Well before Brian De Palma’s 1987 period true crime classic
and certainly before the 1959 television series of the same name produced
by Desilu Productions based off of Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley’s memoir The
Untouchables, Desilu Productions sought to jump-start their soon-to-be hit
TV show with the release of what became known as The Scarface Mob.
Originally conceived as a two-part pilot
installment for The Untouchables screened by Westinghouse Desilu
Playhouse before being edited together into a standalone film released in Europe
in 1959 and America in 1962 respectively, the $400,000 two-parter on its terms
all but paves the way not only for the crime drama program but eventual future
silver screen adaptations of Eliot Ness’ account of his efforts to bring down
Chicago based gangster Al Capone during the prohibition era. Though clearly composed for television as
originally aired, it went to theaters anyway and as such is among the grittier
crime thrillers of its day not starring James Cagney or Paul Muni. For being made for TV it gets rather daring
at times.
Chicago, 1929, the streets are overrun by Al Capone’s (former
soldier Neville Brand from Riot in Cell Block 11) brewery bootlegging
cronies against Prohibition mandates, spawning a brutal and ruthless criminal
empire able to bend the law and political regimes to its will. That is until Federal Investigator Eliot Ness
(Robert Stack pre-Unsolved Mysteries) formulates a task force of
policemen keen on raiding Capone’s illegal brewing operations, going as far as
to tap Capone’s phonelines and taking tip offs from a mercurial mole hastily
navigating working simultaneously for Capone and Ness. As Ness and The Untouchables tighten the
screws of law and order on Capone’s world, the mercenary gangster escalates
matters into an all-out war between the police and his criminal enterprise even
going as far as threatening Ness’ fiancée with violent attack.
Debatably more intimidating than Robert De Niro’s famed take in De
Palma’s epic, Neville Brand with his scarred face, deep angry voice and
militaristic physicality breathes so much life and danger into this character
he IS Capone despite sharing very little facial characteristics. Then there’s Robert Stack’s stoic Eliot Ness
who is aware of the danger he’s immersing himself in yet he charges ahead
fearlessly anyway. Fans of Dr.
Strangelove are inclined to look for Keenan Wynn as partner Joe Fuselli and
Sweet Smell of Success blonde bombshell Barbara Nichols as a flirty frequently
intoxicated mistress.
Fans of both The
Untouchables television show and the 1987 film are absolutely inclined to
check out The Scarface Mob, another curious example of a solid crime
drama meant for the small screen somehow or another making its way to the big
screen. The disc looks and sounds great
and crime cinema aficionados will be tickled pink to proudly display this on
their media shelves.
--Andrew Kotwicki