The Untouchables: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

The Untouchables: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Worldwide Premiere of Paramount Series

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson November 22, 2017

One night back in the early nineties, my grandfather and I were flipping through primetime shows when we came across a gangster conference scene headed by Al Capone (William Forsythe) and his top lieutenant, Frank "the Enforcer" Nitti (Paul Regina). A jovial Capone was pacing the room and waving his hands around, making jokes with other mobsters in the room. But the levity quickly turned to hard-boiled anger with the scene ending in a bloodbath. Some time later, my grandpa turned to me and noted that Scarface had attempted to soften his violent moods by opening a set of soup kitchens for the needy (another episode from the same series depicted this other side of Capone). Such was my introduction to this revival of The Untouchables, a contemporary adaptation of the eponymous series that ran from 1959-63 on ABC and starred Robert Stack as US Treasury Agent Eliot Ness. Unlike the earlier series, which featured a wide range of rogue villains and gang members, the modern rendition would not only focus on Ness and his team of incorruptible agents, but also give almost equal weight to Capone, Nitti, and the so-called "Outfit" that ran the crime syndicate in Chicago. (While the Nitti character appeared in thirty episodes on the old series, Capone featured in only five.)

Since I was familiar with De Palma's stylish and critically acclaimed 1987 feature, I decided to give this version of The Untouchables a close viewing. It aired on Paramount Television's UPN 9 (a Minneapolis affiliate) at a late hour (10:35) but I was always wide awake and anxious to catch the next episode. (I first encountered the series during season one's finale so as I watched the second season's episodes live, I had to catch up on earlier offerings when UPN aired the re-runs.) I was immediately struck with how Forsythe imbued Capone with a multiplicity of personalities in such a way that he could be cantankerous one moment and gentle the next moment. As portrayed in the series pilot, adolescent-aged Alphonse and Frank grew up together on the tough streets of Brooklyn. The juveniles were petty but also smart and individualistic about the turf they claimed to own. This caught the attention of New York crime boss Johnny Torrio (Byrne Piven, Jeremy's father), who had the young Capone and Nitti perform odd jobs at drop bars and within the numbers racket. The pilot also accurately demonstrates how Al becomes Scarface and doesn't hold back any punches. This is crosscut with the far more idealistic odyssey of Eliot Ness, who dreams of becoming a lone ranger. A teenage/young adult Eliot (Tom Amandes) is a top debater in his class who later attends the University of Chicago where he meets his future wife, Catherine (Nancy Everhard). (Amandes and Everhard would go on to marry in real life.) Meanwhile, Nitti feels that Capone needs a sweet girl to counteract his volatile personality so as they're driving by an Irish Catholic school, they spot fifteen-year-old Mae (Hynden Walch), a pretty and wholesome dame whose initially reluctant to accept Capone's proposal. But Al bows down and charms her, leading to a happy wedding processional shown in vintage black and white. (The real Mae was seldom photographed but extant pictures reveal that Walch looks remarkably like her.)

Eliot Ness and his untouchables in their secret hideout.

When Torrio envisions a viable opportunity to expand his crime empire in Chicago, the series heats up with Capone taking command of the Outfit and Nitti picked as his top associate. Forsythe and Regina share remarkable chemistry on screen and this viewer was convinced that they were blood brothers. Al sometimes let pleasure get in the way of maintaining a hold on the Outfit's business ventures and it's Frank who steadies his Brooklyn friend to the task at hand. (Frank is the logos inside Al's conscience. He steers him away from making any irrational choices that would jeopardize their bootlegging deals, for example.) Even more loyal to Capone is Frankie Rio (Valentino Cimo, reprising the same role he had in De Palma's film), the leader's top bodyguard who would take the shirt off his own back and sacrifice himself if it's in his boss' best interest. There is a great deal of trench warfare among the rival gangs in the series. For example, the Outfit has a friendly competition with the Genna brothers in Chicago's Little Italy (at least in the first season) but more adverse relations with snarly George "Bugs" Moran (Jack Thibeau) in another section of town. Capone and Nitti also have a cold war with Charlie "Lucky" Luciano and Meyer Lansky, who run their operations out of the Big Apple. (In "Attack on New York," one of the series' best episodes, Dutch Schultz gets in the middle of the fray.)

