The FBI Story (1959)

A dedicated FBI agent recalls the agency's battles against the Klan, organized crime and Communist spies.

Director:

Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

Richard L. Breen (screenplay), John Twist (screenplay),

Stars:

James Stewart, Vera Miles, Murray Hamilton

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
James Stewart	...	John Michael ('Chip') Hardesty
Vera Miles	...	Lucy Ann Hardesty
Murray Hamilton	...	Sam Crandall
Larry Pennell	...	George Crandall
Nick Adams	...	John Gilbert ('Jack') Graham
Diane Jergens	...	Jennie Hardesty
Jean Willes	...	Anna Sage
Joyce Taylor	...	Anne Hardesty
Victor Millan	...	Mario
Parley Baer	...	Harry Dakins
Fay Roope	...	Dwight McCutcheon
Ed Prentiss	...	U.S. Marshal
Robert Gist	...	Medicine Salesman
Buzz Martin	...	Mike Hardesty
Ken Mayer	...	Casket Salesman (as Kenneth Mayer)

Storyline

The story of the FBI unfolds through the eyes of one of its agents. During his career he investigates gangsters, swindlers, the klu klux klan, Nazi agents and cold war spies.

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Plot Keywords:

spy | fbi agent | ku klux klan | oklahoma | gangster | 

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Taglines:

The fury of America's fight for decency !

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | History | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

October 1959 (USA)

Also Known As:

Geheimagent des FBI

Filming Locations:

46th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

149 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The scene in the film in which J. Edgar Hoover "personally" arrested Alvin Carpis has since been debunked as a myth created by Hoover himself. In 1936 Hoover had gone before the Senate Appropriations Commitee to get more funds to continue to build the FBI. A senator asked Hoover if he'd ever personally made an arrest. Hoover kept trying to dodge the question but was eventually forced to answer that he hadn't (he'd joined the bureau as an Assistant Director and was promoted through the bureaucracy without ever having served in the field). Embarrassed by the hearings, Hoover made it a point to follow the case of Carpis, the last of the high-profile 1930s-era bank robbers. According to Carpis himself in his autobiography "Public Enemy Number One: The Alvin Karpis Story", as he was leaving the hotel to get into his car, he was surrounded by nearly a dozen well-armed agents who forced him out of the car. As he stood there being patted down for weapons, he noticed two men peering around the corner. An agent saw what Carpis was looking at and said, "It's okay, Chief. We got 'im." Then Hoover and his assistant, 'Clyde Tolson (I)' (who makes a cameo appearance in the film in the same scene as Hoover) came out and Hoover dramatically showed Karpis his badge, declaring, "Karpis, you're under arrest!"

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Goofs

Ma Barker did not lead the Barker gang. Alvin Karpas did. She never participated in any of the robberies. FBI agents surrounded her house and Fred did open fire. Ma Barker was killed in the crossfire, not blasting away at FBI agents. The story was manufactured after a public outcry of federal agents gunning down an old woman.

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Quotes

John Gilbert Graham: [after being arrested for murder] In case I get any mail, you can send it to Canon City Prison for the next month or so. After that you can send it to Hell!

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Connections

Spin-off The F.B.I. (1965)

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Soundtracks

"Pretty Baby"
(uncredited)
Music by Egbert Van Alstyne and Tony Jackson
Played during the barber shop scene

User Reviews

Not bad, but it plays like a J Edgar film.

An entertaining look at the FBI from its fledgling days, when 36 unarmed investigators constituted the "Bureau of Investigation" up till the days when FBI agents sought to prevent Soviet agents from gathering sensitive intelligence.

The FBI Story tracks the career of an FBI agent Chip Hardesty, who joins the Bureau in its early days. He expresses frustration with the ineffectiveness of the agency, but when J. Edgar becomes Director, he has a change of heart. (Surprise, surprise-- Edgar was actually in the movie, so I'm guessing that he had a part in Hardesty's position) Hardesty battles Klan members, gangsters, and Nazi influence in South America, as well as counter-intelligence efforts at the peak of his career as an FBI SAC (Special Agent In Charge) of the New York Field Office.

It's not a bad film, and there are some really classic quotes. There was this one about how sometimes with gangsters you just need a slide-fed, automatic machine gun. I enjoyed that one a lot. However, it did strike me very much as a propaganda film, being as though J. Edgar seems like a hero. The film even shows his personal arrest of a gangster making death threats.