The Untouchables - Season 1, Vol. 1

At a time when westerns dominated American television (48 during the 1958/59 season), along comes a new show that takes on another kind of American mythology- the gangsters of the 1930's. Now I say mythology, because thats exactly how "The Untouchables" show was written and produced. You might well say it was the "49th" TV western on the air at the time. The saga of Federal agent Elliot Ness and his elite team of crime fighters, was given the same "dramatic license" in television as it was in the book the show was based on. Ness never lived to see his life become a legend on TV, he died a few years earlier after the book he co-wrote came out. His real life and real career had not unfortunately measured up to the hype that the show's narrator Walter Winchell would rattle off each week. In real life, Ness and his men did raid a lot of Al Capone's breweries and hit him hard in the pocket book, but they didn't put him in jail -that glory went to the tax accountants of the US Treasury Department. In fact Ness never met Capone. And after prohibition the Untouchables was disbanded. Ness went on to Cleveland to become a public health official, only now he was fighting the spread of veneral disease and not organized crime. Still that didn't stop Hollywood from having him take on Ma Barker, Dutch Schultz, "Bugs" Moran and every other hoodlum and public enemy of the 1930's.Now lawman Wyatt Earp could get away with such tall tales, because in his day most events were mis-reported in the press and really hyped up for the dime novels. But even a great self promoter like Wyatt Earp would be proud to see the tradition for truth, justice and the American way continue. With all that in mind, only then can you really sit back and enjoy the show! Just like in the TV oater's, you have to have a wooden lead, in this case it was perfect for Robert Stack as Ness. That's after both Van Johnson and Van Heflin turned down the part first. Unfortunate for them, because they would have become millionaires. But Stack does the role justice and really earns his huge salary. Anyway, as with most shows, the villains have all the fun or at the very least -the best lines. Legendary casting director Lynn Stalmaster, rounded-up the very best talent of the day, from Neville Brand as Capone to Lloyd Nolan as "Bugs" Moran to even a young Robert Redford playing a wanna-be ganster. It was the era of the great Hollywood character actors, the un-heralded veterans that made many a TV show let alone motion picture stand out. Add to this the great music themes of Nelson Riddle and the rat-a-tat-tat narration from the legendary NY columnist Walter Winchell and you have all the ingredients that made "The Untouchables" a legandary HIT! An iconic hit that would live on through countless years of syndication, vhs tape volumes and now to dvd.There are a number of strange ironies in "The Untouchables" - Elliot Ness the crusading prohibition agent, ended up with an alcohol problem of his own. After Al Capone is taken care of, his enforcer Frank Nitti and the old Capone mob go HOLLYWOOD! Through labor racketeering and studio blackmail, they extort even greater profits than they ever did from booze, broads and gambling. A studio contract player who goes on to become the Queen and co-founder of TV situation comedy called Lucille Ball, is branded a "communist" by the same Walter Winchell that she and her husband Desi Arnaz will later hire. Winchell's own acid-typed newspaper and radio career, had been exposed somewhat in fictional form for the movie "The Sweet Smell Of Success" again ironically, at the same time as "The Untouchables" book came out. And the very studio where Lucy started out -RKO, will end up being the facility for reproducing the setting of Chicago, on the same sets that David O' Selznick built for "Gone With The Wind". Those same bullet ridden streets will later go on to become the tranquil setting for Mayberry on the "Andy Griffith Show". Desilu Productions was the TV powerhouse that made "The Untouchables". After her divorce from Desi, Lucy will sell out to Paramount and they inturn through their parent company Viacom, will buy out the very CBS network that made Desilu Productions possible in the first place. And now as CBS-Paramount, the dvd is finally released, however in exspensive volume form. A crime in itself, an injustice that is certainly worthy of THE UNTOUCHABLES immediate attention!

