Die Unbestechlichen (Fernsehserie)

The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a special team of agents handpicked for their courage and incorruptibility, nicknamed the Untouchables. It was remade into a 1987 film by Brian De Palma also called The Untouchables, with a script by David Mamet.

Series overview

The stories often revolved around Ness' enmity with the criminal empire of Chicago mob boss Al Capone, and many focused on crimes related to Prohibition. The show stars Robert Stack as Eliot Ness and was narrated by Walter Winchell. Neville Brand played Al Capone in The Desilu Playhouse episodes, and in a few episodes of the regular series. The show drew harsh criticism from some Italian-Americans including Frank Sinatra, who felt it promoted negative stereotypes of them as mobsters and gangsters. The Capone family sued the show for $1,000,000 for its unauthorized use of Al Capone's likeness for a profit.

The series had 118 episodes which ran 50 minutes each. Though the book it was based on chronicled the experiences of Ness and his cohorts over a span of time ranging from 1929 to 1935, the overwhelming majority of episodes were set in the early 1930s (for example, one episode, "You Can't Play This Number", begins with Winchell's words, "October 1932 ... the depths of the Depression"). A few episodes were set primarily in a locale other than Chicago (such as the one dealing with the shootout involving Ma Barker and her gang). The theme music was by Nelson Riddle.

Quinn Martin produced the show's first season, which contained elements that could be found in future TV series produced by Martin.

The other Untouchables were played by:

• Abel Fernandez as Agt. William Youngfellow
• Nick Georgiade as Agt. Enrico "Rico" Rossi
• Paul Picerni as Agt. Lee Hobson, (2nd season on)
• Steve London as Agt. Jack Rossman*
• Jerry Paris as Agt. Martin Flaherty, (1st season only)
• Chuck Hicks as Agt. LaMarr Kane (1st season only)
• Anthony George as Agt. Cam Allison, (1st season only)

Other recurrent actors were:

• Bruce Gordon as Frank Nitti and
• Frank Dekova as Jimmy Napoli
• Neville Brand as Al Capone
• Announcer: Les Lampson - Very distinctive dramatic voice.
• Narrator: Walter Winchell

* Contrary to popular belief, Steve London's character of Untouchable Jack Rossman (played in the "Scarface Mob" pilot by Paul Dubov), was in the series since the original season 1 series episode, "The Empty Chair", not from Season 2 on as is commonly reported.

Guest stars

A significant number of guest-stars from "The Untouchables" were and became major motion picture and television stars:

