Monthly Archives

December 2019

Dec 31
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The Underground Railway – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY

Airdate: December 31st, 1959
Teleplay by Leonard Kantor
Directed by Walter Grauman 
Produced by Josef Shaftel
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star Cliff Roberston
Featuring Virginia Vincent and Joe De Santis

“Outside the walls of Lewisberg Federal Prison, in the State of Pennsylvania, August 3rd, 1933. After serving two years and 17 days of the life sentence in a four man holdup of a Federal Reserve Bank shipment, three-time loser Frank Holloway, was on his way out again. The jail break was only step one toward the half-million dollar haul that had never been recovered. Now there were only two ways to cut the mellon: Half to Ed Johnson, custodian of the for tune who had never been caught, and half to Frank Holloway.”
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Dec 24
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You Can’t Pick the Number – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

YOU CAN’T PICK THE NUMBER

Airdate: December 24th, 1959
Written by Henry F. Greenberg
Directed by Richard B. Whorf 
Produced by Charles Russell
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Co-Starring Jay C. Flippen, Darryl Hickman, Christine White, Doreen Lang, Harry Tyler 

“Chicago, South Side. October, 1932. The depth of the Depression. A time of hardship and despair for many, of standing lines and waiting for a meal. For some, not even a place to sleep. A time of closed gates and no work signs. A time of hope, of small, desperate hope. Hope for a better tomorrow and a little break today. Any little break, any heaven-sent little windfall, to happen now, today, right now. The mobsters were equal to the task and came up with the numbers game. On the surface, it worked like a lottery. You chose a number from zero, zero, zero, to nine hundred and ninety-nine. Your chances to win were one in a thousand. If you were lucky, you got back six hundred for one. If you lost, you could play again tomorrow, and nine hundred and ninety nine times out of a thousand – you lost.”
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Dec 17
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The Dutch Schultz Story – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

The Dutch Schultz Story

Airdate: December 17th, 1959
Teleplay by Jerome Ross and
Robert C. Dennis
Story by Jerome Ross
Directed by Jerry Hopper
Produced by Sidney Marshall
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star Lawrence Dobkin
Featuring Mort Mills, Robert Carricart, David White

“The underworld has always lived by one law, the law of the jungle. The strong clawed their way to power, the weak died in a hail of machine gun bullets. In March of 1935, one of the toughest mobsters in New York City, the man who dominated the underworld at the moment, was Arthur Flegenheimer, better known as Dutch Schultz. During his career, Dutch Schultz and his mob were suspected of having committed over 100 murders. He controlled every racket in New York. He had branched out into liquor, narcotics, later shakedowns, the numbers racket. ”
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Dec 09
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The Tri-State Gang – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

THE TRI-STATE GANG

Airdate: December 10th, 1959, June 9th, 1960
Written by Joseph Petracca
Produced by Josef Shaftel
Directed by Allen H. Miner
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star William Bendix
Featuring Alan Hale, Gavin MacLeod, Jay Adler, Roxanne Berard, Stanley Adams, Peggy Maley, Joseph Mell, John Ward

“In the latter part of 1933, an epidemic of hijacking broke out in the states of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The similarity of the holdups identified them as the work of the Tri-State Gang. This time it was a factory shipment of radios. The routine was always the same: Big Bill Phillips, a cheap, hulking six-foot-four ox of a man, handled the truck. Artie McLeod, a cheap tin horn gambler, handled the burlap hood with style and efficiency. The oldest of the gang was Georgie Kaufman, a battered ex-pug who once fought Benny Leonard in Madison Square Garden. The fence was James Jonathan Harris, sometimes called Gentlemen Jim. A quiet-spoken Englishman from the moors of Yorkshire. He was a suspicious and ever-watchful man. Bobby May, second in command, three-time loser, an ex-con, San Quentin. The leader of the gang was Wally Lagenza, a pale, cold, blond beast untouched by any civilizing influences. The doctors at Dannemora once described him as a vicious, antisocial animal, dangerous, ruthless and depraved. Eliot Ness and his men had been assigned by Washington to investigate the activities of the Tri-State Gang. That same night, they drove down to Richmond, Virginia, where they met with Sheriff Wilson of Richmond County.
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Dec 08
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Fulfilling Dad’s dream: Son working to finish book on ‘Untouchables’

By News

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette explores the effort behind finishing Dan Lynch’s book on The Untouchables:

While Kelly Lynch didn’t go into the same profession as his father, he has spent the past few years delving into his father’s passions.

One of those, the railroad, has seen Lynch become the executive director of the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society and his involvement in the restoration of the historic steam locomotive No. 765.

The other is a TV show that Lynch describes as creating a cultural awakening, having impacted everything from “The Simpsons” to “The Sopranos.”

Lynch was barely a teenager when he began to watch with his father the VHS tapes his dad had recorded of the TV show “The Untouchables.”

Dan Lynch would have been a teenager when the show debuted in October 1959, but it made a huge impact on him and started a fascination that continued until he passed away in 2014.

This year, as the show marks its 60th anniversary, the Spencerville resident has uncovered an unfinished, 400-page manuscript written by his father and has revisited the TV production in the digital age.

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Dec 05
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The Surprised Mr. Stack – TV Guide

By Feature Articles

This article was originally published in the December 5th, 1959 issue of TV Guide.

He finds himself starring in a TV series that was supposed to be a movie

When Robert Stack was first shown the script for The Untouchables, he solemnly shook his curly head and pointed the tips of his well-bred thumbs toward the floor. It was his professional opinion that the story of Eliot Ness, United States Treasury agent, was lacking in something.

“From an actor’s point of view,” says Stack, a 40-year-old California socialite, whose approach to his career has always been marked by a certain detachment, “it had no dynamics. Don’t ask me what that is, but I can assure you it’s a quality that’s mighty important to the leading man, two critics and three other actors.”

For this reason, Stack was cool about playing the Ness role when it was first offered him by Quinn Martin, ex­ecutive producer of the Desilu pack­age, and Phil Karlson, its director and a long-time friend of Stack’s. Aside from the fact that Martin and Karlson thought enough of him to drop by his house and make the pitch, Stack says two things made him change his mind and agree to clean up Chicago-on film, at least. Read More

Dec 03
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Tuning In To The Untouchables: An Interview

By News

NPR station WBOI covers The Untouchables Retrospective in its interview with historian Kelly Lynch:

Fort Wayne filmmaker Kelly Lynch is celebrating the 60th anniversary of the television crime drama, The Untouchables, with an online retrospective.

Lynch got hooked on this groundbreaking show thanks to his father, Dan, a nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist whose career included work for the Kansas City Times and the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

Earlier this month, WBOI’s Julia Meek sat down with Lynch to discuss the passion he inherited from this dad, their combined efforts in this project and where the journey continues to take him.

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Dec 03
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The Artichoke King – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

THE ARTICHOKE KING

Airdate: December 3, 1959, June 2nd 1960
Teleplay by Harry Essex
Directed by Roger Kay
Produced by Sidney Marshall 
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Featuring Jack Weston, Al Ruscio and Robert Elingston

“6AM Tuesday, April 19th, 1931. The place, the Washington Produce Market in New York City. You’re asleep most likely, grabbing that extra 40 winks before the alarm gets you up, but things have been moving along here in the market set up to feed the city with the largest appetite in the world. Every 48-hours, more than 25 million pounds of fruit and vegetables stream into the city during the night. A multi-million dollar business, a prime target, for the viscous racketters of the era. There were also decent citizens like the Cestaris: Angelo, his wife Sophia, and his son Atony. They worked hard, enjoyed the fruits of their labors, tried to be good citizens.”
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