The Untouchables (TV Series) The Underworld Bank (1960) User Reviews

An incredibly violent episode...even for "The Untouchables".

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 13 March 2016]

When this episode begins, an old-time mobster, Milo Sullivan (Thomas Mitchell) has come out of retirement because he has a scheme. He's organized five other mobsters to create an underworld bank in order to fund a variety of crooked schemes. Duke Mullin (Peter Falk) learns about this fund and is so crazy and sociopathic that he decides to rob it!! Talk about a hair-brained idea!! So, to learn more he enlists the help of Louise O'Hara (Virginia Vincent)...as she's Vincent's niece. Can Duke possibly succeed?!

This is an incredibly violent episode that includes dead bodies floating in the lake, an old woman helping Ness but ending up dead, shootouts and Falk slapping the everliving crap out of his girlfriend in the show. Even for this violent show, it's violent and a bit shocking to see such brutality. Still, it does make for a compelling episode and is well worth seeing.

Solid episode

[searchanddestroy-1 · 9/10 · 12 September 2019]

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER As usual in this amazing show, you have supporting characters pretty interesting and moving. Here, Peter Falk character and his chick. The stories don't focus always on ness and his bunch. That's what I like the most. The corny side of this series, is the ending, always the same. Ness and co arrive and there is the expected gunfight...here, the funny thing is that Peter Falk character is tortured by hoodlums, and when Ness and his men arrive, suddenly Falk stands up from his chair and fires at Ness who came to free him up. He becomes the allie of his torturers. And eventually dies with them.

A low profile episode on Untouchable's trademark!!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 14 May 2020]

I'm glad to see the great Thomas Mitchell in the show, an iconic actor from the golden age of the cinema, also the young Peter Falk as well, even for the pattern of the Untouchables which is one my favorite series, the plot is too contrived at least for me, The Underworld Bank is an innovative episode indeed, however lack of veracity, when Duke Mullen arranged a burglary of a million dollars in fur coats he waits a decent share for your job, instead the Bank rewards him in mere 5.000 bucks, they explains to angry Duke that the remainder money were used in whole operation plus profits, well what a profits! If was in Brazil could be true (For here has just four Banks and the interest charge is highest in the world) back on episode the story doesn't makes sense at all, whosever wrote it most probably put these astronomical fees for didn't shame the real bankers on the country who aggrieve the customers, also all we knows that has some Banks in America that were merely laundry money from Mobs, great idea, bad execution!!

Resume:

First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

As with most bankers they just got too greedy

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 4 March 2022]

With Prohibition coming to an end, gangster Milo Sullivan (Thomas Mitchell) gathers the hoods together and proposes a new money making venture. The mob will go into banking. They'll loan money to other hoods to stake high risk robbery ventures with the stipulation that they - "the bank" - get two dollars for every dollar they invest.

So fast forward a few months, and suddenly there are a rash of high dollar well prepared robberies happening, including one in which one million dollars in furs were stolen and a guard killed. Eliot Ness is brought in on the case. They start with a line up of most probable suspects and zero in on two who had large amounts of cash on them when arrested with no explanation. Before the bad new days of the cops being able to arrest the money and not the suspect so they could provide free daycare for said cops, Ness and company decide to follow these two suspects and see where it leads.

What ultimately does the underworld bank in is that it just can't help itself from being too greedy. They give the actual robbers a tiny amount of the take from said robberies, they kill somebody for not paying them back and then try to shake down the widow of the person they killed, and so on.

This was not the first thing Peter Falk was ever in, but it is about the only time I've ever seen him playing such a malevolent character. I also noticed Tony George as one of Ness' agents. He played minor roles in film and TV through the years, including a five year stint on daytime soap Search for Tomorrow.