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The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977)
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Overview
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Release Date:
December 1977 (USA) moreTagline:
The files that escaped the shredder have become an incredible motion picture. From the Kennedys to Martin Luther King. From cab drivers to Congressmen. From housewives to hostesses. He had something on 58 million people. It was all in his files. Now you can see how he used it.User Comments:
Absolute Power Corrupts moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Broderick Crawford | ... | J. Edgar Hoover | |
| James Wainwright | ... | Young Hoover | |
| Michael Parks | ... | Robert F. Kennedy | |
| José Ferrer | ... | Lionel McCoy | |
| Celeste Holm | ... | Florence Hollister | |
| Rip Torn | ... | Dwight Webb | |
| Dan Dailey | ... | Clyde Tolson | |
| Ronee Blakley | ... | Carrie DeWitt (as Roneé Blakley) | |
| Howard Da Silva | ... | Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt | |
| John Marley | ... | Dave Hindley | |
| Michael Sacks | ... | Melvin Purvis | |
| Raymond St. Jacques | ... | Martin Luther King | |
| June Havoc | ... | Hoover's Mother | |
| Lloyd Nolan | ... | Attorney General Harlan Stone | |
| Andrew Duggan | ... | Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson |
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USA:112 minCountry:
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EnglishSound Mix:
MonoFilming Locations:
Renaissance Mayflower Hotel - 1127 Connecticut Avenue, Washington, District of Columbia, USA moreFun Stuff
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The film had a formal screening at the Kennedy Center, but members of both parties in the largely political audience was irritated by the film due to its unflattering depiction of not only Republicans such as Richard Nixon, but also Democrats such as the Kennedys and Franklin Roosevelt. moreFAQ
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That particular phrase from Lord Acton about absolute power corrupting and absolute power corrupting absolutely is always the one that brings to mind J. Edgar Hoover and his Federal Bureau of Investigation. And it's altogether fitting and proper we should describe the FBI as his, seeing as how he ran it for 48 years and under 8 presidents.
I am glad that they showed that Hoover came into the Bureau as a reformer. It was a patronage cesspool under previous directors, in fact it had existed for 17 years before J. Edgar Hoover took over and had four previous directors. Hoover did do those kinds of reforms, made it a merit based agency given his ideas of what was meritorious. He set up a national fingerprint data base, something one can't conceive of in law enforcement now. And certainly the FBI did do yeoman service in apprehending and eliminating some of the well known gangsters of the twenties and thirties.
If Hoover had retired in 1945 with the close of World War II his historic reputation would be just about where it was in 1945. Sad to say he didn't, he got heady with power because he had dirt on everybody who was anybody in any field you want to name. That's intoxicating stuff.
I've never thought of Hoover as gay, a crossdresser or anything else in a sexual way. I think the man just had a low sex drive. A lot of that was rumors put about by enemies. He certainly made a legion of them. If power is the ultimate aphrodisiac, than Hoover never tasted those kind of rewards.
Broderick Crawford does a good job as the implacable and austere Hoover, however the film is essentially a one dimensional look at a most complex man. If Hoover was gay, his relationship with Clyde Tolson is handled most discreetly even five years after Hoover died.
This turned out to be the farewell film performance of Dan Dailey who played Tolson. Tolson apparently could smooth a lot of Hoover's rough edges out and on at least one occasion the film shows Tolson saving the publicity minded Hoover from a real public relations disaster.
A lot of familiar players dot the cast of The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover so if you're a stargazer you'll like the film. Still Hoover's long and varied career over some tumultuous American history requires a better study than this.