As Ness, Amandes gives the law enforcer a tough and hard-nosed all-American sensibility that's very much in vein with Jimmy Stewart. (Amandes does bear a striking resemblance to the legendary actor.) For the role of Agent Michael Malone that Sean Connery originally played, John Rhys-Davies steps into the shoes that his fellow supporting actor from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade occupied in the movie. Rhys-Davies portrays a former Chicago cop who wants nothing more but to clean up the corruption and upheaval that's occurring within the Chicago Police Department and the Capone organization's bribing of district court judges. Tall and stout Agent Paul Robbins, an ex-Army fighter pilot, is also a significant member of Ness' Treasury Department. Agent George Steelman (Michael Horse) is a Native American federal agent and ex-football player from Carlyle University that Ness also hires. Tony Pagano (John Haymes Newton) is the young buck fresh out of Harvard, with degrees in Engineering and English and who writes poems when he's not raiding Capone's speakeasies and brothel houses. But Ness is the main star of the untouchables and the series exhibits his fanatical obsession with taking down Capone, which ultimately may have consequences for his marriage.

Some episodes of The Untouchables are in two parts and the standalone ones generally maintain continuity from one episode to the next. While each episode has its set of guest characters, it usually dedicates exploring additional exposition in one of the untouchables, the Capone Outfit, or family members of either group. Notable Hollywood and TV actors making guest appearances included Ronny Cox, Gina Gershon, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ron Perlman, Charles Martin Smith, and Vivian Wu.

Although the pilot for The Untouchables received strongly positive reviews and ratings for the series were overall relatively good, Paramount pulled the plug on it following two seasons. The official reason is that Forsythe wished to return to feature films full-time and didn't want to be courted to appear in other TV series. It is important to remember that Forsythe had not done any TV gigs up to this point but absolutely loved playing Capone and working with the series cast and producers. Forsythe's vowed departure before a third season underscores how instrumental he was to the series' success and any prospect of it continuing further. The series does come to a conclusion but loose ends are still left on Moran, Luciano, Lansky, and Schultz. It's too bad that additional episodes were not shot to wrap those up and come to a final resolution as to their fates.

*Note: A complete episode guide for The Untouchables can be found through TVmaze.com.

The Untouchables: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Untouchables (1993-94) makes it much long-awaited global debut on home video courtesy of Toronto-based studio Visual Entertainment Inc. I had waited for more than two decades for a commercial public domain release of this series on VHS, LaserDisc, and/or DVD but Paramount kept stalling on my requests, stating they had no intentions of putting it out. The studio finally licensed the title over to VEI and the forty-two episodes presented here are essentially the last condition they were in after departing Paramount's vault. VEI indicated to me pre-release that it wouldn't be conducting any restoration work. The Untouchables was initially slated to be released in January of this year but after Amazon.com customers reported technicalities on early copies that they received, the indie home entertainment company pulled all those remaining and reissued the discs in the spring. I played every episode from start to finish and didn't encounter any freezes or skips. VEI has issued a DigiPack with the episodes spread over six BD-50s. (See Screenshot # 40 for first disc's menu.) The discs for each season are enclosed in eco-lite Vortex cases. On the inside of the cover art, VEI has printed a brief episode list.

