The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977)

Directed by

Larry Cohen

Genre

drama film, biographical film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 52m

Rated

PG

Rating

5.1 of 10 from 15 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

The film covers the life and career of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, focusing on his long hold on power and his secret files on American politicians. It shows how Hoover influenced presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Richard Nixon and the dark side of American political life.

darkpoliticalunsettlingslow-burnbleakcynicalprovocativeserious

What happens

The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover is a 1977 American biographical drama film written, produced, and directed by Larry Cohen. It stars Broderick Crawford as Hoover, alongside an ensemble cast including Jose Ferrer, Michael Parks, Rip Torn, James Wainwright, Celeste Holm, Ronee Blakely, John Marley, Michael Sacks, Brad Dexter, Tanya Roberts and in their 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 film 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 impersonator James LaRoe (credited as Richard M. Dixon) plays Nixon. In an interview in 2019, Cohen said "it enraged all the senators and congressmen that showed up, which I guess was the thing I wanted to do in the first place: make trouble". 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. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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