The fact that you can’t rent or buy Larry Cohen‘s The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover on DVD, and that it hasn’t been shown in a Los Angeles theatre since ’83 or thereabouts makes the three-day booking at the New Beverly Cinema (4.13 to 4.15 at 9:25 pm) something of an event.

Mark Felt as “Deep Throat” over 25 years before the press broke the story. (Or so the press release claims.) Cohen will discuss this and other Hoover matters at a q & a following each screening.
Broderick Crawford plays Hoover, but isn’t shown engaging in curious intimacies with FBI agent Dan Dailey‘s Clyde Tolson. (Revelations about Hoover’s personal life hadn’t surfaced when the film was made.) The film costars Jose Ferrer, Dan Dailey, Michael Parks, Celeste Holm, Lloyd Nolan and Rip Torn. It features a classic musical score by Miklos Rozsa.
The film was shot at FBI headquarters, at the FBI Training Camp at Quantico and at Hoover’s own home — but without Bureau censorship.
The New Beverly Cinema (323.938.4038) is located at 7165 Beverly Blvd., LA 90036.