While I do enjoy watching reruns of "The Untouchables", you really cannot take them as history lessons. Too often, the show HIGHLY fictionalized the lives of various thugs and often introduced Elliott Ness or the Untouchables into the stories even though they had absolutely nothing to do with these cases. One great example is the Ma Barker episode, the other is this one, "The George 'Bugs' Moran Story". Moran's criminal activities were completely misrepresented in this episode--and I could find no mention of him kidnapping anyone or trying to horn into a local labor union--not that labor unions were exactly immune from mob influence. The real story of Moran is interesting-- but as it had nothing to do with the Untouchables, this one is just about 100% fiction.
When the show begins, Moran (Lloyd Nolan) kidnaps a labor leader's boy. The father (Jack Warden) is naturally furious--especially since this wasn't done for money but to force the Moran gang's way into the union. As for Ness (Robert Stack), he was obviously given the week off and he's only see briefly talking over the phone to Ageny Flaherty (Jerry Paris) and Flaherty runs the entire operation while Ness supposedly is in DC doing something...
This is a reasonably exciting episode but the absence of Ness was pretty obvious. This slightly weakens the show and really wasn't explained well. This combined with the completely fictional nature of the show make it a bit weak.
When the show begins, Moran (Lloyd Nolan) kidnaps a labor leader's boy. The father (Jack Warden) is naturally furious--especially since this wasn't done for money but to force the Moran gang's way into the union. As for Ness (Robert Stack), he was obviously given the week off and he's only see briefly talking over the phone to Ageny Flaherty (Jerry Paris) and Flaherty runs the entire operation while Ness supposedly is in DC doing something...
This is a reasonably exciting episode but the absence of Ness was pretty obvious. This slightly weakens the show and really wasn't explained well. This combined with the completely fictional nature of the show make it a bit weak.