J. Edgar Hoover News

Public Enemies : Despite a first-rate cast led by Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, director Michael Mann's gangster epic falls short of greatness.

John Dillinger is one of the most infamous gangsters in American history. The charismatic bank robber and his gang robbed countless banks during the Great Depression and he became a folk hero to the downtrodden public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the economic abyss.

San Anselmo resident Peter Richardson sits among a collection of Ramparts magazines in his San Anselmo residence.

BASED on Bryan Burrough's book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave And The Birth Of The FBI, writer-director Michael Mann's film is a biopic of American Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger and his team of men who operated on the fringes of the law.

The legend is crumbling: the squat, bulldog features, set fiercely in tenacious pursuit of the TEN MOST WANTED CRIMINALS.

Michael Mann's "Public Enemies," is a beautifully filmed, cinematic masterpiece.

Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy My rating: 5 of 5 stars The concluding volume of Ellroy's "Underground USA" trilogy is nothing less than an alternative history of the United States from the years 1968-1972. In Ellroy's novel, the conspiracy theorists were right - JFK, RFK and MLK were all assassinated through the machinations of an uneasy coalition ...

It may be 2009 but the rhetoric is strictly 1950 when a man held up a sheet of paper and declared, "I have here in my hand a list of names..." Glenn Beck is not original, nor was Joe McCarthy.

I both dreaded and anticipated the publication of James Ellroy's Blood's a Rover .

John Paul Chase was a loyal associate of criminals Baby Face Nelson and John Dillinger before transitioning to longtime guest of the federal prison system at Alcatraz and Leavenworth.

Anyone who thinks history is boring never had a chance to listen to Mike Howard.

Anyone who thinks history is boring never had a chance to listen to Mike Howard.

Do these look like the same man? Film wrong! Dillinger not killed by FBI! Fact: Hoover coverup! / / / August 3, 2009 My Answer Man received a question asking if crime expert Jay Robert Nash still holds the theory that John Dillinger was not killed by the FBI in front of the Biograph Theater on July 24, 1934.

PUBLIC ENEMIES DIRECTED BY : MICHAEL MANN STARRING: JOHNNY DEPP , CHRISTIAN BALE , BILLY CRUDUP , MARION COTILLARD , STEPHEN LANG , JAMES RUSSO , JASON CLARKE RUNNING TIME: 104 MINUTES TAIWAN RELEASE: TODAY Never has bank robbery looked so beautiful.

Belgrade by Andrej Klemencic Johnny Depp It's made all the worse as he is playing a character so many wanted to play.

It seems that when critics use "stylish" in their film descriptions, it corresponds with a 15-percent drop in approval - as is the case with the stylish biopic of the Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger.

By: Dan Sullivan /The Daily Cardinal - July 10, 2009 Gangster film is a successful mix of history and innovative film techniques.

PUBLIC ENEMIES It seems that when critics use 'stylish' in their film descriptions, it corresponds with a 15 per cent drop in approval -- as is the case with the stylish biopic of the Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger.

It doesn't get hotter -- or more A-list -- than Johnny Depp and Christian Bale burning up the screen in a ruthless and prickly Michael Mann epic.

When the lights dim in theaters and John Dillinger springs to celluloid life in "Public Enemies," leaping over bank balustrades machine gun in hand and a young J. Edgar Hoover declares the nation's first war on crime, audiences get a window on how criminals transformed the Federal Bureau of Investigation from a bumbling unarmed agency incapable of ...