FBI Story, The (1959)

Approved by J. Edgar Hoover himself, this idealized telling of the FBI’s origins spans the years between Hoover’s appointment in the ’20s and the Red Scare of the mid-’50s. Beginning with an investigation that showcases the talent and resources available to the FBI, dedicated agent Chip Hardesty (Jimmy Stewart) tells new recruits how the agency was streamlined into a professional crime-fighting organization. Using his personal life story as a backdrop, Hardesty takes the new men (and the viewer) through cases involving gangsters, land grabs, and Communist spies. Vera Miles plays Hardesty’s dedicated wife, while Murray Hamilton helps out as gung-ho fellow agent Sam Crandall. Lots of pro-Hoover PR and propaganda, but it never gets in the way of the action or family drama. Interestingly, the history of the Hardesty family is almost as good as the history of the agency.

1959, colour, 149 minutes