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Episode Review

A comprehensive, in-depth look at one of television’s most highly acclaimed – and despised – classics with a blow-by-blow episode guide of Desilu’s The Untouchables. From 1959-1963, the series brought to life the nightly wars between good and evil in the streets of Prohibition Chicago. With legendary lawman Eliot Ness (Robert Stack) and his band of incorruptible agents leading the way for justice, famed reporter Walter Winchell providing staccato narration and guest stars breathing life into colorful underworld characters, the true story of The Untouchables became legend in a film noir mix of true history and Emmy award-winning fiction.

Mar 09
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The White Slavers – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

THE WHITE SLAVERS

Airdate: March 10th, 1960
Teleplay by Leonard Kantor
Directed by Walter Grauman 
Produced by Josef Shaftel
Director of Photography Charles Straumer 
Special Guest Star Betty Field Featuring Dick York, Mike Kellin, Nita Talbot, Jeremy Slate, Paul Langton, James Anderson, Natividad Vacio, Sarita Vara, Robert Gibbons, Mona Knox, and Theona Bryan.

“Prohibition was dead, but mobster Mr. Big, Al Capone, operating from a federal prison where he was doing time for income tax evasion, was still active. The top money-maker in his new empire was a Chicago white slave ring run by Capone’s partner, Mig Torrance. March 31, 1934; Eliot Ness led a raiding party on one of Capone’s houses of prostitution. It was the seventh such raid since federal man Ness had been assigned to break up the ring. Inside the house, the inmates having been tipped off by certain corrupt police officials in the city government were escaping through a trap door in the cellar leading to a tunnel on the waterfront. In one of the rooms a girl lay dead. Mourning at her side was twenty-one year old Ernie Torrance, kid brother of Mig Torrance.”

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Mar 03
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Part Two of The Unhired Assassin – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

PART TWO OF THE UNHIRED ASSASSIN

Airdates: March 3rd and September 15, 1960
Teleplay by William Spier
Directed by Howard W. Koch
Produced by Joseph Shaftel
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star Robert Middleton
Featuring Joe Mantel, Robert Gist, Bruce Gordon, Lee Van Cleef, Frank de Kova, Percy Helton, Sterling Holloway

“The men behind the attempted murder of Cermak were the gang who had served Al Capone in enforcing a reign of terror during 13 years of Prohibition. In the absence of Capone, serving time in Atlanta, his hatchet man, Frank Nitti, ruled the roost. Nitti’s board of directors in the operation of horse parlors, gambling joints, bawdy houses and other rackets were Louie ‘Little New York’ Campagna, enforcer of protective rackets; Frank Diamond, protege and devoted disciple of Al Capone, one of the original Capone gunmen; ‘Three Finger’ Jack White, Eddie Zion, general troubleshooters for the organization. Crusading activities of Chicago’s mayor had stepped up the processes of law enforcement to such a point as to severely cripple the operations of Nitti and company. And, rendered desperate, that gang had agreed that Cermak must die. The failure of the first assassination attempt only meant that greater care would be taken next time.” Read More

Feb 25
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Part One of The Unhired Assassin – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

PART ONE OF THE UNHIRED ASSASSIN

Airdates: February 25th and September 8th, 1960
Teleplay by William Spier
Directed by Howard W. Koch
Produced by Joseph Sbaftel
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star Robert Middleton Featuring Joe Mantel, Bruce Gordon, Claude Akins, Lee Van Cleef, Frank de Kova, Richard Deacon, George Neise, John Duke, Eleanor Audley Ray Kellogg, Charles Watts, Robert Anderson, and Argentina Brunetti

”November 9th, 1932. At 15 minutes past midnight, Eastern Standard Time, the Associated Press from Palo Alto, reported this three-word flash: ‘Hoover concedes defeat’. Three years of depression had thrust Herbert Hoover and the Republicans from control of the government and elected New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States. The Volstead Act was doomed. Repeal of the 18th amendment, prohibition, was inevitable. At 2:15 a.m. Chicago time, the Untouchables led by their chief, Eliot Ness, celebrated the beginning of the end of prohibition by destroying the last of the breweries operated by Al Capone and company. ”
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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

Feb 02
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One-Armed Bandits – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

ONE ARMED BANDITS

Airdate: February 4th, 1960
Written by E. Jack Neuman
Directed by Walter E. Grauman
Produced by Sidney Marshall
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Special Guest Star Harry Guardino. Co-starring Larry Gates, John Beradioo. Featuring Theodore Marcuse, Wolf Barzell, Paul Comi, Ken Becker, Theodora Bryant

“Chicago, February, 1932. Crime was a big business that was spreading from the dark alleys of Cicero, across town to the gentler, social atmosphere of the Gold Coast. Times were changing and crime was changing with them. Like any big business, it had to change, but it still required the services of hoodlums and gunmen, like Al Barberry and George Colleoni; the courtroom techniques of unscrupulous attorneys such as Paul Curtiz, and the guiding hands of the man at the top, the man who had come up from the ranks and had made the transition from gangster to big businessman: Augie Viale.”

Augie Viale had never made in inner circle of the Capone syndicate; he had never tried, not even after Capone was sent to Atlanta for tax evasion. With the help of men in public office willing to look the other way, Viale was too busy making a place for himself with narcotics and hot cars, and a new enterprise.” 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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Jan 21
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Star Witness – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

STAR WITNESS

Airdate: January 21st, 1960
Produced by Josef Shaftel
Written by Charles O’Neal
Directed by Tay Garnett
Director of Photography Robert B. Hauser, A.S.C.
Co-starring Marc Lawrence. Special Guest Star Jim Backus. Featuring Dorothy Morris, Bart Bums, Jay Warren, Sal Annetta, William Justin, Tom Reese

“In 1934, the Great Depression was four years old. Al Capone had shifted his place of residence to a federal penitentiary. But the criminal empire which Capone had founded refused to fall apart. It continued to operate its multi­million dollar rackets behind legitimate business fronts. One such front was a firm calling itself Midwest Enterprises, Incorporated. It’s president was a man named Luigi Rinaldo, once one of Capone’s lieutenants and now a powerful figure in Chicago’s vice syndicate. Second in command was his enforcer, a compulsive young trigger man named Paolo Rienzi. “

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Jan 14
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The Noise of Death – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

THE NOISE OF DEATH

Airdate: Original Air Date: January, 14th, 1960 (Originally Scheduled October 22nd, 1959)
Written by Ben Maddow
Directed by Walter E. Grauman
Produced by Charles Russell
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Co-starring Henry Silva, Norma Crane, J. Carrol Naish.
Featuring Mike Kellin, Rita Lynn, Karen docker, Joi Lansing, Harry Dean Stanton

“A nice day in Chicago, March 31, 1933. At No. 1229 Houser Boulevard lived Joseph H. Bucco, his wife and daughter. Everybody knew Joe Bucco and liked him.”
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Jan 07
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Syndicate Sanctuary – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

SYNDICATE SANCTUARY

Airdate: January 7th, 1959
Written by George F. Slavin
Produced and Directed by Paul Harrison
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Featuring Anthony Caruso, Robert F. Simon, Gale Kobe

“Calum City, thirty miles from Chicago, population, 10,000. A city fighting for its life, divided over an election that could mean honest government, or a return to the jungle law of the underworld. ”
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