"The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover" is a rambling, disjointed summary of the career of the FBI head from the early 1920's through his death in 1972. Much of the writing plays out as less a dramatization of the subject's eventful life than a sort of adaptation of newspaper headlines into dialogue. The disjointed flow of events suggests a TV movie with the commercials edited out.
One interesting thing about this humdrum affair is the all-star cast, or some might say the all-has-been cast, led by Broderick Crawford who looks and acts as if he had just been released from a wax museum fire shortly before meltdown. For some reason he takes over the character of Hoover in his early forties from James Wainwright who also looks and moves like an animated corpse, even when he's playing twentysomething. Aside from these two the movie is bursting with B-list name actors in very small parts. Semi-well-known performers including Jose Ferrer, Celeste Holm, George Plimpton, Rip Torn, Dan Dailey (as Hoover's associate/companion Clyde Tolson), Howard Da Silva, Raymond St. Jacques, Lloyd Nolan, Andrew Duggan and Jack Cassidy appear sometimes for mere moments playing such famous people as Franklin Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr. and Damon Runyon. June Havoc appears in about two brief scenes as... Hoover's mother! (Havoc was actually YOUNGER than Crawford!!) The most effective of the supporting performers is Michael Parks who not only does a nuanced impersonation of Bobby Kennedy, but gets far more screen time than the other non-leads.
Hoover's career highlights (appointment to the head of the bureau, arming of the "G-Men" in response to the plague of organized crime in the 1930s, his adoption of wiretapping, his alliance with Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist crusade, his spying on Martin Luther King Jr.) are put on pause at several points to focus on his apparent sexual dysfunction and commitment to sartorial fastidiousness. A few scenes explore how Hoover and his Tolson handled the persistent rumors that they were a homosexual couple. Crawford's scenes get meatier as the saga progresses and we see him grappling with his internal demons whereas for much of the film he simply stands in the frame observing action and muttering almost incoherently.
One interesting thing about this humdrum affair is the all-star cast, or some might say the all-has-been cast, led by Broderick Crawford who looks and acts as if he had just been released from a wax museum fire shortly before meltdown. For some reason he takes over the character of Hoover in his early forties from James Wainwright who also looks and moves like an animated corpse, even when he's playing twentysomething. Aside from these two the movie is bursting with B-list name actors in very small parts. Semi-well-known performers including Jose Ferrer, Celeste Holm, George Plimpton, Rip Torn, Dan Dailey (as Hoover's associate/companion Clyde Tolson), Howard Da Silva, Raymond St. Jacques, Lloyd Nolan, Andrew Duggan and Jack Cassidy appear sometimes for mere moments playing such famous people as Franklin Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr. and Damon Runyon. June Havoc appears in about two brief scenes as... Hoover's mother! (Havoc was actually YOUNGER than Crawford!!) The most effective of the supporting performers is Michael Parks who not only does a nuanced impersonation of Bobby Kennedy, but gets far more screen time than the other non-leads.
Hoover's career highlights (appointment to the head of the bureau, arming of the "G-Men" in response to the plague of organized crime in the 1930s, his adoption of wiretapping, his alliance with Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist crusade, his spying on Martin Luther King Jr.) are put on pause at several points to focus on his apparent sexual dysfunction and commitment to sartorial fastidiousness. A few scenes explore how Hoover and his Tolson handled the persistent rumors that they were a homosexual couple. Crawford's scenes get meatier as the saga progresses and we see him grappling with his internal demons whereas for much of the film he simply stands in the frame observing action and muttering almost incoherently.