Scorsese And DiCaprio Are Making A Film About An FBI Story, Told Once Before In The Aptly Named ‘The FBI Story’

In a few short years, non-fiction writer David Grann has had his first book turned into a film (The Lost City of Z), and seen several of his New Yorker articles also make the leap to the big screen (2016’s Dark Crimes, this year’s The Old Man & The Gun, and the upcoming Edward Zwick film Trial by Fire). His third book, the chilling 2017 work Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI is headed that way too, with the help of some guys named Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Killers of the Flower Moon chronicles the seemingly forgotten tragic American tale of the systematic and mysterious killings of oil rich Oklahoman Osage Indians in the 1920s. At the time, the Bureau of Investigation (not quite “Federal” yet) was a fledgling unit of the Department of Justice looking to make a splash and a name for itself, and so was its young director (looking to do the same for himself). That director was a fella by the name of J. Edgar Hoover (Leo must still be a big fan) and he made sure that this would be one homicide investigation they would bring to a satisfactory conclusion.

The Osage murders is just one (dark) early chapter of the very storied past of the Bureau. And this one chapter is one of just many told in the 1959 film The FBI Story (currently streaming on FilmStruck), based on journalist Don Whitehead’s ‘authorized’ book The FBI Story: A Report to the People. Even though both Whithead’s book and Mervyn LeRoy’s film received the Bureau’s blessing for being, both were heavily under the tight control and authority of Hoover (he wrote the forward for the book, and cameoed in the film). While Hoover wanted the book and film to promote the FBI in a transparent and positive light for what he and his agents do for the United States and its citizens, he had no issue excising anything he felt wasn’t favorable. As you can imagine, The FBI Story isn’t telling the whole story, warts and all – just the narrative they wanted the public to know and believe in.

And there’s not one actor you can believe in more than Jimmy Stewart. If you don’t believe in Jimmy Stewart, we will turn your name over to the current FBI. Stewart portrays the fictional agent John Michael “Chip” Hardesty, our friendly narrator who walks us through his life as a dedicated agent of the Bureau, and in turn all that the Bureau has accomplished during his tenure, showing what they did and how they went about doing it (oh, so Hogan’s Alley isn’t just a Nintendo game!).

Cases and events include the 1955 airborne bombing of a United Airlines flight over Colorado, the Ku Klux Klan, the Osage Indian Murders (although a slightly fictionalized version of the actual story), the Kansas City Massacre (which was so bad that it led the formerly gun-less Bureau the right to bear arms!), the take down of a who’s who of gangsters – John Dillinger, “Baby Face” Nelson, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Ma Barker, and Machine Gun Kelly (who apparently gave birth to the term ‘G-Men’ while being arrested), dealing with anti-American sediments during WWII with the likes of American Nazis and others who may have allegiances to Axis powers, a Southern American exploit, and an affair with a half-dollar that contained microfilm hidden inside.

That is A LOT of ground covered in one movie (and only up to what happened in the ’50s!), and yet that doesn’t even include all the time dedicated to Jimmy Stewart’s character’s wife and kids. Sure, it’s nice to humanize the FBI with a little love for suburban family life, but Vera Miles’ shrewish wife shtick grows a little thin after the 2nd of a zillion times she pines for him to leave the Bureau behind, but understands that he has to do what he has to do. Throw in a bunch of birthday parties and graduations, spin with some tragic personal deaths, and you have a movie overloaded with content.

Come for the FBI stories, but stay away from the family feuds and fiestas.

When the movie premiered at Radio City Music Hall, J. Edgar Hoover was apparently moved to tears watching it. Guessing it was for scenes of the Bureau hard at work, and not the bureau at home, where his agents keep their undies and socks in a chest of drawers.

Michael Palan is a New York based writer and multimedia producer. He got an A+ in bowling at a midwestern university, and once handed Kurt Vonnegut his coat. In his free time he enjoys Edward Hopper paintings and eating fried chicken.

Watch The FBI Story on FilmStruck