The Untouchables (TV Series) The Big Squeeze (1960) User Reviews

Ness really, really wants a piece of Ace.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 10 March 2016]

Ace Banner (Dan O'Herlihy) is a master bank robber and his capers always work...and work well. Additionally, there never is any real proof he was involved because Ace is very, very smart...at least when it comes to crime. The problem for Ness is that when the show begins, Bank Robberies were not yet a federal crime so as a Treasury agent he cannot get involved. Ness is itching to put the pressure on Ace and after Bank Robberies ARE made federal crimes, he tries to outguess Ace. Normally this would be very tough but since his last job, Ace has gotten stupid...at least when it comes to women. And soon, he's unable to live the same wild lifestyle and is in need of more ill-gotten funds...and Ness knows it.

This is a decent but unremarkable episode. It's nice to see Herlihy as well as John Hoyt in the show since both are familiar actors...and quite talented. But the show lacks the usual sneering villains and violent shooutouts...something you might just miss.

J. Edgar Hoover's jurisdiction

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 26 September 2013]

Despite some good performances, especially out of Dan O'Herlihy as a gentleman bank robber, this episode of The Untouchables was far from accurate as to how bank robbery became a federal crime.

When the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was formed to insure that banks would not be subject to the boom and bust cycle, those banks who joined it came under federal jurisdiction. If you remember the classic Don Siegel film Charley Varrick Walter Matthau and his gang targeted a specific small southwestern bank because it did not carry insurance and hence it would not be a federal crime. Treasury agents were not involved in this area of law enforcement at all. Bank robbery became the jurisdiction of J. Edgar Hoover and his agency. That's who Federal Attorney Frank Wilcox would have called on to gather evidence to make bank robbery a crime, not Eliot Ness.

Still Wilcox does call on Robert Stack and his team and investigate they do. O'Herlihy is one smooth operator and he doesn't make mistakes. And to take care of mistakes he has James Mageean as his enforcer.

Mageean also stands out in this story. His brogue is unmistakable and although it's never brought up he probably learned his trade in the old country fighting in the Rebellion and later the Irish Civil War.

Untouchable episodes take a lot of liberties, but this one was too much.