Gangster Movies: (ca. 1987) In 1919 the Volstead Act was passed which made provisions for the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, and successfully ushered in the era of Prohibition. This opened the flood gates to a billion dollar industry of illegal alcohol. And in the larger cities, the mob bosses jumped onto the bandwagon with both feet, the most notorious of which was Al Capone, who by 1930 had a thriving business and the city and the people of Chicago in his pocket.

From the cop on the beat to the judges sitting on the highest courts, everyone seemingly had a price and could be bought. And that’s the way it was until Treasury Agent Eliot Ness showed up for work and hand picked a squad of honest cops to help him get Capone and clean up the City of Chicago.

The Untouchables, directed by Brian De Palma, is the story of Ness and his men, dubbed `Untouchable’ because they couldn’t be bought, though from the beginning the odds were stacked against them. They were a handful against an army of hoodlums who wielded grenades and tommy guns. Many looked upon what Ness was trying to do as an exercise in futility, but he never gave up, and went after Capone with everything he had, which wasn’t much beyond his own guts and determination to do some good.

Ness’s initial efforts were a disaster: Capone had informants everywhere and always knew ahead of time whenever a raid was going down. Ness quickly realized that the only way to do this thing right was to get men he could trust and keep everything quiet. The bureau responded by sending Ness (Kevin Costner) an accountant, Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), who first had the idea of going after Capone for income tax evasion. Ness then recruited Jim Malone (Sean Connery), a veteran cop who walked a beat and was well versed in doing things `The Chicago way,’ and George Stone (Andy Garcia) a crack shot recruited right out of the Police Academy.

Connery gives an exemplary performance as Malone (for which he received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), the tough, Irish cop who becomes something of a tutor to Ness, letting him know from the start what he’s getting himself into. How do you deal with someone of Capone’s ilk? According to Malone, `If he pulls a knife, you pull a gun. If he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way, that’s how you get Capone.’ It’s a perfect part for Connery, whose rugged appearance and demeanor are entirely convincing; he’s got that somewhat cynical, world-wise and weary manner of a man who has seen it all.

De Palma brings it all vividly to life, building an underlying tension from the beginning that he maintains throughout the film, aided by the intense, sometimes haunting score by Ennio Morricone. Costner gives a solid performance as Ness, but he is somewhat overshadowed by the actors and the characters who surround him, especially Connery as Malone, and Robert De Niro, who as Capone is absolutely menacing and larger-than-life. De Niro captures the ruthlessness that indelibly marked Capone’s infamy forever in the annals of criminal history, with a portrayal of him that is arguably the best in cinematic history. De Niro plays it as it lays, presenting Capone as the brutal criminal he was, without attempting to airbrush away any of the attributes that made him so despicable.

The supporting cast includes Richard Bradford (Mike), Jack Kehoe (Payne), Brad Sullivan (George), Billy Drago (Nitti) and Patricia Clarkson (Ness’ wife). Extremely well crafted and delivered by De Palma, who had a great screenplay (by David Mamet) and a terrific cast with which to work.

Brian De Palma met Bob Hoskins over a drink in Los Angeles to discuss playing Al Capone if De Palma’s first choice Robert De Niro were to pass on the role. Since De Niro didn’t say yes, Hoskins told De Palma he would do it if he were available. When De Niro finally took the role, De Palma sent Hoskins a thank you note, and the studio paid Hoskins, who had a “pay or play” deal, $200,000. Hoskins called De Palma and asked if there were any more movies the director didn’t want him to be in.

Albert H. Wolff, the last survivor of the real-life Untouchables, was a consultant to the film and helped Kevin Costner with his portrayal of Eliot Ness.

Michael Douglas, Don Johnson and Mel Gibson were considered for the role of Eliot Ness and rejected. Harrison Ford was offered but turned down the role before Kevin Costner was signed.

Robert De Niro insisted on wearing the same style of silk underwear that Al Capone wore, even though it would never be seen on camera. The producers, knowing DeNiro’s reputation as a Method actor, gave in.

Robert De Niro hadn’t much time to gain the extra weight needed for his role, so that he had to wear pads and pillows for the desired effect of looking like the chunkier Capone.

Despite the final courtroom scene in this movie, the real Al Capone and Eliot Ness never came face to face during their battles.

In real life, Eliot Ness brought the only non-tax-related charges against Al Capone which resulted in 5,000 separate Volstead Act indictments.

In the original script, the final gunfight had Eliot Ness and George Stone battling Capone gunmen on a stopped train. Brian De Palma conceived the gunfight on the steps in Chicago’s Union Station when Paramount decided that staging the scene and finding a 1930s period train would be too expensive.

Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Andy Garcia engaged in police tactic and weapons training for the film – from the 1950s.

Though the patron saints of police are Michael the Archangel and Saint Sebastian, Irish police officers often carried Saint Jude medals, the patron saint of hopeless causes.

