I made a mistake of reading about Ma Barker before watching this second episode in the first season of The Untouchables. It kind of ruined things, because this story is almost entirely fabricated for dramatic purposes. In real life, Ma Barker never was directly involved in any of her boys' crimes and certainly wouldn't be firing a machine gun as she does in the dramatic shootout in Florida.
Also, this episode is disappointing because I want to see Robert Stack as "Elliott Ness" and his "Untouchables" in action in Chicago and this turns out be the Claire Trevor show as we see the life of her and her boys, mainly in Oklahoma. Trevor plays the kind of character atheist Hollywood loves to show: a church-going person who is nasty, violent and downright evil. Yes, in real life Barker came from a religious background, but this episode goes to such extremes in its distorted way to show a hypocritical woman that it's laughable. In truth, Ma was nothing more than an accomplice, unable to rat her boys out.
Trevor was always good playing nasty women in film noirs so she is effective in that role here, especially at the "advanced" age of 49. Speaking of that number, Trevor plays a character very similar to "Ma" in the 1949 movie "White Heat." Margaret Wycherly played that role and, frankly, I would choose her over Trevor.
Anyway, this was a departure from most of stories in this series, and a little too bias (and overacted by Trevor) to suit me, although it certainly wasn't boring.
Actually, there was one very neat thing in here. One of the Barker boys, "Doc," wound up with a girlfriend whom he married. She was a beautiful young woman, very sexy, and looked familiar. I just couldn't place where I knew her. The ending credits told me. It was Louise Fletcher, of "Nurse Ratched" fame in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." Fletcher was about 24 when she filmed this episode.
Also, this episode is disappointing because I want to see Robert Stack as "Elliott Ness" and his "Untouchables" in action in Chicago and this turns out be the Claire Trevor show as we see the life of her and her boys, mainly in Oklahoma. Trevor plays the kind of character atheist Hollywood loves to show: a church-going person who is nasty, violent and downright evil. Yes, in real life Barker came from a religious background, but this episode goes to such extremes in its distorted way to show a hypocritical woman that it's laughable. In truth, Ma was nothing more than an accomplice, unable to rat her boys out.
Trevor was always good playing nasty women in film noirs so she is effective in that role here, especially at the "advanced" age of 49. Speaking of that number, Trevor plays a character very similar to "Ma" in the 1949 movie "White Heat." Margaret Wycherly played that role and, frankly, I would choose her over Trevor.
Anyway, this was a departure from most of stories in this series, and a little too bias (and overacted by Trevor) to suit me, although it certainly wasn't boring.
Actually, there was one very neat thing in here. One of the Barker boys, "Doc," wound up with a girlfriend whom he married. She was a beautiful young woman, very sexy, and looked familiar. I just couldn't place where I knew her. The ending credits told me. It was Louise Fletcher, of "Nurse Ratched" fame in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." Fletcher was about 24 when she filmed this episode.