The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977)

Loosely structured around the question of what happened to the supposed "private files" (i.e. collection of really damning dirt on the powerful) upon the death of long time FBI Director (1924-1972) J. Edger Hoover (1895-1972). This movie is really more of a highlight reel of vinyets (the hunt for Dillinger, feud with Bobby Kennedy, spying on MLK) played against a not particularly probing account of the life of Bureaus notorious first director. The movie is pretty proud of its self in its perfect casting of Broderick Crawford as the mature Hoover, though James Wainright is pretty good as the "young" Hoover (the latter actor being almost forty, and looking older, when he played the role of a twenty something J. Edger). This movie is a perfect example of the kind of obvious, name dropping bio-pic which I find to be such a guilty pleasure. Coming out of dying B-movie production house American International only a few years before it closed up shop, it boasts some fairly impressive names in its cast including Celeste Holm, Jose Ferrer and Lloyd Nolan. Most of the actors playing well known political figures don't look that much like them (who is Raymond St. Jacques and why is he playing Martin Luther King?). Again this probably isn't the best place to get your history, but it's a kind of schlock I just can't resist. **1/2