The Untouchables (1959): Chicago. Right after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. (February 14, 1929.) Ness and his men are scouring Chicago, looking for Bugs Moran.  Ness says there used to be 2 gangs in town, now there's just one.  Ness figures if they get to Moran first, maybe he'll talk-- he might just be mad enough to give them the information they need. Someone else looking for Moran is Eddie O'Gara, a small-time hood who has been on the run for the past 3 years; he's decided to come home. Eddie's brother Vince, a trolley driver, isn't happy to see him; but Eddie's mom welcomes him back with open arms. Eddie finds Moran at his old hideout: a big storage room in the lakefront Midway.  But Moran is ready to blast him; O'Gara was a punk until Moran made him a highly-paid gangster, and 3 years ago Eddie double-crossed him.  Eddie fast-talks his way out of it.  Moran has lots of money, but no gang; Eddie can get him a new gang, but he'll need lots of money.  So they decide to work together-- but Moran warns Eddie, "For once in your lousy, double-crossin' life, you better be on the level." Moran gives him 3-grand. A short time later, O'Gara is in a bookie joint, and Capt. Jim Johnson hauls him in.  Ness grills O'Gara, but he says he hasn't even seen Moran.  O'Gara then goes to talk with Jack McGurn; McGurn says he will round up some boys.  February 21.  Ness' roundup of hoods continues, he grills Phil "The Bartender" Benyas, top triggerman for the Syndicate; all Ness finds out is that Benyas is surprised O'Gara is back.  Later Ness tells Lee Hobson that O'Gara was a Swamper (construction slang for a helper) 5 years ago, until Moran showed him how to make big money as a hood; and now Moran has a price on his head. That night, O'Gara has a meet with 7 hoods: Jack McGurn, Jinx Mahoney, Joe Aiello and his brother Dom, Jake Weinhof, Sammy Watuski, and Pete Herndon-- 7 of the worst cutthroats you could imagine. They will be Moran's new gang, replacing the 7 that were killed in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. At night, O'Gara and McGurn burst into a Southside hideout, shoot 2 hoods, and steal the arsenal of choppers.  Later, at the scene of the crime, Ness tells Capt. Johnson that it's the start of gang war that'll make the Clark Street Massacre seem like a tea party. The following nights: McGurn walks into a Southside speak and guns a hood; speeding cars with tommy-guns blasting shoot up a Southside pool hall and a hood on the sidewalk; a lobbed pineapple blows up a store. Ambitious O'Gara tells Moran they should set up a meet with the Syndicate, offering to talk peace.  And then, when they are all in one room, wipe them all out.  Moran keeps a cool head, and says he will have Joe Aiello handle things.  That night, when Joe Aiello and his brother Dom are in a speak, O'Gara drives a car by the speak, while McGurn blasts the Aiellos with his chopper.*  When O'Gara meets with Moran later, Moran is angry about the hit.  Moran doesn't really care that the Aiellos are dead, but Moran is the boss and only he gives the orders; O'Gara was out of line.  Moran says no hits, he wants to set up a peace talk for real.  So O'Gara double-crosses Moran again, and tells his pal McGurn about it.  O'Gara meets with the Southside Syndicate boss Rudy Mann, and says he can rub out Moran at the peace talk; Mann's lieutenant Phil Benyas is there listening.  Later, Ness gets a break-- they pick up Jinx Mahoney and he sings like a canary; he tells Ness that the Northside and Southside boys are having a peace meet in neutral territory, at the Westside Men's Club. And so, on February 28, just 2 weeks after the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Moran is going to a meet with the Syndicate that tried to rub him out.  Ness and his men are planning on being uninvited guests.  At the Westside Club, Moran and O'Gara check their hats and guns at the door; around a big table, 9 Southside hoods are seated-- but not Rudy Mann.  O'Gara asks Moran if Rudy Mann is always this late; a hood tells O'Gara he's got a phone call in the other room, and O'Gara tells Moran that might be Rudy Mann calling.  O'Gara goes to the other room and keeps on walking-- outside, and into his car, and he drives away.  McGurn and another hood get their machine-guns ready.  From the outside, they walk up to a window that opens into the meet room.  McGurn says to his partner, "Like Eddie said: just Moran."  But Ness gets into a shoot-out with the assassins, and kills them.  Ness and Lee Hobson go inside, and tell all the hoods to get against the wall.  Later, Rudy Mann has O'Gara rubbed out.  As for Bugs Moran-- who had escaped both the Clark Street Massacre and the Westside Club Ambush-- it would be a year before he'd make another bid for power in Chicago.  (synopsis by: kdh) --------------------------------- *[Giuseppe "Joe" Aiello was born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, in 1891.  Joe Aiello died on October 23, 1930.  A hood in the Northside of Chicago, Aiello eventually got into a conflict with Al Capone. After several years and many deaths, Joe Aiello was elected president of the Unione Siciliane, but he was machine-gunned to death outside a friend's apartment on N. Kolmar Avenue in 1930.]

Starring:

Abel Fernandez, Nicholas Georgiade, Paul Picerni, Robert Stack, Steve London, Walter Winchell

Genre:

Action, Crime, Drama