Customer Reviews

The Untouchables - Season Two, Vol. 1

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Once they hooked the customer and reviewers by the quality of the 1st season set of The Untouchables, they then release pure butchered trash on the Season 2 Vol 1 set. Is this a practice we can expect more and more from CBS-Paramount DVD's?

The trademark of the show was the way each act would end with the background music crescendoing and segue into the signature tune of the closing bumper. Unlike the Season 1 DVD set you will not find that here. They hacked off the first three act's closing bumpers. By lopping off the bumpers they had to fade out the scenes and background music before they actually ended, making for a sloppy edit that makes the end of each act seem very awkward and loosing the original emotional effect that was originally conceived. This was a complete hack job.

Who knows, these could be the butchered up versions made for the VHS market about twenty years ago, not the direct transfers to DVD from original 35mm film that were on the 1st season set.

And don't let anyone tell you there were no bumpers in Season 2. All four seasons of the Untouchables had them (opening and closing for each act).

The 1st season DVD set was as excellent as anyone could wish for. I cannot comprehend how they could release Season 2 Vol 1 in such a debased way. Too bad I can't return it to Amazon because of defective content. It is apparent that CBS-Paramount do not respect their customers.

There will be no Untouchables Season 2 Vol 2 on my wish list and I would suggest to all true fans of The Untouchables to avoid Season 2 Vol 1.

The 118 hour-long episodes (appropriately in B&W) of the crime drama "The Untouchables" were originally broadcast on ABC from 1959-1963. The first 16 episodes of Season Two are listed below with their original air dates.

The series was promoted as a docudrama-type presentation based on the real-life cases of government agent Eliot Ness (Robert Stack) during the 1930's. Despite this claim the promoters took considerable liberties with the actual history of Ness's squad of "Untouchables" (incorruptible) as well considerable dramatic license as every G-man vs the mob cliché and caricature was incorporated into stories.

The style is less like a docudrama than the screaming headlines of a scandal focused Hearst newspaper from the era; complete with a Walter Winchell's newsreel-like narration. But this added zip to the series and made it a big hit. The many stereotypes simply made the story telling more efficient and did not interfere with the viewer getting into the story.

The episodes are of two basic types; macro (big-name crime bosses) and micro (innocents and low-level hoods caught up in forces over which they have little control). Although the macro type episodes are the ones most subject to historical liberties, both types work reasonably well and the ability of the series to shift between them gave the writers a lot more potential material to work with and in part accounted for the series not running out of gas after just a season or two.

Stack and the actors playing his main agents generally remain intact from the first season. These include Nick Georgiade as Rossi, Paul Picerni as Hobson, Steve London as Rossman, Abel Fernandez as Youngfellow, and Jerry Paris as Flaherty. Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon) was the most prominent of the villains.

Apparently the series was an annoyance to then FBI. head J. Edgar Hoover, who frequently had to explain that Ness and his men were agents of the Treasury Department, not the FBI.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

The Rusty Heller Story: 13 October 1960, Jack 'Legs' Diamond: 20 October 1960, Nicky: 30 November 1960, The Waxey Gordon Story: 10 November 1960, The Mark of Cain: 17 November 1960, A Seat on the Fence: 24 November 1960, The Purple Gang: 1 December 1960, Kiss of Death Girl: 8 December 1960, The Larry Fay Story: 15 December 1960, The Otto Frick Story: 22 December 1960, The Tommy Karpeles Story: 29 December 1960, The Big Train: Part 1: 5 January1961, The Big Train: Part 2: 12 January 1961, The Masterpiece: 19 January 1961, The Organization: 26 January 1961, The Jamaica Ginger Story: 2 February 1961

Yes, the Untouchables Season II continues the same hard-hitting,
brilliantly filmed drama which equals the quality of the First Season; in fact, the "Purple Gang" episode, with it's dark, brooding atmosphere and the unhinged brutality of Steve Cochran's character, is about as intense as you'd be likely to see in the still-early days of TV.

I, too am disappointed in the editorial tampering with these episodes, including the lack of "bumpers" at the end of each act. WORSE though,for me, is the general visual quality of the shows, which is a DEFINITE step DOWN from the that of the first season---lots of graininess, etc. Apparently this set was taken from a set of tapes edited for TV syndication.

