TV Reviews : ‘G-Men’ Intrigues but Reveals Nothing New

“G-Men--The Rise of J. Edgar Hoover” does not give rise to any new data or perspectives on the storied head of the FBI.

Airing at 9 tonight on KCET Channel 28 and KPBS Channel 15, and at 8 on KVCR Channel 24, this hour from “The American Experience” is nevertheless highly watchable because Hoover’s evolution as a national anti-crime icon, and the times that nourished him, are forever fascinating.

Hoover was only 29 when he was named in 1924 to head the agency that is now the FBI. This biography ends 15 years later, even though Hoover held his job for 48 years. Producer Irv Drasnin re-examines his subject’s mind and mythology in ways that connect the present to Hoover’s golden era of the ‘20s and ‘30s, when, as we hear, crime was made a national issue and “tough talk was big box office.” Sound familiar?

We see Hoover’s formative influences and watch him use the press to create the illusion of a crime wave in order to make himself appear indispensable. Historian Richard Gid Rogers observes that Hoover was such a skilled revisionist that he was able to redefine America’s “gangster period” in ways that brightly polished his own star.

Hoover’s famous “secret files,” the voluminous private scoops he is supposed to have used to extort members of Congress and other powerful people as a means of ensuring their support and allegiance, are mentioned, but Drasnin supplies no tangible evidence that they ever existed.

Just as Drasnin is getting you revved up, his biography of Hoover abruptly ends, omitting his juicy post-1939 period and leaving you wanting more, even though you may have heard it all before.