All Posts By

Dan Lynch

Feb 18
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The Big Squeeze – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

THE BIG SQUEEZE

Airdates: February 18th, 1960 and July 7th, 1960
Teleplay by W. R. Burnett and Robert C. Dennis
Story by W.R. Burnett
Produced and Directed by Roger Kay
Director of Photography Robert B. Hauser
Special Guest Star Dan O’Herlihy
Co-starring John Hoyt, Dody Heath and Featuring James Mageean, Frank Wilcox, Jean Vaughn, William A. Forester, Steven Coit, Ed Hashim, Pitt Herbert

“Prior to May 1934, robbing state banks was not a federal offense. Bandits had only local police to contend with, and these were frequently understaffed, inefficient or corrupt. With all the odds in favor of the hoods, there was a rash of successful though clumsily executed bank robberies carried out with complete disregard for human life. But, in addition to these rip and tear robbers, there were many experts of an older school, like the men who silently looted the Farmers and Drovers Bank of Kansas City, of $150,000, and left the small change behind for the muscle men. In Chicago, March 7th, 1934, a meeting took place in the office of Beecher Asbury, the federal district attorney.” Read More

Feb 11
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Little Egypt – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

LITTLE EGYPT

Airdate: Feb. 11,1960
Written by Joseph Petracca
Directed by John H. Peyser
Produced by Josef Shatlel
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star Fred Clark
Co-starring Susan Cummings, Anthony George Featuring John Marley, Sam Gilman, Bartlett Robinson, Norm Alden, Miriam Goldina, James McCallion, Frank Bella

“Election night, 1931, in the City of Moraine, the heart of the gangster ­infested area of downstate Illinois, known as Little Egypt. Marcus Stone, the new mayor., was thanking the people for sweeping his entire reform ticket into office.” Read More

Jan 28
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The St. Louis Story – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

THE ST. LOUIS STORY

Airdates: January 28th and June 30th, 1960
Teleplay by Joseph Petracca
Directed by Howard W. Koch
Produced by Josef Shaftel
Director of Photography Robert B. Hauser, A.S.C.
Special Guest Star David Brian
 Co-starring Leo Gordon.
Introducing Anthony George as Cam Allison. Featuring Richard Bakalyn, Rita Duncan, Frank Wilcox, George Neise, Bernard Fein, Danny Meehan, Percy Helton, Lillian Bronson

“On a peaceful evening in the Spring of 1931. Gang warfare had broken out with sudden violence on the streets of St. Louis. Tim Harrington, long-entrenched as the undisputed boss of the city, was fighting the challenge to his leadership. And the challenger was an upstart hoodlum: Joe Courtney. The most outraged citizen in St. Louis was Dink Conway, the owner of the swanky Jockey Club, a fashionable club house attached to the old Maxwell Race Tracie, converted into the finest restaurant and nightclub in the State of Missouri.”
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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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Nov 19
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Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

VINCENT ‘MAD DOG’ COLL

Airdate Nov. 19, 1959
Teleplay by Palmer Thompson
Story by Charles Marion
Directed by Andrew McCollough
Produced by Paul Harrison
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Co-starring Clu Gulager, Lawrence Dobkin
Featuring Suzanne Storrs, Richard Carlyle, Dick Miller, Ronni Anton, Richard Carlin

“In the month of February in the early thirties, three widely separate events occurred. At Churchill Downs, the entries for the Kentucky Derby were closed. In Tijuana, Mexico, a gambling syndicate accepted a huge bet in the winter book on one of those entries. The bet came from New York City, from a phone in a building on the west side of Manhattan. It was placed for a sallow-faced, tight-fisted man named Arthur Flegenheimer, Jr., better known as ‘The Dutchman.’ Dutch Schultz, beer baron of New York who, with his body guard Benny Bristow and his chief lieutenant Lefty Gallagher, sat in his office figuring the take from his criminal empire, Mile outside three men waited: Fats Finney, Needles Bledsoe and their leader, a man who had a vindictive hatred for Dutch Schultz! A man who was one of the most fantastic gangsters of that era: Vincent Mad Dog’ Coll.” Read More

Oct 29
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The Jake Lingle Killing – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

THE JAKE LINGLE KILLING

Airdate: October 29th, 1959
Teleplay by Robert C. Dennis
Story by Saul Levitt
Directed by Joe Parker
Produced by Charles Russell
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star Jack Lord
Featuring Charles McGraw, Philip Pine, John Beradino, Herb Vigran, H. M. Wynant, Frank Wilcox.

“Geographically, Chicago always had its North and South side. In the early 1930s, these terms had a very special significance. They referred to the territories of rival gangs. The North Side was controlled by Barney Bertsche. Everything south of Madison Street belonged to the Viale Brothers, Augie and Vito. The line of demarcation was never clearly drawn and the territories overlapped and were often in dispute. The result: gang war.”
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Oct 16
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Ma Barker and Her Boys – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

MA BARKER AND HER BOYS

Airdate: October 22, 1959
Written by Jerome Ross
Directed by Joe Parker
Produced by Norman Retchin
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star Claire Trevor
Featuring Joe di Reda, Robert Ivers, Adam Williams, Peter Baldwin, Vaughn Taylor, Louise Fletcher

“One of the most astonishing episodes in the annals of American crime took place on January 16, 1935. It began at 7 a.m. on a warm, sunny Florida morning. In a combined operation, Eliot Ness and his agents joined with the state troopers and local police in a surprise visit near the town of Oklawaha, Florida. What followed made front-page headlines throughout the world.”
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Oct 15
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The Empty Chair – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

THE EMPTY CHAIR

Airdates: Oct. 15, 1959, May 5, 1960
Teleplay by David Karp
Story by Ernest Kinoy
Directed by John Peyser
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Produced by Charles Russell
Co-starring Barbara Nichols, Bruce Gordon
Special Guest Star Nehemiah Persoff
Featuring Peter Mamakos, Richard Benedict, Betty Garde, Wally Cassell, Herman Rudin, Frank Wilcox, Carl Milletaire

“Chicago, May 5th, 1932. After seven months of legal delays, Al Capone, the country’s most notorious product of the nation’s experiment with prohibition, was on his way to federal prison to serve eleven years for income tax evasion. On hand to watch the mobster leave, was Eliot Ness, chief of the unique federal squad known as The Untouchables, the special unit that had worked for eighteen months to bring Al Capone to justice. For these men, the end of the Capone career was just the beginning of another era of violence. The king of the hoodlums had left a vacant throne behind him. The next man to claim it would pay for the privilege in violence and bloodshed.” Read More