Product Details

• Actors: Robert Gist, Louis Quinn
• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Janson Video
• VHS Release Date: September 30, 2003
• Run Time: 52 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305396817
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #563,411 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Booklist

"...gives a believable overview of the life and times of Chicago's most infamous citizen...good production qualities...a prime choice."

Product Description

Al Capone: The Untouchable Legend is a new one-hour biography of the most notorious gangster in history. On January 17th, 1999, Al Capone would have celebrated his 100th birthday. His exploits in the early part of the century have inspired authors, journalists and filmmakers. Myths have always been woven around the figure of Al Capone. Born in Brooklyn, he began his career in crime as protege to New York underworld boss Frankie Yale in the early 1920's, and then moved to Chicago where he made himself a multi-millionaire from the protection business, gambling, brothels, and speakeasies. He is most infamous for planning the massacre of seven members of a rival gang on Valentine's Day in 1929. This was also the year the Justice Department named Eliot Ness to form a special crime-busting squad which came to be known as "The Untouchables." In 1931 Alphonse Capone was convicted on income tax evasion and began an eleven year sentence in the Federal Prison on Alcatraz Island. Capone died in 1947 and is buried in Chicago's Mount Carmel Cemetery.But who really was this man? How did this child of Neapolitan immigrants become the most legendary gangster of the "Roaring Twenties." Using historical film footage, movie scenes, and dramatic recreations filmed on location in Chicago, Brooklyn, Ellis Island, Florida's Palm Island, and Alcatraz, Al Capone: The Untouchable Legend not only depicts the rise and fall of "Scarface," but also looks behind the myths at the private family man. Interviews with Capone's nephew Harry Hart, and with Capone experts John Binder, Dennis Hoffman and William Balsamo all help to illuminate the social and economic milieu of the '20s and '30s that led to the rise of the "Mafia."

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars average, July 15, 2000

By 

Mario G Gomes (Montreal, Quebec CANADA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Al Capone: The Untouchable Legend [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This video had the great makings of an Al Capone documentary,but alas seems to have fallen short of the mark.Many things were omitted such as Al's top killers Anselmi and Scalise along with Jack Mcgurn.Excellent top Capone historians used on this program such as Mr. Binder,Mr.Matt Luzi and Mr.William Balsamo probably had no say whatsoever in the accuracy of the timelines cause some of them were way out there! They mention Al Capone being in Alcatraz when prohibition is repealed?Duh? Al entered Alcatraz in 1934 and prohibition was repealed in 1933.They also mention Torrio being hit and retiring after Hymie Weiss is killed.Wrong! Hymie was on the hit against Torrio in 1925.Hymie was killed in 1926.This video might fly by the average Joe Lunchpail and Sally Housecoat who have no inkling about Capone,but it just doesn't cut it knowledge wise.A good Capone documentary to see is called Al Capone Chicago's Scarface(Narrated by Geraldo).Another good one is by A&E called Al Capone "Scarface".Again,this is my personal opinion and your entitled to make your own mistakes.I speak from living and breathing Al Capone as my hobby for the past thirteen years.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great film!, November 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Al Capone: The Untouchable Legend [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I've reviewed that documentary about AL CAPONE and I found that this was a very interesting one giving a great overview of Al Capones story with interesting interviews as well! Great to see!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not So Great, July 18, 2006

By 

Rick "Mad Dog" Mattix (Iowa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Al Capone The Untouchable Legend (DVD)

I gave this product an extra star for the occasional interview segments involving Capone historians Dennis Hoffman, John Binder, and William Balsamo, and for the especially interesting segments with Harry Hart, Al Capone's nephew and son of Al's lawman brother Vincenzo, a.k.a. James "Two-Gun" Hart, and with George E.Q. Johnson's son. For the most part, however, the show is boring and silly, consisting largely of dull re-enactments, almost-as-dull crowd scenes on the Untouchables Tours bus, repetitive clips from a couple of Capone movies, plus occasional plugs for the now long-defunct Merry Gangsters Literary Society (headed by Mr. Binder when this program was filmed back in the late 1990s). The history is shallow and the narrator's errors include having Johnny Torrio shot after the Hawthorne Hotel attack. Better research, more historical photos and films, and trimming some of the excess nonsense might have produced a real Capone documentary.