Untouchables, The

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The Untouchables was a triumph of the TV crime / gangster genre, produced at the high point of the US film series drama in the early 1960s. The series featured the crusade of federal agent Eliot Ness (played by Robert Stack) against the Prohibition era underworld of 'Scarface' Al Capone. The long-running series featured early roles from a variety of screen personalities (such as Leslie Nielson, Peter Falk, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Redford, Robert Duvall) as well as established Hollywood players (Lee Van Cleef, Lee Marvin, Patricia Neal, Barbara Stanwyck, Dorothy Malone). The show set new standards for action drama and pioneered a more explicit approach to the representation of violence on TV, which in turn provoked considerable controversy as well as acclaim.

Tise Vahimagi details in this text the development of the gangster genre and places The Untouchables firmly in the wider context of American cinema and television of the 1950s and 1960s, offering a sidelight onto the social and political event of the period. This book also includes illustrations and detailed credits, providing a full production history for followers of of the series.