Robert De Niro tracked down Al Capone’s original tailors and had them make him some identical clothing for the movie. (This seems highly unlikely given this movie was made 55 years after the actual events, and obtaining the skills and reputation for quality that Capone would have looked for in a tailor would mean the tailor would have been 30+ at the time, 85+ at the time this film was made and either dead or long-since retired).

According to Brian De Palma and Art Linson in the DVD documentary, it was Sean Connery’s idea to film the “blood oath” scene between Ness and Malone in a Catholic church. Originally it was going to take place on the street (in the same scene that follows the church scene). Connery felt that a church would be the only “safe” place in Chicago where the two characters would make such a commitment to fight Capone.

On the AMC Network’s “Movies at Our House” (2002), Billy Drago, who portrays the white-suited Frank Nitti, says that while they were filming scenes on the streets of Chicago, he was told about a couple of teenage street gangs getting ready for a gang fight. At the request of the Chicago Police Department, Drago, wearing his costume and armed with his prop tommy gun, went to the place where the fight was supposed to happen. The gang members were in such awe of him that they didn’t fight.

Brian De Palma took the idea of the train station scene from the 1925 Russian movie Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925) (better known as The Battleship Potemkin). The sailors who get caught in the crossfire in The Untouchables (1987) are a tribute to Potemkin.

The train station scene was parodied in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994).

The scene where Al Capone (Robert De Niro) suddenly pulls out a baseball bat at a dinner party and beats to death one of his men is based on a true incident which happened on May 7, 1929. Two of Capone’s most feared hit men, Albert Anselmi and John Scalise, had hatched a plot to kill Capone and take over his gang. Capone got wind of it and invited all his associates to a dinner party, including Anselmi and Scalise. In the middle of the party, Capone pulled out a baseball bat and battered both men to death, then shot them both in the head. A conflicting version of the story has Tony “Joe Batters” Accardo, one of Capone’s hit men, as the man who bludgeoned the traitors to death.

The character of Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith) was loosely based on Frank Wilson, the IRS agent who worked to indict Capone for income tax evasion. Wilson had been working on this project since 1928, and had next to nothing to do with Ness and the Untouchables in real-life. Wilson was not killed by Capone, though Capone reportedly placed a contract on his life which was never carried out.

The radio show listened to by Eliot Ness and his wife early in the movie is an actual episode of Amos and Andy. In the episode they have just bought a clunker for their new cab company from their friend The Kingfish.

The set for Capone’s personal barbershop at the Lexington Hotel included a number of small items (cologne bottles, shaving brushes) that belonged to the real Al Capone.

The voice we hear singing in the opera was that of famed tenor Mario Del Monaco who died in 1982.

Jack Nicholson was also offered the role of Elliot Ness but declined.

William Hurt was considered for the role of Elliot Ness but was too busy with other projects.

When Agent George Stone is introduced, Malone founds out that his real name is Giuseppe Petri and he was born in Italy. In Italian, Giuseppe Petri can be literally translated as “Joseph Peter.”

Patricia Clarkson’s film debut.

Paramount Pictures made this film because they still held the filming rights to Eliot Ness’ autobiography which they used to produce the TV series “The Untouchables”. Originally, Paramount intended to make this, like so many other films since, as a big screen adaption of a TV series. However, director Brian De Palma, producer Art Linson, and writer David Mamet all felt that they didn’t want to remake the series so they took their own dramatic license with the story, and the true events that inspired it, in order to make what they felt would be a good big screen epic. (This according to De Palma and Linson in the DVD “making of” documentary)

When Capone’s men are trying to smuggle the book keeper (Jack Keyhoe) out of town, they are going to put him on board a train to Miami. In real life, Al Capone owned a luxurious mansion in Miami. Presumably, in the film, the mob was going to have the book keeper hide in Capone’s mansion

Valentino Cimo, who plays Capone’s bodyguard Frank Rio (The one Ness punches in the nose and shoots at the beginning of the rail station shoot out) later went on to reprise the role of Rio in the syndicated series “The Untouchables” (1993).

The first liquor raid was shot on LaSalle Street with period cars and extras. Ness and his men exit the Rookery Building (between Adams and Quincy) and enter the City National Bank and Trust at 208 S. LaSalle. The building in the background (with the clock) is the Chicago Board of Trade, located at LaSalle and Jackson.

Director Brian De Palma met with both Tom Berenger and Nick Nolte to find out if they were interested in playing Eliot Ness.

Fashion icon Giorgio Armani, who provided the costumes for the film, told Brian De Palma that he should cast Don Johnson as Eliot Ness. Johnson wore Armani on TV every week on “Miami Vice” (1984), and Armani called Johnson his ‘male muse’.

De Palma also talked to Jeff Bridges and Gene Hackman about playing Ness and Malone.