So what's up, CBS-Paramount? Why charge the same HIGH price per episode while delivering shoddier quality?

Another oddity of Season 2; for some reason (probably as a cost-saving
measure), there is a heavy use of what sounds like MUSIC-LIBRARY tracking
in the background scores of these episodes. There's lots of music that sounds like that goofy "symphonic-moderne" stuff from the 1950's, as if the music editor on the show was raiding the same library that Ed Wood did for "Plan 9". It's really disconcerting, having become used to the gritty, jazzed-up "noir" sound of the first season.

Still, it's darn good viewing, from TV's greatest era.

Retro television shows have never done particularly well unless they were set in the Old West. Shows set in the 20's, 30's, 40's, etc, any era outside of the one in which they aired have never lasted long except in three major exceptions - Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and The Untouchables.

The Untouchables succeeded for a number of reasons. First, the veil that had been on the Mafia for a number of years was slowly but surely being peeled off due to gangland killings and the fame of gangsters such as Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel, Dutch Schultz, Lucky Luciano, and others. Even before the Godfather and its outstanding first sequel, the public had a fascination and curiosity with the mob. So take some true events, ture characters, heavily fictionalize them with Hollywood gloss and pathos, and you get a very successful show that made a star out of Robert Stack and brought new fame to a Treasury agent named Eliot Ness.

The Untouchables' First Season collection should not have been split up into multiple sections. That's greed, pure and simple. But the lure of this show - its great characters, performances, grit and intelligence will draw buyers even though they know they're being ripped off. Stack's Ness is one of the best alltime detectives - fearless, relentless, and absolutely ruthless with the bad guys. The supporting casts were always excellent, and Bruce Gordon brough the right amount of humor and menace to Frank Nitti, Capone's chief lieutenant.

The Untouchables - Season Two, Volume 1 is not untouchable, but it is irresistable.

Honestly, anyone who enjoys The Untouchables and who liked the DVD releases from the first year of the show, that passes up this superb collection of the series' best episodes simply because they changed the commercial break bumpers is foolish. Actually, the way they were handled in the first two sets was aggravating. How many times do I need to look at that foolish book anyway!?

Now on to fun stuff from Season Two:

1) Paul Picerni joins the crew as Lee Hobson, making Ness's line, "Rico, Lee" as famous as "Book 'em, Danno." However, Picerni was nowhere near as magnetic or interesting an actor as Anthony George, who was featured as Cam Allison during the first season. Evidently, George caught somebody's eye as he became one of the stars of Checkmate! the next year. If Picerni joined the cast as a reaction to Italian complaints, why give him such a whitebread name?

2) Steve London, as Rossman, must have examined the script each week and said, "Damn! No lines again!"

3) Character actors ruled!! The more European the better. And it becomes clear by this set that The Untouchables used a reperatory group of actors. Nehemiah Persoff had already starred as Jake Gusik, Johnny Fortunato and Waxey Gordon and Jack Warden was also featured three times, once as Ness's best friend. Makes me wonder why someone doesn't say, "Hmmm....you look awfully familiar!" Joseph Wiseman, Luther Adler, Will Kuluva and Val Avery are all over the place, too.

4) Time is not linear in The Untouchables. Frank Nitti is alive, then dies, then is featured again. Lee Hobson was not around when Capone was convicted, then "oops' there he is in a flashback when Capone was sent to jail in "The Big Train Part One" episode. It's 1931, no...it's 1933, wait, it's 1932..hmmm'34? This week Prohibition, next week no Prohibition..wait this episode Prohibition again.

5) It is a real kick to see Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) and Larry Tate (David White) make out in "The Rusty Heller Story"

6) Look for 30 seconds of a 20 year old Ryan O' Neal at the end of "The Legs Diamond Story"

7) The sets are pretty cheap. The Dew Drop Inn shows up whether they're in Chicago, New York or St Louis. Same thing with the Turkish Bath.

8) Lots of smoking! Wow, do these guys smoke. Same thing with drinking! And method acting galore!

