Before Brian DePalma gave us his stylish telling of the tale Eliot Ness and his band of Treasury agents, the world was reintroduced to them via this television series from Desilu productions. Eliot Ness was portrayed in tight-lipped, square jawed fashion by Robert Stack and it became his career role.
If Ness had only lived to see it. After his high point in leading that gang of Treasury agents in Chicago that raided illegal liquor establishments with flair, Ness went on to become Cleveland's Chief of Police and an unsuccessful candidate for mayor of that city. He drifted into obscurity after that.
But shortly before that Ness who was in bad health and in a bad financial situation contacted author Oscar Fraley who helped him ghost write his memoirs of those days. Ness died right after that and the book was published after his demise. It was then snapped up by Desilu productions because Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz saw potential for a television series.
The Untouchables had a good run for a few seasons. The period atmosphere was helped by the familiar voice of Walter Winchell who lived through that period and covered it. Winchell helped give the series a ring of authenticity it didn't deserve.
After a while the Untouchables were in New York dealing with Lucky Luciano and those gang wars, dealing with the Purple gang of Detroit and others that had nothing to do with what they really did. They hit Al Capone and his competitor Bugs Moran in the pocketbook, but of course were not the ones who brought them down. We all know it was those busy accountants in the US Attorney's office in Chicago that did the job.
The success of the series spun a brief spurt of nostalgia for that era in America both on the big and small screen. Neville Brand as Al Capone and Bruce Gordon as Frank Nitti were a perfect pair of scowling counterparts to the jut-jawed Robert Stack as Ness.
Occasionally the series is still run on the nostalgia channels. It remains an interesting and glamorized look at a part of our past.
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