Product Description Robert Stack, Nicholas Georgiade. Hot shot Treasury agent Eliot Ness and his squad of untouchables" continue to put the kabosh on Al Capone and his organized crime empire during 1930s Chicago. Includes Jack 'Legs' Diamond" (10/20/60), Kiss of Death Girl" (12/8/60) and 14 more from the first 16 episodes of the second season on 4 DVDs. 1960-61/b&w/13 hrs., 26 min/NR/fullscreen. .com In Billy Wilders classic, The Apartment, a sleazy corporate exec tries to schedule an after-hours tryst with one of the companys switchboard operators. "Thursday?" she protests. "But thats The Untouchables with Bob Stack." "So well watch it at the apartment," the exec placates her. "Big deal." As Wilders shout-out indicates, The Untouchables was a big deal. Hot off Robert Stacks Emmy-winning performance as Treasury Agent Elliot Ness, The Untouchables blasted its way into the Nielsen Top Ten in its second season, which begins in a blaze of glory with the episode, "The Rusty Heller Story," featuring Elizabeth Montgomery in her Emmy-nominated role as the "no good" showgirl who plays two mobsters and a corrupt lawyer against each other (Bewitched fans will note that the lawyer with whom she gets very chummy is portrayed by David White, the future Larry Tate!). More than four decades later, with its film noir sensibility, smart-writing, hard-boiled dialogue, and plenty of what Rusty Heller calls, "boom-boom action," The Untouchables is still as potent (but not as deadly) as a bottle of ginger jake. The 16 episodes contained on this four-disc set tell some great (albeit suspect) stories of the kingpins, criminals, and hoodlums who thought they had "the guts" to move in on Al Capones tottering empire. Among the most arresting are "The Big Train," a gripping two-parter featuring Neville Brand reprising his role as Capone, who plots his escape while en route to Alcatraz, "Jamaica Ginger," featuring James Coburn and Brian Keith as a couple of "torpedoes" hired by a gangster to kill his rival, a plan complicated when one falls in love with a schoolteacher, and "The Purple Gang," about Detroits feared gang that kidnaps an underling (Werner "Colonel Klink" Klemperer) with Capone ties. Joining Nesss incorruptible squad this season is Paul Picerni as Agent Lee Hobson, but its Stacks show all the way. He gets to slap wiseguys around ("Answer the question, punk") and deliver the best lines. When one goon tells him he has no respect for the dead, Ness replies, "Sometimes, even less for the living." His relentless war against the underworld sometimes comes at a terrible price. When one innocent woman is gunned down, the killers taunt, "Satisfied, Mr. Ness?" But, of course, that just steels his resolve. As for this set, were satisfied, even without any bonus features, and the now common (and criminal) practice of season splitting. --Donald Liebenson
Trustpilot
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