The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover

Broderick Crawford as J. Edgar Hoover

Larry Cohen's The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, from 1977, is a scuzzy, B minus picture about the longtime FBI director. Production values are tawdry and scant. The film's Oval Office reminded me of a disused Saturday Night Live set. Whenever an important historical episode occurs, say Pearl Harbor or the March on the Pentagon, Cohen relies on newsreel footage. This is not bad in itself, one feels sympathy for Cohen in his attempt to make a historical epic on a tight budget, but the integration of the historical footage with shots of Cohen's players is often shoddy. The most egregious example is the footage of Broderick Crawford, who plays the mature Hoover, striding down Pennsylvania Avenue which is intercut with contemporaneous footage of President Kennedy's funeral. Besides Crawford, Cohen employs a slew of Hollywood has-beens, some of whom, especially Dan Dailey as Clyde Tolson, look quite ghastly. Miklos Rozsa's score also harkens back to yesteryear. 

And yet, I was partially won over by Cohen's scrappy and crappy little film. The Poverty Row feel of The Private Files... matches its tabloid style. Cohen shows how Hoover was able to uncover dirt on our country's power brokers, but the film is also a cockeyed defense of the man. Hoover kept the resources of the Bureau out of the hands of political figures, keeping it non-partisan and uncompromised. Cohen also intuited that the Bureau's unseen hand was, at least. partially responsible for Nixon's downfall.

A number of old Hollywood hands phone in their performances, particularly Jose Ferrer and Lloyd Nolan. However, I was struck by how many interesting performances the film contained. Howard Da Silva, seemingly an odd choice to play FDR, captures well the man's patrician hauteur, ebullience, and entitlement. The underutilized Jack Cassidy is a smooth fit for the role of Damon Runyon. Best of all is Michael Parks as Robert Kennedy. Parks is adept at showing both the mercurial brilliance and immaturity of RFK. He even nails the man's slouch. I also enjoyed the contributions of June Havoc, Celeste Holm, and Raymond St. Jacques.

Crawford is good as Hoover and since I remember the sodden and hulking wreck that hosted Saturday Night Live at this time, I suppose I was just glad his performance was not the disaster I feared it would be. Such is my attitude towards the film as a whole. Cohen's talents may have been more attuned to films about a killer babies (It's Alive) or winged serpents terrorizing Manhattan (Q) or dessert treats that turn people into zombies (The Stuff), but he never codescends to his material or his audience. An underrated B movie master. The cast of The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover also includes Ronee Blakely, Rip Torn, John Marley, Michael Sacks, and George Plimpton.