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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.

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 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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Nov 26
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“Mexican Stake-Out” – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

“MEXICAN STAKE-OUT”

Airdates: November 26th, 1959, August 11th, 1960
Teleplay by Robert C. Dennis and Alvin Sapinsley
Story by Alvin Sapinsley
Directed by Tay Garnett
Produced by Charles Russell
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Co-starring Martin Landau, Vince Edwards
Featuring Barbara Luna, Ken Lynch, Byron Foulger, David Renard, Joseph Ruskin, Frank Wilcox, Alex Montoya, Richard Norris, Roy Engle, Rudolfo Hoyos

“Chicago, Illinois, October 1st, 1932. In thirty two hours in closed session, Judge McGinnis would consider evidence against a racketeer named Theodore Newberry, the owner of gambling parlors, speakeasies and houses of prostitution. Justice was finally able to catch up with this man. The key witness in the case against Newberry was an obscure clerk at city hall named Julius Imbry. To protect this witness, police guarded his home twenty-four hours a day.”
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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

Nov 12
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“Ain’t We Got Fun” – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

“AIN’T WE GOT FUN”

Airdate: November 12th, 1959
Teleplay by Abram S. Ginnes and Robert C. Dennis
Story by Abram S. Ginnes
Directed by Roger Kay 
Produced by Sidney Marshall 
Director of Photography Charles Straumer 
Special Guest Star Cameron Mitchell
Featuring Joseph Buloff, Renee Sullivan, Ted de Corsia and Timothy Carey

“Chicago, summer of 1933. In less than a year, the long unworkable era of Prohibition would come to an end. But the byproducts spawned by that era, the hoodlums, gangsters, the viscous members of syndicated crime were determined to live on. Many of them were already turning away from liquor to other lucrative fields of crime: the numbers racket, call girls, gambling, dope. But in Chicago, in that year 1933, one of the most successful of the gangsters had other ideas. He was already well on his way to accomplishing them. His name: Jim Harrington, better known to the mobs as Big Jim.”
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Nov 04
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The George “Bugs” Morgan Story – Episode Review

By Episode Review, Season 1

THE GEORGE “BUGS” MORAN STORY

Airdates: November 5th, 1959 and June 23rd, 1960.
Teleplay by David Karp
Directed by Joe Parker
Produced by Normal Retchin
Director of Photography Charles Straummer
Special Guest Star Lloyd Nolan
Co-starring Jack Warden. Featuring Harry Shannon, Fredd Wayne, Peter Baldwin, Robin Warga, Miriam Nelson, Kem Dibbs, Barbara Stuart, Bob Hastings.

“In the winter of 1932 in Chicago, Illinois, an unusual crime was committed. A crime which echoed down the years to the present day. The crime was kidnapping. The kidnapper was one of Chicago’s most vicious mobsters.”
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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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