Public Enemies (2009)

Billy Crudup: J. Edgar Hoover

Photos 

Quotes 

• [Hoover is at a Senate Appropriation Committee hearing] 

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : Why do we need this?

  J. Edgar Hoover : Because criminals flee in fast automobiles across state lines, thereby defeating local jurisdiction because there is no federal police force to stop them.

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : By my tally, your bureau wants to spend more taxpayer's dollars catching crooks, than what the crooks you catch stole in the first place.

  J. Edgar Hoover : Well that's ridiculous. The Bureau has apprehended kidnappers and bank robbers who have stolen up to and in excess of...

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : Really?

  [Hoover stops midsentence] 

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : How many have you apprehended?

  J. Edgar Hoover : We have arrested and arraigned 213 wanted felons.

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : No, I mean *you*, Director Hoover.

  J. Edgar Hoover : Well, as Director, I administer.

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : How many have you arrested, personally?

  [long pause as Hoover stares at McKellar] 

  J. Edgar Hoover : I have never arrested anybody.

  [Other men in the chamber gasp in shock] 

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : You've never arrested anybody?

  J. Edgar Hoover : Well of course not. I'm an administrator...

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : With no field experience. You are shockingly unqualified, aren't you, sir? You have never personally conducted a criminal investigation in the field in your life. I think you're a front. I think your prowess as a lawman is a myth, created from the hoopla of headlines by Mr. Suydam, your publicist there. Crimebuster? G-Man? You're setting yourself up as a Czar? That's running wild in my estimation.

  J. Edgar Hoover : A *crime* is what runs wild...

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : If this country requires a bureau such as yours, I question whether you are the person fit to run it.

  J. Edgar Hoover : [getting angry]  Well I will not be judged by a kangaroo court of venal politicians...

  Senator Kenneth McKellar : Your appropriation increase is denied.

  [taps his gavel, signifying the end of the session; Hoover and his aides get up and leave] 

  J. Edgar Hoover : Feed the following to Walter Winchell: "McKellar is a Neanderthal, and he is on a personal vendetta to destroy me." We will not contest him in his committee. We need to fight him on the front page. Where's John Dillinger?

• J. Edgar Hoover : John Dillinger held up a bank for $74,000 while you failed to arrest Nelson.

  Melvin Purvis : Sir, I take full responsibility. And I would like to make a request. That we transfer men with special qualifications to augment the staff here in Chicago. There are some former Texas and Oklahoma lawmen currently with the Bureau in Dallas.

  J. Edgar Hoover : I thought you understood what I'm building. A modern force of professional young men of the best sort.

  Melvin Purvis : I'm afraid our type cannot get the job done.

  J. Edgar Hoover : Excuse me, I cannot hear you.

  Melvin Purvis : Our type cannot get the job done.

  J. Edgar Hoover : [dropping the hint more insistently]  I cannot hear you.

  Melvin Purvis : [more firmly]  Our type cannot get the job done. Without qualified help, I would have to resign this appointment. Otherwise, I am leading my men to slaughter.