The media could not be loaded.  Robert Stack takes on his award winning role ( Emmy award for Best Actor ) as the tough federal agent of the US Treasury who will be remembered for generations, Elliot Ness. My video is meant to show the format and approach of the series.In this series we see how very short and very brutal the lives of most of these mobsters are. We see the cut throat, bullet in the back, drive-by shooting style of getting their business done. But that barely scratches the surface.For example, in one story called "The UnderGround Railway" an escaped murderer named Holloway gets help from a mafia lawyer to run to various safe houses that cater to escaped convicts, and the lawyer convinces ( for a large sum of money ) an attractive but lonely woman named Mona to pose as Holloway's wife in order to give him cover. Holloway is heading to California seeking his stash of stolen money. Holloway has facial deformities that make him difficult to look at without squirming, but he's determined to change that as he stops at a dentist and a plastic surgeon on the way. After getting a makeover, Mona begins to fall for him. Eventually she falls in love with him, and while he likes the attention at first, he gets tired of her and pushes her away, and as they travel and spends time with other attractive women he finds along the way. This makes Mona very jealous and in an unfortunate moment hoping to force him to stay with her, she reminds him that she knows what he looked like before his makeover and could point him out to the police. Too late, she realizes her mistake in telling him this, but chooses not to run since she still loves him. Just before they reach their final destination, Holloway pulls the car they're in into a secluded area, and Mona says "This is it... isn't it...", meaning she knows he's going to kill her. He smiles as if he enjoys the idea of what he's about to do, and says "you know what I looked like before...". With a tearful voice she tells him that she loves him, and in a viciously cold blooded act as he leans near to her letting her kiss him, he strangles her. It's startling how violent some of these episodes are. If these were shown in a movie theater today I suspect many episodes would obtain an "R" rating.The guest stars in this series are very well known. Peter Falk, Telley Savalas, Charles Bronson, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Redford, Elizabeth Montgomery, and HEY even Jim Backus ( Thurston Howell from Gilligan's Island and the voice of Mr. Magoo) makes an appearence as a mob accountant and Dick York ( Darrin from Bewitched ) plays a mobster thug for a prostitution racket. Where else can you see that? And a lot more stars show up. Even Alan Hale, ( The Skipper from Gilligan's Island,) shows up as a mob syndicate muscle man. The number of stars in this series whose names would later become big is astounding. The episodes are presented in a one hour format, and actually run approximately 50 minutes each, which gives each episode enough time to tell a very solid high-impact story. The cinematography is excellent as well. You get a very good feel for the 1930's to 1940's era with the accurate reproduction of the vehicles, fashions, and manner of conversation. As for the disks, the video is clean and easy to watch, the sound is clear and there were no apparent flaws in the production of the disks. I highly recommend this series.- Mike S.

I have been waiting for The Untouchables TV series to be released for a long time, as back in the sixties it was a very popular show here in England. My memory of it was a fast paced show with some splendid shoot outs, so how does it seem now? It is still a good looking show with high production values, sharp black and white photography and convincing thirties period atmosphere. Watching these episodes now I realise that only certain ones were action packed, others seem rather slow. Robert Stack gives a strong performance as Eliot Ness and some of the guest stars include the likes of Martin Landau, Jack Lord and Cliff Robertson in early performances. I also thought Bruce Gordon as gangster Frank Nitti appeared more often, he is only appears in two of the episodes. Let us not also forget the excellent well suited theme tune and the brisk narration by Walter Winchell. The Untouchables is well worth getting, even if is not quite the rip roaring show from memory. One final note, I am also pleased they left in the captions that appear where the commercial breaks were slotted in. I will also probably get Season One Volume Two and then find they have decided to release the entire first season in one box set!!

Perfecta, buena película

Excelente serie esta es la temporada 4 que no salio a la venta en México y lo mejor esta con el doblaje en español tal como se vio en México, lo único es que esta dividida en 3 volúmenes, este es el primero. Otro detalle muy importante es REGIÓN 2 Y ES FORMATO PAL. Pero en ese caso hay en Amazon BLU RAYs que son multiregion en DVD y BLU RAY y además soportar el formato NTSC y PAL. Fue una ardua búsqueda para completar la colección de esta gran serie

First of all, the quality of the DVDs is excellent. And there are subtitles, to I can actually tell what's going on with my diminished hearing.This is a great old show from 1960, and I loved it as a boy. It was considered during its initial run to be extremely violent for TV, and in fact it is a rare episode when less than five people are killed.It is essentially an anthology series. Each show features a new lead character (often based on a real person, like Dutch Shultz or Jake Guzik), and Eliot Ness and the Untouchables are supporting characters who show up in the middle of the story to provide exposition, and at the end of it to kill or arrest the lead character.Robert Stack is terrific as Eliot Ness. A severe, strait-laced, fearless man who is utterly obsessed with bringing criminals to justice. He gets married in the pilot episode and nothing more is ever heard or seen of Mrs. Ness. Eliot is dedicated to catching crooks, although he usually kills them outright in the last scene. Eliot Ness is more lethal that The Rifleman, which is going some.I love this show. Period cars, Thompson guns, brash, brutish villains, melodrama and lots of people with bullet holes in them. And no kissing scenes. Everything you could want if you were a 12-year-old boy, which I still am at heart.

Great price and fast delivery. Tip top.

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