• Edward Asner as Fedor Bartok in episode 3.16 "The Death Tree"
• Martin Balsam in episodes 3.3 "Tunnel of Horrors" and 3.21 "Man in the Middle"
• John Banner as Franz Koenig in episode 3.17 "Takeover"
• William Bendix as Wally Legenza in episode 1.9 "The Tri-State Gang"
• Charles Bronson in episode 3.16 "The Death Tree"
• Victor Buono as Melanthos Moon in episode 2.25 "Mr. Moon" and as Pamise Surigao in episode 3.13 "The Gang War"
• James Caan as Keir Brannon in episode 4.10 "A Fist of Five"
• Dyan Cannon as Mavis Carroll in episode 3.14 "Silent Partner"
• Mike Connors in episode 4.7 "The Eddie O'Gara Story"
• Russ Conway in episodes 2.12 and 2.13 "The Big Train", 2.25 "Mr. Moon"
• Francis De Sales in episodes 1.23 "Three Thousand Suspects" and 2.9 "The Larry Fay Story"
• Robert Duvall in episode 4.17 "Blues for a Gone Goose"
• Peter Falk in episode 1.26 "The Underworld Bank" and as Nate Selko in episode 3.1 "The Troubleshooter"
• Herbie Faye in episode 3.12 as Lefty in "Fall Guy"
• Anne Francis as Doreen Maney in episode 1.24 "The Doreen Maney Story"
• Richard Jaeckel as Hans Eberhardt in episode 2.10 "The Otto Frick Story"
• I. Stanford Jolley as Pete Laffey in episode 4.21 "The Man in the Cooler"
• Robert Karnes (also a co-star of The Lawless Years) in episodes 2.9 "The Larry Fay Story" and 4.15 "Snowball"
• Jack Klugman as Morton Halas in episode 3.6 "Loophole"
• Martin Landau as Larry Coombs in episode 3.6 "Loophole" and as Jerry Fanning in episode 1.7 "Mexican Stake-Out"
• Cloris Leachman as Mrs. Mailer in episode 3.7 "Jigsaw"
• Robert Loggia as Leo Mencken in episode 3.17 "Takeover"
• Jack Lord in episode 1.3 "The Jake Lingle Killing"
• Lee Marvin as Nick Acropolis in episode 2.31 "The Nick Acropolis Story"
• Gavin MacLeod as Whitey Metz in episode 3.6 "Loophole"
• Ricardo Montalban as Frank Makouris in episode 2.27 "Stranglehold"
• Elizabeth Montgomery as Rusty Heller (for which she received an Emmy Award nomination) (1960)
• Leslie Nielsen as Tom Sebring in episode 1.23 "Three Thousand Suspects"
• Leonard Nimoy as Packy in episode 3.17 "Takeover"
• Lloyd Nolan as 'Bugs' Moran in episode 1.4 "The George 'Bugs' Moran Story"
• Carroll O'Connor as Barney Lubin in episode 3.2 "Power Play"
• Gregg Palmer as Paul Di Marco in episode 2.12 "The Big Train: Part 1"
• Robert Redford in episode 4.15 "Snowball"
• Cliff Robertson as Frank Halloway in episode 1.12 "The Underground Railway"
• Telly Savalas in episodes 2.20 "The Antidote", 3.5 "The Matt Bass Scheme" and 4.14 "The Speculator"
• Henry Silva as Joker in episode 3.15 "The Whitey Steele Story"
• Barbara Stanwyck in episodes 4.8 "Elegy" and 4.13 "Search for a Dead Man"
• Jan Sterling as Francie McKay in episode 2.8 "Kiss of Death Girl"
• Frank Sutton as Benny Stryker in episode 3.18 "The Stryker Brothers"
• Roy Thinnes as Denny Brannon in episode 4.10 "A Fist of Five" and as Red Thomas in episode 4.19 “An Eye for an Eye”
• Rip Torn as Harry Strauss in episode 2.14 "The Masterpiece"
• Claire Trevor in episode 1.2 "Ma Baker and Her Boys"
• Lee Van Cleef in episode 1.20 "The Unhired Assassin"
• Jack Warden as Otto Frick, in episode 2.10 "The Otto Frick Story" and as Larry Halloran in episode 1.3 "The George 'Bugs' Moran Story

Broadcast history

The series aired on Thursdays during its first three seasons and was switched to Tuesday evenings for its final season. It aired at 9:30 Eastern each season except for the third season, when it was placed at the 10 p.m. slot after the failed sitcom Margie, starring Cynthia Pepper.

DVD releases

Region 1 / Region 4

CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released the first three seasons of The Untouchables on DVD in Region 1. The first two seasons have been released in Region 4.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release dates
		Region 1	Region 4
Season 1- Volume 1	14 + pilot	April 10, 2007	September 30, 2009
Season 1- Volume 2	14	September 25, 2007	September 30, 2009
Season 2- Volume 1	16	March 18, 2008	September 30, 2009
Season 2- Volume 2	16	August 26, 2008	September 30, 2009
Season 3- Volume 1	16	August 25, 2009	N/A
Season 3- Volume 2	12	November 10, 2009	N/A

Region 2

Paramount Home Entertainment has released the first three seasons of The Untouchables on DVD in the UK. These releases are full season sets as opposed to Region 1 and 4 where each season has been split into two volumes.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
Season 1	28	August 18, 2008
Season 2	32	September 14, 2009
Season 3	28	September 20, 2010
Season 4	30	TBA

Further reading

• Tucker, Kenneth. Eliot Ness and the Untouchables: The Historical Reality and the Film and Television Depictions. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2000. ISBN 0-7864-0772-7

External links

• Vorlage:Imdb title
• Vorlage:Tv.com show
• Encyclopedia of Television