Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan (1975) (TV)

Director:

Marvin J. Chomsky

Writers:

Calvin Clements Sr. (writer)
Don Whitehead (book)

Release Date:

20 February 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

After three civil-rights workers are murdered in Mississippi in 1964, a team of FBI agents is sent there to find the killers. |

Plot Keywords:

Ku Klux Klan | Murder | Civil Rights Movement | Based On Book

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy.

Cast

Ned Beatty	...	Ollie Thompson
John Beck	...	George Greg
Billy Green Bush	...	Dave Keene
Dabney Coleman	...	Paul Mathison
Andrew Duggan	...	Insp. Ryder
Ed Flanders	...	Ralph Paine
George Grizzard	...	Attorney Clay
L.Q. Jones	...	Roy Ralstop
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Ed Duncan
Marlyn Mason	...	Jean Foster
Wayne Rogers	...	Don Foster
Peter Strauss	...	Ben Jacobs
Rip Torn	...	Glen Tuttle
Mills Watson	...	Dee Malcom
James Hampton	...	Harry Dudley

Runtime:

215 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Groveton, Texas, USA

Company:

Quinn Martin Productions (QM)

Movie Connections:

Version of Mississippi Burning (1988)

True-to-life (I was there!)

I grew up - white - in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and was a teenager in town when these events happened, in 1964. The film is based on a true story, and here the story is portrayed much more accurately than in the highly-popular "Mississippi Burning" (also based, more loosely, on these events). If anything is missing in this TV movie, it's that the brutality was worse than portrayed here. If anything is misleading, it's that J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI were generally not this noble in their fighting civil rights hate crimes. The acting is also good (though the accents are not on-target; noticeable to a local). If you want to know more about this history, read the gripping books "Three Lives for Mississippi" and "Witness in Philadelphia."