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The FBI Story [1959] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
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Our Price: £8.72 (subject to change)
And thank you, Mr Hoover!
Review date: 2006-11-29 Rating: 6 out of 10
The FBI Story is a glossy greatest hits puff piece that works well as feelgood hokum until a sledgehammer last half hour that has aged incredibly badly and which probably seemed horribly out of date even in 1959 after films like Pickup on South Street. The first third focuses on the more admirably libertarian parts of the Bureau's history - fighting the KKK, protecting newly oil-rich Native Americans - before moving onto the likes of Dillinger, Ma Barker and Pretty Boy Floyd, with added family dramas along the way. Unfortunately, the last half hour is outrageous McCarthyesque propaganda, where democracy doesn't apply if you choose to vote for those impolite communists ("It was Sunday and he was a communist so we knew he wasn't going to church." is a typical line). But by then it's become clear that this is as much about J. Edgar Hoover's priorities and self-mythologizing as it is the organisation he ran, his claims about the Bureau being non-political and a joint organisation where no one individual is more important than the team at odds not just with history but with what we see onscreen. The end caption even credits him with `making this world of ours a much safer place.' Partially because he disapproved of Warner's choice of actor's politics, Hoover remains an offscreen divine presence, filmed in the same manner that Jesus Christ was pre-King of Kings, albeit with much more reverence. A voice on the phone, a shadow on the wall, an inspirational back of the head, his words are enough to hold Jimmy Stewart spellbound and persuade him to rip up his resignation while his praise leaves him so satisfied you almost expect him to light up a cigarette. And the final inspiring shots of Washington landmarks while a propeller hat plays a cracked version of Yankee Doodle Dandy... well, let's just say that the past is another country and leave it at that.
Warner's Region 1 NTSC widescreen transfer is good, but the only extra is the original trailer.
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Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
James Stewart
Nick Adams
Vera Miles
Murray Hamilton
Larry Pennell
Creators:
James Stewart (Primary Contributor)
Vera Miles (Primary Contributor)
Joseph F. Biroc (Cinematographer)
Mervyn LeRoy (Producer)
Philip W. Anderson (Editor)
Don Whitehead (Writer)
John Twist (Writer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 0012569816138
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2006-08-15
Universal product code (UPC): 012569816138
Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 149 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1959-10
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)