User Reviews

This is the second Untouchables installment to be devoted of one Lieutennant Agatha "Aggie" Stewart, a fictional Commanding Officer of the Missing Persons Bureau of the City of Chicago, Department of Police. We have already written-up our views on "THE UNTOUCHABLES": Alegy (1962).

As for this one here, it had a plot that, while not a duplicate of the previous, it had certain necessary similarities.

OUR STORY:* In her duty as Commanding Officer of Chicago Police Department's Missing Persons Bureau, Lt. Agatha "Aggie Baggie" Stewart reviews a Missing Persons Report that has come to her attention. It is of a "John Doe"(an unknown identity)death, which has the most unusual circumstance of being the recipient of Flowers sent anonymously to the grave sight.

This happening doesn't go unnoticed by a member of the Noble Fourth Estate of the Land (a "Gentleman" of the Press) and Lt.Stewart picks up the gauntlet tossed at her to elucidate the case a little and find the identity of this "John Doe".

A receipt leads Lt. Stewart and Detective Frank (Eddie Asner) on a city-wide "Needle-in-a-Haystck" search of all Banks, looking for the teller who left his personal "Tellers' Mark" on the Bills used in the purchase of the flowers.

The receipt for the floral arrangement was from Dion O'Bannion's Florist Shop. Even though O'Banion was killed in the Year of Our Lord 1924, the Shop was now run by another of the old North Side Gang, and was the "unofficial official" Florist to the Chicago underworld.

It seems that one Claire Simmons (Claire North) had been an item together with this unknown corpus delicti, and she would be able to connect all the lines. And by doing her work, she also was influential in clearing up the Feds' problem. Read on.

Coincidentally, Federal Agents Ness, (Robert Stack), Hobson (Paul Picerni),Youngfellow (Abel Fernandez), Rossi(Nick Georgiade) and Rossman(Steve London)were also on an investigation of a $1,000,000.00 Canadian Whiskey Shipment brokered by Rudy Portugese (Antony Carbone), younger brother of the infamous Portugese Brothers Gang, and Canadian Hood, Arnie Retzik (Grant Richards).

The paths of the two Law Enforcement Officials once again crosses paths, demonstrating the teamwork that can possibly achieved when the Great and Wonderful Feds condescend to help out the "Local Yokels." Perhaps you find our theory about these two hour programs being used potentially as Pilots for a proposed Series of 'Aggie' Stewart-Missing Persons Series to be just a trifle far-fetched, even totally unlikely. Well, we have some examples of other Hollywood Big Timers who went that route.

In the same way(though not on an already existing series) we had Robert Taylor in "THE DETECTIVES"(1959-62), Oscar Winner Broderick Crawford in "HIGHWAY PATROL" (1955-59) and, a little later, Henry Fonda in "THE SMITH FAMILY"(1971-72). All series Starred Top Hollywood Movie Stars in Series, with roles as Coppers!

Episode also featured: Virginia Capers,Alan Dexter, Jerry Douglas,Gerald Gordon and Tom Reese.

NOTE: * Wow, leading with "OUR STORY"! That's just like PRINCE VALIANT in the Sunday Color Comics!

Earlier in season 4, Barbara Stanwyck starred as a guest good guy and Ness and his men were definitively in the periphery. I seriously wonder if they were thinking about a spin-off series and this second one was to further develop the character of Lt. Agatha Stewart, Bureau of Missing Persons.

When the film begins, you see some fishermen finding a floater somewhere around Chicago. There is a HUGE problem identifying the dead guy fished from the water....his fingerprints and eyes aren't available for identification and they can't even tell how he died. Only one thing is clear...he's dead and he had a heart condition! So it's up to Agatha to try to investigate and identify the stiff.

Fortunately there is a break in the case. When the body is being planted, flowers arrive for the guy! Someone obviously knew who it was...and the trail leads to a dame (Sheree North). She is uncooperative and soon after she's unable to cooperate as she's killed in an accident that's pretty obviously not an accident. How will they get to the bottom of this and how will Ness get involved?

Overall this is an interesting episode and the very violent showdown at the end prevented the show from being too laid back. Worth seeing and a bit better than the last Agatha episode.

I still wonder what I was watching here? I still have in mind this excellent old TV show set in NYC, and called NAKED CITY. We have nearly nothing from the other UNTOUCHABLES show in this though very good story. It's about a classic investigation with only a very few action scènes and not th usual faces gallery which this series gives us and which is its trademark. And, once more, as I have aleady said, Barbara Stanwyck is brilliant here, but I would have loved to see her in a lady ganhster or femme fatale role.

Barbara Stanwyck guest starred again and played her character of Lieutenant Agatha Stewart from the Chicago PD who is in charge of the Bureau Of Missing Persons. When a body without a piece of identification washes up in the Chicago River, Stanwyck and her second in command Ed Asner go to work.

What they don't realize is that the body was once a top gangster who's been the victim of a palace coup. A fact that Robert Stack and The Untouchables are much interested in as a rumored really large shipment of illegal whiskey is supposed heading to Chicago for the man who is now in a potter's field grave.

This might have been an interesting series for Stanwyck. Only two years later this movie queen moved to television and a nice western series The Big Valley.

I guess for the writers of The Untouchables it was easier to just give two episodes to Stanwyck and her series pilot. They certainly were running out of the notorious mobsters of the era to write about.