Terrific fun, so much more entertaining than Clint Eastwood's film on the same subject. This is clearly Larry Cohen's tribute to old Warner Bros biopics, with a ripped from the headlines feel. Because it's the late 70s he can take a lot darker look at it's subject matter.
He certainly shoves in everything but the kitchen sink - this is very much a greatest hits version of Hoover's life, starting when he was involved in deporting immigrants (where the role is played by James Wainwright), then going into him heading the FBI, his early successes against gangsters, then domestic enemies during the war (where he starts being played by Broderick Crawford), obsession against the communists, clashing with the Kennedys, then Nixon.
There's an awful lot going on - but then Hoover did lead an interesting life. The best section for me was his clashes with Robert Kennedy, well played by Michael Parks - this is when the conflict felt real and personal and the film kicked up a gear.
Everything else is broad brush strokes - his mother (June Havoc) to whom Hoover is devoted, his good friend Clyde (Dan Dailey), a mentor (Lloyd Nolan in a blink and you'll miss him appearance), a rival (Jose Ferrer), a socialitie who tries to seduce him (Celeste Holm). There's a subplot with Rip Torn as an FBI agent fired for having a fling with a married woman.
Cohen wrote an article on Clint Eastwood's Hoover film which made me think this movie would be really pro Hoover but it's not. Hoover is shown having some good points - he's against Nixon's men making secret recordings, he insists on due process, he tries to increase the professionalism of the Bureau - but it's not exactly a valentine: he's also shown to be obsessed with illegal recordings, he blackmails Kennedy and Martin Luther King with his recordings, he tries to have sex with women (Ronnee Blakely and then later Celeste Holm) but can't go through with it, faces rumours of his love for Clyde (which the characters say is crap and it's clear that nothing sexual happened but the film depicts them as spending a lot of time together and you could read a love story into it), he's ruthless and clings to power.
I really loved the depiction of Hoover. Cohen doesn't moralise or train to explain too much - once or twice he does and the scenes clunk. But basically he just shows him as this contradictory enigma - occasionally principled, ruthless, sexually hung up.
It's great fun to see these old time stars in decent roles. Crawford has gravitas ... but I couldn't help wishing he was more animated. His performance is okay but it's a superb role, a gift - a better actor would have done more.
The handling could have been tighter - I say this a lot about Cohen's movies but it needed more of that Warners 30s/40s pace. Occasionally its clunky and rough but it was grand fun.
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