The FBI Story (1959)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

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

Release Date:

October 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The fury of America's fight for decency !

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

FBI | Spies | Gangster | FBI Agent | Ku Klux Klan

Awards:

1 win

Cast

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)

Runtime:

149 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G | Norway:16 | USA:Approved (certificate #19140) | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The scene in the film in which J. Edgar Hoover "personally" arrested Alvin Karpis 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 personally made an arrest (He'd joined the bureau as an Assistant Director and was promoted through the bureaucracy without ever having served in the field). Embarassed by the hearings, Hoover made it a point to follow the case of Alvin Karpis, the last of the high-profile 1930's era Bank Robbers. According to Alvin Karpis 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 noticed what Karpis was looking at and said "It's okay, Chief. We got 'im." Then Hoover and his assistant, Clyde Toleson (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!"

Goofs:

Continuity: When Whitey gets off the subway at Yankee Stadium, the view from the station shows an empty ballpark, but a few minutes later he is shown entering a filled stadium during a football game .

Quotes:

John Michael Hardesty: On Sunday morning he left the house. He couldn't be going to work. Since he was a Communist, we knew he wasn't going to church.

Movie Connections:

Followed by The F.B.I. Story: The FBI Versus Alvin Karpis, Public Enemy Number One (1974) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Ten Little Indians

Lots of talent involved, but film offers little dramatic appeal

Pedantic, overlong fabrication which attempts to chronicle the birth of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Begins quite promisingly, with a still-relevant probe into an airplane explosion, however the melodrama involving James Stewart and wife Vera Miles just gets in the way (Miles had a habit of playing tepid wives under duress, and her frayed nerves arrive here right on schedule). Esteemed director Mervyn LeRoy helmed this adaptation of Don Whitehead's book, but despite the talent involved, the picture fails to make much of an impression. Best performance is turned in by Murray Hamilton as Stewart's partner, however most of the dialogue is ludicrous and the dogged pacing causes the movie to seem twice as long as it is. *1/2 from ****