I love these DVD sets, mostly because when The Untouchables came on when I was a kid, I had to go to bed and I always felt like I was missing something really good. Turns out, I was! These shows are incredible fun. Highly recommended!

"The Untouchables" is quite simply a television classic. At the time the series was introduced, it represented significant innovation for television drama. Nearly fifty years after the series premiered, "The Untouchables" is still thoroughly entertaining due largely to a powerful premise, great actors, and good writing. The fact that the show is filmed in black and white makes the stories all the more compelling.

In Season Two an example of one of the many powerful dramas is the story called "Augie 'the Banker' Ciamino". Focusing on a new immigrant family named Raineri, an aging father living with his son who has a wife and young daughter. The father owns a small bakery, while his son is a bookkeeper. Ciamino is a Syndicate leader who heads illegal whisky distillation, forcing small immgrant familes to make bootleg whisky in their homes and carry it to his facility in root beer bottles. The father sees the horror going on around him as any of his neighbors who tries to resist Ciamino is brutally beaten or murdered. He suspects his own son is mixed up in it somehow as his son brings home records and books that he locks up in a cabinet at night. He begs his son to quit whatever he's involved in, and they have quite a heated argument over it with his son insisting he's only a bookkeeper. Eventually the father discovers it's true. His son works for Ciamino keeping records of his criminal enterprise. He calls his son while his son is in the presence of Ciamino and his thug hitman and tells him over the phone that he is taking those record books to Elliot Ness. Well, the bad guys overhear what was said and force him to tell his father to wait , that he'll be right over to go with him to Ness, but in reality the crooks are going with him to kill his father, and he knows it. In a heartbreaking scene he saves his father at the cost of his own life, but then it's a desperate run as his father tries to weave his way through the back alleys of chicago looking for someone who can help him get to the police while clutching ledgers and records that could indict Ciamino and put him away for good, Ciamino's hired killers chasing him every step of the way. As in many of the episodes, the story is less about Elliot Ness fighting criminals and more about the struggle and drama of the individuals and families fighting to preserve themselves against brutal criminals.

Season two of The Untouchables is powerful stuff. It's every bit as intense and dramatic as season one, maybe even more so. Love the season opener with Elizabeth Montgomery ( Samantha Stephens from Bewitched ) as a beautiful nightclub showgirl plotting one mobster against another for her own profit. Even tough guy Elliot Ness seems to melt just a little under her stunning gaze. There's a scene with both of them standing together in the fog at the docks, and with a smile and a look in her eyes that would melt the arctic glaciers she invites him for a weekend alone with her in the mountains. There's a long pause before he answers, and we might be forgiven for thinking that the clean-cut married man, super good-guy Ness, actually pondered it in his head for a moment before saying "Sorry, I can't". Some of the hottest women ever to grace the television screen of any era show up in this series. I have to recommend that you buy this set of disks. Also, I notice some other people have stated that they don't like the editing of the fade-outs where commercials would normally have appeared. Frankly I have no idea what they are talking about. I can't find anything thing wrong with this set. The editing looks fine to me and the stories are presented in full. Everything looks great. The disks are in great condition and the video and audio are sharp and clear. Totally enjoyable.

- Mike S.

Season 2, volume 1 of the original "Untouchables" is now out. Historically, this series is about as accurate as "The Flintstones," but it's riveting crime melodrama nonetheless. (The original series is about 500 times better than the mediocre big-screen Brian De Palma 1980s film with the colorless Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness. The second 1990s TV series was also better than the movie, but this original series is the best.) It was, hands down, the most violent television series up to that time, and remains pretty strong even by modern standards. The first episode of season two features a young, pre-"Bewitched" Elizabeth Montgomery in an unforgettable performance as a moll named "Rusty Heller," who gets the hots for Robert Stack.

Great writing. Great acting. Great music. Great photography. Other than that, not much!! A few decades ahead of its time.
TONY HOROWITZ

WE remember watching these when they first came on TV. They are as enjoyable as they were then. We really like Robert Stack..........classy actor, as well as the other untouchables. Worth every penny to purchase. Wish TV was as good today, but sadly it is mostly trash.