“You be careful now, Mr. Ness. A bullet’s got no sense. Can’t tell a hood from a cop. Even an Untouchable ain’t puncture-proof, honey.” – Moll wannabe Rusty Heller (Elizabeth Montgomery) to Eliot Ness
The Untouchables: Season 2, Volume 1 DVD Review
By Jude Clement
Eliot Ness (Robert Stack) and his group of investigators who are so morally upright that they are impervious to bribes and graft—the Untouchables—return to rid 1930s America of criminals and gangsters in The Untouchables: Season 2, Volume 1. Yes, it’s time for another half-season of booze, broads, and blazing guns.
This season raises the bar on (not-quite-explicit) violence. Take the season’s first episode, “The Rusty Heller Story.” Elizabeth Montgomery (Bewitched) guests as the title character, an amoral Southern belle who is always on the lookout for a way to raise her lot in life...even if it means using her body (we first see her wearing a skimpy cat costume in a nightclub) to get what she wants. Montgomery’s Rusty is casually calculating. She schemes up many crosses and double crosses on her way to the top, even playing both sides of the law. One rung on her ladder is mob lawyer Archie Grayson, played by Montgomery’s future Bewitched cast mate David White. Yes, TV fans, you’ll get to see Samantha Stevens kissing Larry Tate. Three’s Company’s Norman Fell even turns up as one of Rusty’s marks. In this episode alone, there are severed tongues, exploding cars, and enough artillery fire to fight a small war.
There are several standout episodes. What’s the best way to run a kidnapping and ransom scheme without worrying that the families will go to the police? According to“The Purple Gang,” target criminals, of course! What could be worse than the Mob? The Nazi’s using the Mob to further their cause in the United States (“The Otto Frick Story”)
The most ambitious episode, however, is the two-part “The Big Train.” When Ness sees that the general public views Capone as a folk hero because he donated a pittance of his ill-gotten gains to the poor, he convinces the Federal government to build a penitentiary where no criminal can be a “king.” The result: San Francisco’s Alcatraz Island is converted to house the country’s most notorious prisoners. When Al Capone (Neville Brand) learns that he is to be transferred from his Atlanta prison to Alcatraz by train, he and his cronies set up an elaborate plan to get him off the train before it arrives in San Francisco. These episodes are wholly unbelievable, but still entertaining.
As with season one, The Untouchables is stylishly produced television noir. The Desilu backlot is used to great effect, giving the series a strong sense of place. The scripts aren’t as solid this time around—the episodes hopscotch through time. One week, it’s 1931, the next week, it’s 1934, and so on. Still, this is merely a quibble—the show as a whole still packs a wallop.
Other familiar faces in this volume include Steven Hill (Mission: Impossible), Conrad Janis (Mork & Mindy), Len Lesser (Seinfeld), Jack Warden (Crazy Like a Fox), Richard Jaeckel (Baywatch), Vic Morrow (Combat), Gavin MacLeod (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), William Schallert (The Patty Duke Show), Rip Torn (The Larry Sanders Show), James Coburn, and Brian Keith (Family Affair).
The sixteen episodes that make up The Untouchables: Season 2, Volume 1 are divided onto four discs. As with previous volumes, all four discs are housed in what, from the outside, appears to be a standard DVD keepcase. An interior swinging arm holds two discs while the remaining two discs are affixed to the interior front and rear covers. Each DVD is individually accessible, meaning that you won't have to fumble around and remove one disc to get to another. The two discs affixed to the front and rear covers must be removed in order to read information about episode titles, original airdates, and brief plot synopses.
The static menus are bland but functional. Viewers can choose to play all episodes on each disc consecutively or individually. There are no scene selection menus, but chapter stops are included.
