This revived version of The Untouchables drew from both the original Robert Stack television series and the Brian DePalma film that won for Sean Connery that Best Supporting Actor Award. As such it had the strengths and weaknesses of both.
The Untouchables themselves under Eliot Ness were as described a group of incorruptible federal prohibition agents at a time when that group generally could be bought and sold. They were the group who hurt Al Capone and Bugs Moran the rival gang heads in Chicago in the pocketbook with their raids on their illegal distilleries. They did not however bring Capone down, that was the job of some hard working accountants in the US Attorney's office in Chicago who got him for income tax evasion.
This series did not take its characters from the original Robert Stack series that was based on Ness's memoirs ghosted by Oscar Fraley. The characters are from the film that starred Kevin Costner with Tom Amandes as Ness, John Rhys-Davies in Sean Connery's role as Malone and William Forsythe as one mean and nasty Al Capone.
Amandes captured a lot of the self righteousness of Eliot Ness who back in the day fancied himself as some kind of Eagle Scout. In work I've seen him in subsequently, Amandes has been more villainous which may have been his true niche as an actor.
Forsythe was the best thing that series. In his career he's played a succession of great villains, his style of psychotic villain is similar to Lyle Bettger's. Capone by all accounts was a generally easy going man, but had a hair trigger temper which was demonstrated on more than one occasion here.
The Untouchables just like the previous series ran out of real plots and then had the guys going all over the country taking care of all the known criminals of the time. The silliest episode I recall had Amandes and his crew going to New York and tangling not only with Lucky Luciano but with Thomas E. Dewey. Charles Martin Smith played Dewey and on those grounds alone, Tom Dewey's heirs should sue. In fact Dewey had a lot more to do with bringing down New York's criminals than Ness did in Chicago. In fact both men aspired to a political career, but Dewey certainly got a lot farther than Ness who ran for Mayor of Cleveland and lost in a landslide.
Still Eliot Ness and his crew will probably get another look in the next generation, they do fascinate us so.
The Untouchables themselves under Eliot Ness were as described a group of incorruptible federal prohibition agents at a time when that group generally could be bought and sold. They were the group who hurt Al Capone and Bugs Moran the rival gang heads in Chicago in the pocketbook with their raids on their illegal distilleries. They did not however bring Capone down, that was the job of some hard working accountants in the US Attorney's office in Chicago who got him for income tax evasion.
This series did not take its characters from the original Robert Stack series that was based on Ness's memoirs ghosted by Oscar Fraley. The characters are from the film that starred Kevin Costner with Tom Amandes as Ness, John Rhys-Davies in Sean Connery's role as Malone and William Forsythe as one mean and nasty Al Capone.
Amandes captured a lot of the self righteousness of Eliot Ness who back in the day fancied himself as some kind of Eagle Scout. In work I've seen him in subsequently, Amandes has been more villainous which may have been his true niche as an actor.
Forsythe was the best thing that series. In his career he's played a succession of great villains, his style of psychotic villain is similar to Lyle Bettger's. Capone by all accounts was a generally easy going man, but had a hair trigger temper which was demonstrated on more than one occasion here.
The Untouchables just like the previous series ran out of real plots and then had the guys going all over the country taking care of all the known criminals of the time. The silliest episode I recall had Amandes and his crew going to New York and tangling not only with Lucky Luciano but with Thomas E. Dewey. Charles Martin Smith played Dewey and on those grounds alone, Tom Dewey's heirs should sue. In fact Dewey had a lot more to do with bringing down New York's criminals than Ness did in Chicago. In fact both men aspired to a political career, but Dewey certainly got a lot farther than Ness who ran for Mayor of Cleveland and lost in a landslide.
Still Eliot Ness and his crew will probably get another look in the next generation, they do fascinate us so.