Eastwood brings J. Edgar back to screen

By John Anderson

Newsday

J. Edgar Hoover, who always dressed for success and was the controversial head of the FBI for almost 50 years, had a symbiotic relationship with cinema: In the days of Prohibition-era gangsterism, he appeared in newsreels to push public support for his brand of bare-knuckle justice.

Although he was wary at first, he eventually got behind “‘G’ Men,” the wildly profitable 1935 James Cagney crime drama that helped popularize the fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation.

And one of his agency’s earliest triumphs — the gunning down of Public Enemy No. 1 John Dillinger — occurred as America’s Most Wanted was leaving a screening of the Clark Gable feature “Manhattan Melodrama.”

It is highly unlikely, however, that Hoover would have put his imprimatur on “J. Edgar,” Clint Eastwood’s sure-to-be-contentious biopic, which depicts the late FBI icon in a way that would have had him pulling his hair out — and probably opening dossiers on Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio and anyone else involved in the film.

As portrayed by DiCaprio — who alternates between a fresh-faced John Edgar of the ’20s, and the wizened, Yoda-like Hoover of the ’70s — the subject is a small-minded, venal man, tortured by his closeted homosexuality, driven by a hunger for public admiration, and willing to do virtually anything to maintain his grasp on power, including the blackmailing of presidents.

“Here’s this guy,” Eastwood told an interviewer, “starting the Bureau of Investigation, which later became the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and then goes on to stay for 48 years through eight presidents. Of course nobody could fire him, because he had something on everybody.”

Hoover’s secret file — shredded after his death, according to the film, by his longtime aide Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts) — was said to contain secrets about virtually everyone in public life, and was used by Hoover not only to maintain his authority but to preserve his biggest secret: Despite several heterosexual flirtations (including a relationship with film star Dorothy Lamour), Hoover was gay. And he and longtime assistant Clyde Tolson were lovers.

“Some people might say (they) were just inseparable pals,” Eastwood said.

The most sensational aspect of Hoover’s purportedly “aberrant” behavior was his alleged transvestitism. Eastwood refers to it only once, in a scene following the death of Hoover’s mother. The grieving Edgar puts on one of her dresses, ostensibly to feel closer to her. It’s a far more moving moment than it is sensational.