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•	1998 Album

•	1990 Album

•	2026 Album

•	1998 Album

Rózsa faithfully sticks to his guns in The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, though. The explosive, positive, major-key ending to the work is especially out of character for an unlikeable real-life character like Hoover, following the composer's usual fanfare mode but awkward to the very end. While much of the music for the central portions of the film is also overwrought, there are stock conspiratorial suspense passages throughout these sections, starting with "The Hijacker." These passages, along with stewing drama, don't hold attention for the score on album even if they are more appropriate for the picture. The instrumentation for the work is typical for Rózsa, his cues alternating between his designations of "large" and "small" orchestra but throwing no unique sleezy or sultry solo element into his mix. He does nothing to uniquely romanticize the man aside from the sheer scope of the fuller performances that sometimes have a self-important newsreel feel to them. Thematically, the composer stands true to his usual process of providing several recurring identities and mingling them extensively in the score, though don't be surprised if you only end up remembering the main theme. That primary idea is a challenging, ten-note melody with a dynamic final four-note phrase frequently accessed for the composer in this and his other late scores. (This constant re-use did become something of an in-joke between the composer and his orchestrator at the time.) The theme is neither heroic nor evil, mostly espousing simple bravado and importance. Debuting at 0:14 into "Main Title" on muscular low brass and repeating its phrases throughout the cue, the theme catapults up to lofty violins over low brass counterpoint at 0:47 and rotates between the sections liberally amongst the secondary charging theme. It reduces to sickly solo bassoon and haunted low strings at the end of that opening cue. Woodwinds alternate between its phrases in "Suicide Trap" with hesitation but the theme dominates "Shadowing Nixon" on slightly romantic strings with a tinge of restrained agony. It suddenly interrupts at 0:34 into "Purse Snatcher" with a tortured, dominant presence, and flutes toy with its initial progressions in the middle of "And Finally Purvis Broke."

The main theme's presence on slower and more contemplative strings in "The Meeting" eventually becomes hopelessly intertwined with the score's personal theme during its massive, long crescendo in "Temptation." It's more cautious at the beginning of "The Bloodhound," the four-note descents lacing the later action. After again stewing on low reeds throughout the brief "Wiretaps," the main theme becomes a bit more reverent in the deeper string drama of "Mother's Death" and receives a different perspective in the sparsely jumpy and plucked "Creepy Surprised." The drama is cranked up at the outset of "Death of the Director" to extremely bloated levels, with residual shades of the same stance occupying "Farewell to a President." The theme stutters with uncertainty in "There's No Romance in a Dead Rat" and is expressed muted defiance on strings in "Attorney General," yielding the four-note descents once more. The almost joyous demeanor in the rollicking rhythm that opens "End Titles" is problematic for the story, though Rózsa reduces the idea to muted string drama later in the cue for a while. He cannot resist building to an awkwardly heroic final note, though, and the actual credits explode at 3:23 with militaristic zeal for the theme. For those closing credits, he reprises the "Main Title" performance yet appends a mandatory but out of place major key note at its end for near superhero shine; the score simply can't end like it does and be convincing for the character. Among the secondary themes in The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, a charging theme associated with the main one uses marching, upward staccato movements of relentless focus and pursuit, repeating the same note. Its first two phrases are five notes followed by staggered two-note answers of anxiety. This motif opens "Main Title" prior to the primary melody and returns at 0:37 for suspense, becoming even more powerful with thumping piano and timpani at 1:58. This representation of prosecutorial zeal accelerates into a frantic action outburst in the second half of "Suicide Trap" and remains somewhat influential in the second half of "The Hijacker" but is not clear enough for a direct connection. It guides all of "Shredding" with increasing force of will until a swirling crescendo and takes a snappier stance with snare hits in the opening minute of "The Bloodhound." Finally, it's lightly ponderous in "There's No Romance in a Dead Rat."

Rózsa also supplies something of a personal theme to Hoover, replacing the usual love theme constructs for the composer with quasi-noir melodramatic appeal. Its predictable, cyclically rising, falling phrases yearn in "Suspicion" while touching edges of main theme, that idea's falling four-note phrases overtaking this melody and shifting the cue right back into the main theme. This material receives more conventional, less intense attention to begin "Purse Snatcher," and a clarinet explores the idea almost alone in "And Finally Purvis Broke." Slightly whimsical in "Hold On" against bassoon fragments of the main theme, the idea is pleasantly relieving at 0:40 into "The Meeting" but tenuous at the beginning of "Temptation," in which it builds to a monumentally anguished conclusion. The personal theme helps guide the less flamboyant drama at the end of "Death of the Director," is barely warm in the ineffective romance of "Courting?," and achieves more convincing care in the middle of "End Titles" but is still only moderately tepid. Two lesser motifs round out the score, starting with a heroic deeds theme that lives as an almost valiant march at 1:24 into "Purse Snatcher." The composer revisits similar heights in the brief "R.F.K." with the main theme pulling at the edges. More notably, a nobility theme is a unique idea of stoic virtue in "Dr. King" that becomes embroiled in simplistic and deep pulses, and this personality is reprised in the middle of "Farewell to a President" with a processional personality from percussion. Rózsa's overall narrative is decent but not really that compelling. The score is so steeped in his usual methodology and styles that it earns an average rating for the composer, but this work is among his least interesting in his "free" era that ended his career. On album, original Citadel CD album represents the complete score, adding onto the contents of a 26-minute suite provided on a 1990 Bay Cities compilation CD. That album also includes music from Rózsa's scores for Lydia and Crisis, both representing circumstances in which the composer tackled his scores with only one instrument. While the piano for Lydia is alluring, the acoustic guitar for Crisis is grating. The same presentation was later re-issued in 2021 and 2026 by BSX Records, though copies of the original CD product remained readily available on the market. Demand isn't great for this Rózsa entry, as it represents a somewhat interesting but not very engaging dramatic entry without the appealing attributes of his other later scores.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download