The Untouchables: The Complete Series (Black & White)

This is a excellent series I remember watching the Untouchable when I was younger I purchased for my personal collection.

When this series was released in total I was overjoyed. I remember as a kid watching virtually all episodes of the series including the pilot. Ihave always liked classic gangster stories and this may be the best series ever. Robert Stack who was brilliant in his portrayal of Eliot Ness evenlooks much like him. Only the weak fourth season mars the series because of "political correctness" (Liberal fascism!) which diminished the powerof the stories...Less Italians, more Anglos and much less violence. But the gangs in the Big Town were for the most part Italians along with Jewishand Irish gangs; that is factual history. The Italians were largely very honest, hard working immigrants like the Irish, etc. yet often these people were the primary victims of these criminal enterprises as the blacks today on the South Side are the primary victims of black hoodlums. This showportrayed the cops as the good guys fighting crooks and crooked political office holders. Most of these stories vary away from the original UNTOUCHABLES book which dealt with chasing down Big Al Capone. Many of the thugs inthe stories are based on real hoodlums, but the stories surrounding them are often fictional though some truth is woven inbetween. One episodeabout Dutch Schulz was loosely based on his downfall, but Ness never had anything to do with that. But still, the stories In the first three seasonsare superb anyway. Lots of violence, machine guns all over the place and lots of very nasty characters. Frank Nitti, a real gangster and head ofthe Capone Mob was a nasty leader but rather a brilliant one. But like all thugs, his day would come. Nitti is brilliantly portrayed and is in manylater seasons after the first one. As a lover of the City of Chicago, I watched carefully how it was portrayed in the show; mostly pretty good but the streets always seem to be wet.(!)Ness frequently meets with informants at his favorite private office, an Elevated Train Station! I have ridden those many a year, and they are thesymbol of Chicago as the Subway is of New York (where I have lived for many years,). I had worked for the Transit Authority (Staten Is) for a longtime before retiring. But I do miss the Big Town and love watching the great show CHICAGO PD which I will review at the end of the season. Some of these stories are masterpieces, though we should remember Ness was a Treasury Agent, not a G man. But having him play cop is muchmore interesting; on CSI and NCIS series the investigators do a lot more "policing" than in reality, but it makes those shows much more interestingif they chase down baddies and sometimes shoot them. And there is a lot of "shooting" on the UNTOUCHABLES. Further, Paramount should be praised for the imaginative and seductive photography used in the series. Low camera angles, heavy lighting, andactually showing ceilings, making the sets more believable; this series is better in Black and White than it would be in color; it adds more atmosphere to the rather gloomy surrounding of the depression era Chicago. The narration of the show is by Walter Winchell, a brilliant choiceby the producers. And the musical theme is also outstanding. Sadly, the producers caved to the bleeding hearts in the fourth season, but by thenthe show had run its course. A brilliant, action packed, well casted (with plenty of big names!), well acted series. Long live THE UNTOUCHABLES!!Paramount would later release a movie of the same name with Kevin Kostner who played Ness well, but most of the story was pure fiction, especially with Nitti falling off a roof of an office building (played by S. Stallone)!. Never happened; Nitti would take over the gang and run it forsome time. FIVE STARS for this prize; the picture quality of the DVDs is outstanding; better than when it was broadcast on network TV. One word for those interested; BONES is back, unfortunately with the cheap replacement for Sweets, a even more repulsive creepy fellow!Fox producers want a Sweets-like character on the show, but I don't know why! Only the Shadow knows!! I watch the show to see Bones andBooth work together along with Hodgins and Angela, not that other looney!! I got my UNTOUCHABLE SERIES (all four seasons) from Amazon.Enjoy!

Great Product

It's great, quality recordings, th old TV series I grew up watching, so far I'm only halfway through it, it's th whole series, hours and hours of entertainment, and th best price too.

The first 3 seasons are rivetting in a strange sort of way. The narration by Walter Winchell adds that moralistic touch - some of the closing comments are just so brilliant in a late 50s/early 60s way. These seasons are close to the original story line. It is not particularly melodramatic. It shows how Ness began the process of laboratory use for solving crimes and other things that we don't think of with respect to the Untouchables. It is extremely violent; we see the failures without any sugar-coating; the mistakes in judgement that Ness and his colleagues made.I could quibble about some of it, but on the whole you actually do get an idea of the hell that prohibition wrought. One episode has Ness telling a bunch of prostitutes that they should band together against their pimp and demand better treatment - a bit of a surprise (particularly since it was filmed in the moralistic 50s). It doesn't sugar-coat the reasons why people supported the breaking of prohibition - nor the poverty of that period. There were other little gems that make this a worthwhile watch. At times, it does seem rather formulaic - a problem that afflicts the 4th season because they had to make up stories from scratch.But the first 3 seasons are a window into 2 different pasts - the ultra-violent Chicago of the 20s and early 30s and the beginning of the adulation of the FBI in the 50s - but to give them credit, there is no whitewashing/revision of the past - just a bit of 50s moralizing.It was a god-awful time in American history, and you get that impression from this series, There was no upside to any of it.

Only thing I don't like is the box with all the discs stacked upon each other. Up to episode 15 no issues so far. Its funny that they never mention "Mafia" for 13 episodes then suddenly in episode 14, Eliot Ness cannot stop saying "mafia'. Of course they play fast and loose with the facts. First off they put The Untouchables in cases they had noting to do with. Then they'll alter other facts. like having Ma Barker's son killed by a single shot by the police when actually he committed suicide to avoid returning to prison after being wounded by the police. And not mentioning he killed a cop first. Making it appear Ducth Schultz was killed because Luciano wanted his territory (true but no why he was killed) when actually he was planing to kill the prosecutor trying to send him to prison and the Commission had him whacked because it would bring too much heat. Not with standing, I still love this classic TV series. I find the claims it demeaned Italians laughable, the gangsters were often not Italian at all. Capone's treasurer was Polish. Bugs Morran was French-Canadian. Dutcj Schultz was a German-Jew. Several were irish. No one believes all Italians were Mafia, or that all Germans were NAZIs. Its always a corrupt minority.

AWESOME

Es toda la serie y temporadas completas

Excellent series not seen it since the 1960s

Fabulous show. Great memories of watching it all those years ago.

５０年前にＴＶ放映されていたのを記憶している方々にとっては「至福のひととき」をお約束する映像です。ただしリージョン１です。また「聴覚障害者用」の英語字幕があるだけで、日本語吹き替えも日本語字幕もありません。それさえ覚悟すれば、「日本製｣に比べてぐんと格安です。と言うより、これがリーズナブルな価格なのです。日本製が高すぎる。もっとも、「輸入物」は価格変動が大きいので、タイミングよく底値を掴んでください。内容的には全く問題なし。英語も比較的平易なのと、ナレーションが多いので、１／３程度理解できれば、充分楽しめます。