Word: hoovers
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Ever since the glory days of J. Edgar Hoover, running the FBI has been the ruination of most directors' reputations. Hoover himself was demythologized after his death in 1972 by revelations of the racist, tyrannical and even lawless way in which he managed the bureau. Richard Nixon's appointee, ex-Navy Captain L. Patrick Gray, meekly let himself be used in the Watergate coverup. Clarence Kelley, the tough cop who had headed the Kansas City, Mo., police department, allowed himself to be hobbled by the Hoover clique of high-level bureaucrats at FBI headquarters. Last week former Federal...
...robbery itself does not come off so well. The repetive humor kills any suspense, and even Falk can't save it--his antics are inspired but predictable. Friedkin tries to enliven the end of the film by dragging in J. Edgar Hoover for a little fun. But Hoover comes off as the same old commie-hating tyrant everyone has seen before. Friedkin fails to embellish this stock figure in any way. It isn't terribly original and it's not funny to boot...
...lunacy of some lucky penny-ante crooks. Not all of the bits are funny, but even the flat jokes have an engagingly whimsical air. From the evocative opening shot of strippers smoking on a theater fire escape to a late Borscht Belt cameo by Sheldon Leonard as J. Edgar Hoover, The Brink's Job upholds the traditions of Weber and Fields, the Keystone Kops and Damon Runyon...
Then again, the living characters seem hardly worthy of the honor. Louisa Hufstader's medieval matron is suitably doughty and prim, and Dan Jacobs as the chaplain manages to draw some laughs via his doddering devotion to his viol. But Win Hoover, in a pivotal role as the elder of the conniving brothers, is too easygoing to contemplate chicanery. His gestures toward the women he supposedly desires are unbelievably half-hearted. Marie Richards as the timid Alizon does little to stir passion in any of her suitors, and with the other supporting players is humorlessly one-dimensional...
...assessing the tangibleresults of the new cointelpro, Hoover pointed out that the Communist Party headquarters in New York had recently been bombed--"a typical hoodlum technique," he said. But Hoover decided to cancel Hoodwink on July 31, 1968, explaining in a memo that the Communist Party was not concerned with "civic issues" and "reformism," and could not be goaded into responding to the FBI provocation...