The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover
| The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Larry Cohen |
| Produced by | Larry Cohen |
| Written by | Larry Cohen |
| Starring | Broderick Crawford |
| Music by | Miklós Rózsa |
| Cinematography | Paul Glickman |
Production company |
Larco Productions |
| Distributed by | American International Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 112 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover is a 1977 film directed by Larry Cohen and starring Broderick Crawford and James Wainwright.[1] The cast includes Jose Ferrer, Michael Parks, Celeste Holm, Ronee Blakely, Tanya Roberts in a cameo role, and in final screen appearances, Jack Cassidy and Dan Dailey. Both Cassidy and Dailey met with then First Lady Betty Ford and helped director Cohen get permission to do the film's on location cinematography in Washington, D.C., in locales where the real Hoover visited or worked. The film was shown at the Kennedy Center in Washington to a mixed response from Republicans and Democrats who did not like the dark visions Cohen evoked on American politics and the portrayals of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Richard M. Nixon: actor Howard Da Silva played Roosevelt, and "Richard M. Dixon" plays Nixon. After it was shown in Washington, the film took a limited nationwide release to theaters, and got a full release to video and television into the 1980s and 1990s.
Plot
The film is a chronicle of forty years in the life of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, starting first in the time of Prohibition, as he enforced the law on bootlegging and organized crime. Later, the director comes up against the Red Scare of the 1950s, the Kennedys, the wave of change in the 1960s, and his hatred of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Examined here is the allegation that he had an 'abnormal' sexual life, along with his obsession with his dead mother.
Cast
- Broderick Crawford as J. Edgar Hoover
- Michael Parks as Robert F. Kennedy
- José Ferrer as Lionel McCoy
- Celeste Holm as Florence Hollister
- Rip Torn as Dwight Webb
- Dan Dailey as Clyde Tolson
- Ronee Blakley as Carrie DeWitt
- James Wainwright as Young Hoover
- John Marley as Dave Hindley
- Howard Da Silva as Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Michael Sacks as Melvin Purvis
- Raymond St. Jacques as Martin Luther King
- June Havoc as Hoover's Mother
- Lloyd Nolan as Harlan F. Stone
- Andrew Duggan as Lyndon B. Johnson
- Jack Cassidy as Damon Runyon
- George Plimpton as Quentin Reynolds
- Lloyd Gough as Walter Winchell
- William Jordan as John F. Kennedy
- Brad Dexter as Alvin Karpis
References
- ↑ Paul Brenner. "The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977) - Larry Cohen | Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related". AllMovie. Retrieved 2015-05-06.