All episodes are presented in their original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1 using the MPEG-4 AVC encode. Please note that these are the syndicated episodes and there is a flashback scene in Brooklyn (on the pilot) that's apparently missing on this disc. (VEI also dropped the voice-over narration at the very beginning.) The picture has been upscaled to 1080i. I have included about thirty-five or so frame grabs from VEI's transfers for most of the episodes in both seasons to give you a decent idea how they look. The image quality throughout can be best described variously as very good, fair, average, and mediocre. One needs to keep in mind that these aired in the pre-HDTV era so pristineness isn't to be expected. Generally, colors are fairly well-defined but temperature levels and density are all over the place. While the picture is never poor, contrast is subpar and sometimes appears blown out. Skin tones can look quite ruddy at times and jaundiced in others. White speckles are a pretty recurrent anomaly. Interlaced lines, tramlines, and light scratches are occasionally visible. Aliasing/shimmer are the frequent detriment as it's noticeable on characters' ties and architectural renderings on buildings. Cross-coloration can be seen on characters' suit jackets. Moiré effects and banding are conspicuous during the last batch of episodes in season one and crop up periodically throughout season two.

I recorded many episodes of The Untouchables on my VCR when they originally aired (or re-aired at a later date) and while VEI's transfers look marginally better, the picture is very erratic and inconsistent here. The Untouchables was originally shot on 35mm film (the original pilot and episode "First Blood" reside in the UCLA Film & Television Archive) and VEI's transfer show too many video artifacts. After extensive research on other extant prints, I discovered that there are original broadcast masters emanating from German television that ran on the CBS Paramount International Television. I've watched those episodes and while they also possess some white speckling, they're generally in outstanding shape and look film-like. I've included a direct comparison between the VEI and the German. While color definition may appear superior on the VEI, contrast levels are boosted on the latter. The picture on the German is rather soft but it does show off more of the film grain.

Screenshot #s 32, 34, and 36 = VEI transfer Screenshot #s 33, 35, and 37 = German transfer [if you click on them, they will display in full-frame with black bars on sides]

The Untouchables: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All episodes of The Untouchables are presented with English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Surround (as the Dolby monogram that's displayed in the lower corner often reminds viewers in many episodes during the second season). The lossy track has far fewer issues than the video transfer. The Emmy-nominated sound editing comes across as direct and crisp along the front speakers. I only noticed analog tracking noise once: when Capone sat down to play the piano during an episode in season two. There is faint audible hiss from time to time but dialogue is typically clear enough to make out. Unfortunately, VEI don't include any subtitles or closed captions, which would have been nice anyway. The best part of the sound track is the magnificent score by Joel Goldsmith (son of Jerry, one of the industry's greatest composers). Goldsmith's theme for Al and Mae is akin to Nino Rota's main theme/waltz from The Godfather but Goldsmith's music is distinctive enough throughout the series to call his own. As film/TV music historian Randall D. Larson points out, Goldsmith combines brass, winds, and percussion for the action-based scenes. I'd also been anticipating a CD release for a very long time and Dragon's Domain Records came to the rescue earlier this year with a two-disc release containing over 130 minutes of music from the pilot and thirteen other episodes.

The Untouchables: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Most unfortunately, VEI has no bonus features. (The rep I spoke to at VEI stated that it'd be too difficult to arrange interviews with the original writers, cast, et al. This was told to me many months before VEI released the set.)

The Untouchables: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Untouchables (1993-94) is a sprawling and epic crime saga that this reviewer counts as one of his all-time favorite series. It created my longstanding fascination with the Prohibition era and its cast of characters not only in Chicago but also in Florida and Cuba where the series also takes place. I've developed a religious obsession with the Roaring Twenties/early thirties, the period's gangsters, and racketeers. I've seen every episode at least four times and many a half-dozen or more. There are some small weaknesses in the teleplays but the principal characters are so richly drawn that I could feel for all of them. For example, it shows that Capone was a philanderer and carouser who committed ruthless, horrific acts but it also delves into his softer side and the care he exuded for his son Sonny, who suffered from a rare infection behind his ear. Watching this series will compel you to read biographies on Ness, Capone, Nitti, and the real untouchables authored by Ness and Oscar Fraley (of which the series is based on). The Untouchables is must-see TV and unmissable. In spite of all the video flaws on VEI's transfer, the box set comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED due to the outstanding program content and entertainment value. My fingers are crossed that another distributor acquires the presumably existing German masters and issues a set that eclipses VEI's image quality.