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This 1959 Movie Inspired One Spielberg Movie and One Scorsese Movie in the 21st Century


This 1959 movie recounts among "James Stewart's cases" one investigation from the 20's and one investigation from the 50's. These two stories have been made into movies by Spielberg and Scorsese -- at least 50 years later:

ONE: SPIELBERG. Spielberg re-told the tale of a Russian spy in NYC who passed secrets hidden in coins as "Bridge of Spies" (2015.) Except Spielberg and his writers switched the Russian from banal thuggish evil to thoughtful and sympathetic good:

https://moviechat.org/tt0052792/The-FBI-Story/5a175ebd29c8770012012d7e/The-Commies-In-NYC-Story-at-the-End-is-the-Beginning-of-Bridge-of-Spies

TWO: SCORSESE. In the FBI Story, Stewart goes undercover in Oklahoma to determine who is killing off Native Americans for the rights to the oil on their land. This story is now a non-fiction bestseller called "Killers of the Flower Moon." Scorsese is directing, with favorite stars DiCaprio(as the FBI hero) and DeNiro(as the land baron villain) together in Scorsese for the first time(they did "This Boy's Life" together.)

I've read the book "Killers of the Flower Moon" and it describes how The FBI Story in 1959 fictionalized the case but -- when The FBI Story was shown on TV in the area, real-life relatives of the murder victims cried.

NOTE: I post this in April of 2020 -- filming on Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" has been delayed until the current coronavirus crisis abates.

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It was a best selling book first. This is one of my favorites though the spy segment went on a bit long.

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I always liked the opening segment about Jack Gilbert Graham who put a bomb in his mothers luggage and blew her up along with 44 others in a plane over Longmont, Colorado in 1955.
I think his story would be fascinating. His mother looked so matronly here but after reading about him I wouldn't be surprised to find out she might have been a sociopath like he was.
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Gilbert_Graham ]

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