real person (Lafe Smith is based on John F. Kennedy; Orrin Knox is based on Robert A. Taft, Fred Van Ackerman is based on Joseph McCarthy and the president is modeled on Franklin Delano Roosevelt). Even the blackmailing pf Brig Anderson, and how it's resolved, is based on a real incident. And the Leffingwell nomination is based on the House Un-American Activities Committee investigation of Alger Hiss.
The man who is seen turning down a drink from a passing waiter is then-U.S. Senator and future Democratic presidential candidate Henry Jackson, (aka "Scoop" Jackson), who appears uncredited. At a special private preview of the film for members of Congress, the sight of Jackson refusing a drink drew gales of laughter from his colleagues.
There is a scene showing Senator Seabright 'Seab' CooleySenate Majority Leader Bob Munson driving up to and talking inside a residential apartment building in which both of them live (in separate apartments). The "apartment building" is actually the original section of The Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, now called The Wardman Tower. The hotel and tower still exist, on the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Woodley Road NW, and is the largest, and one of the most historic, hotels within the city limits of Washington, DC.