THE UNTOUCHABLES Season One

Robert Stack as Eliot Ness

THE UNTOUCHABLES Season One. 1959 ABC television series. 

I think I may have watched one episode or so of The Untouchables when I was a kid. It was adult material, not for children, and held little interest for me. Even today I find many of the episodes -- one in particular -- disturbing and depressing, although I think it is a good and classic show. Inspired by the memoirs of the late Eliot Ness, who went after prohibition-era gangsters like Al Capone but who ironically wound up a forgotten  alcoholic years later (until the posthumous memoir made him famous again), The Untouchables bounces around in time from the late 20's to the 30's when prohibition ended and bad guys moved in on everything from narcotics to milk!

Stack with Fernandez and Paris; J. Carroll Naish in foreground 

The amazing thing about The Untouchables is how hard-hitting it still is after sixty years, how brutal, with horrible things happening to the innocent as well as the guilty. No, it isn't gore-graphic as the stuff you now see on cable, but it is tough and uncompromising, much like the lead character, Eliot Ness, very well-played by Robert Stack. There is a squad of "untouchables" -- including Jerry Paris, Abel Fernandez, Nicolas Georgiade -- but they are petty much shunted aside in favor or Stack, given less screen time than the gangsters and assorted victims. Anthony George of Checkmate was nearly forty when he joined the series in the first season but was constantly referred to as "the kid" -- he was later killed off. 

White Slavers: Jeremy Brett, Kellin, Paul Langton

The Untouchables received criticism for its depiction of Italian-Americans and for its violence, although many argued that it would be wrong not to show exactly how vicious these gangsters could be. In "The White Slavers" several pretty young Mexican girls who think they are being transported to the U.S. for careers as models (but who are really destined for drug addiction and forced prostitution) are machine -gunned to death -- even up to the last minute you can't believe they won't be saved by Ness or his associates. The scene doesn't occur off-camera, and although you don't see bullets hitting the bodies etc., it is still pretty raw. Later a group of prostitutes begin to tear apart the man (Mike Kellin) who ordered the murders  and the miserable bastard shoots himself in the head. 

Martin Landau guest-stars with Paris and Stack

Other especially memorable first season episodes include: "Ma Barker and Her Boys," with Claire Trevor as the notorious supposed gang leader; "The Jake Lingle Killing" with a shady character (Jack Lord) wanting reward money but Ness isn't certain of his credibility; "Ain't We Got Fun" with Cameron Mitchell as a stand up comic that "Big Jim" (Ted De Corsia) takes a liking to; "The Underground Railway," starring Cliff Robertson in one of his best performances as a disfigured prison escapee who gets a girlfriend (Virginia Vincent) and plastic surgery; the two-part "Unhired Assassin" featuring plots on both the Chicago mayor and President-elect Roosevelt; and "The Frank Nitti Story," in which both Nitti (Bruce Gordon) and Untouchable Cam Allison (the aforementioned Anthony George) go to their final rewards. (Gordon would reappear as Nitti in flashback episodes.) Jerry Paris [Man on the Prowl] also left the series to go on to Michael Shayne where he had more to do. Nelson Riddle's intense theme music grows on you, and Walter Winchell's narration adds immediacy. The Untouchables began life as a two-part episode of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse which was released to theaters as The Scarface Mob. 

Verdict: Pretty raw at times and quite well-acted by various guest-stars. ***1/4. 

THE INVADERS Book

THE INVADERS. James Rosin. Autumn Road; 2012.

This book takes a look back at the TV series The Invaders that ran for two seasons on ABC in the sixties. I was hoping for a detailed, in-depth look at the show and all of its episodes a la the book on the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea TV series, but while comparisons may be odious, one can't help but feel cheated by this slender and insufficient volume. There are a lot of pictures, as well as brief quotes from star Roy Thinnes and other people involved in the production of the show, but also a lot of padding, with biographies of not only everyone connected to the show but every actor who ever appeared as a guest-star! If the book serves any purpose at all, it may be to whet your appetite for viewing or re-viewing this very interesting series, but although all he offers in his notes of individual episodes are synopses, the author still manages to give away important plot points throughout the book. 

Verdict: Watch the series and forget about this. **. 

THE MASKS: TWILIGHT ZONE

Robert Keith

THE TWILIGHT ZONE Season Five, Episode twenty-five. The Masks (1964). Written by Rod Serling. Directed by Ida Lupino. 

Although "The Masks," written by Rod Serling, is hardly one of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone, it does have several points of interest. The plot has to do with a wealthy and grumpy man named Jason Foster (Robert Keith) who is on his death bed. His greedy, unloving relatives -- daughter Emily (Virginia Gregg), her husband Wilfred (Milton Selzer) and their adult children Paula (Brooke Hayward) and Wilfred Jr. (Alan Sues) -- arrive in Jason's New Orleans mansion during Mardi Gras, and he insists that all four of them put on and wear these grotesque masks until midnight -- or they will be cut out of the will. 

Brooke Hayward as the vain Paula

Okay, let's assume that this will and Jason's edict is enforceable, which is extremely unlikely, or that a dying man would even have time to change his will in the first place, I have always had other problems with this episode. Even an eight-year-old will realize that when the relatives take off their masks at midnight, their faces will be as hideous as the masks. But do these people, as greedy and frivolous as they may be, really deserve permanent disfigurement? They aren't child murderers, for heaven's sake. And one has to wonder exactly what kind of father Jason was in the first place, as he seems distinctly unpleasant from the beginning (admittedly, people on their death beds will probably not be happy campers, but still ... ) One can't imagine any kind of loving father wanting to impose such a cruel fate on his own daughter and grandchildren; disinheriting them would have been more than enough. Serling's teleplay lacks any kind of final twist that would give the nasty old fart his due. 

The masks come off at midnight

Still, whatever its obvious flaws, The Masks features excellent ensemble acting from the entire cast. Keith was a fine actor who never quite became famous but graced many productions with his talent, as did Virginia Gregg and Milton Selzer. Although I was never a particular fan of Alan Sues of Laugh-In, in this he is nearly unrecognizable and gives a very good account of himself. Brooke Hayward was the daughter of the great Margaret Sullavan and proves that she inherited a lot of her mother's ability. There are people who think this is one of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone, but with its stereotypes and lopsided morality I would have to rank it as a well-acted failure. As she does with this episode, Ida Lupino generally proved a better director of TV episodes than she did of feature films. 

Verdict: Stay away from awful old men with money. **1/4.