User Reviews

"The Untouchables" is supposedly about the real life Treasury agent, Eliot Ness. However, most of what you see in this program is pure fantasy and has absolutely nothing to do with Ness or the Treasury Department. Instead, Ness' character and the activities of the Untouchables are an amalgam of FBI, State and local police activities along with those of the Treasury Department in their efforts to stem the flow of illegal alcohol during Prohibition. This episode clearly illustrates this fictional view of Ness, as the topic is white slavery (i.e., prostitution)--something not within the jurisdiction of Ness or the Treasury.

When the show begins, the head of a prostitution ring and speakeasies dies. His niece, Ginnie, thinks she's owed something from the estate and takes his most valuable possession...his business' books! Not surprising, various crooks want those books as they could destroy them if the cops get a hold of the books. So, a nasty madam decides to take out Ginnie...but innocent little Ginnie ain't so innocent and she has plans.

Overall, this is a very good episode...which has nothing to do with the real Eliot Ness! Worth seeing and full of nice twists.

... and she is not even really a mobster. Ginnie Littlesmith is a shy plain never married woman of 32. 60 years ago they called them spinsters. 90 years ago - the time of Ness - they called them spinsters. That's basically an antiquated term today.

Ginnie works in the soup kitchen that acts as a front for the house of prostitution that her uncle runs for a syndicate called The Group. When her uncle is killed, she takes the books detailing the activity of The Group as security for her future, trying to sell the books back to the group for 100K, but they correctly size her up as too mousy to be a threat and just demand the books or else.

One of the muscle men for The Group, Bick, seems to have a thing for Ginnie. You never really know if he enjoys teasing her because she is so sexually naive, if he feels somewhat sorry for her, if he wants half - or more - of the money she could get for the books if Ginnie was more commanding and sly, or if he actually has a soft spot for her. And I got the feeling he was confused about his feelings too.

The problem is this turns into a triangle. It turns out Ginnie's maybe beau is the gigolo of the rough middle aged female leader of The Group. And she is enraged to find out that this plain little mouse has stolen her man. These things do not usually end well, even when guns and gangs are not involved. How is Ness involved? He wants those books to help make a case against The Group, one they have not been able to make until now.

The story is actually quite poignant. With Phyllis Love playing a lonely young woman who doesn't feel feminine or confident unless she is dressed up in a prostitute's dress that she found and in the arms of Bick. This is not a very thrilling episode of The Untouchables, but it is a good character study.

This was an Untouchables episode truly out of left field. The white slavery traffic is most assuredly not within the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department. Which makes this particular episode of The Untouchables quite ludicrous.

Some new syndicate is operating houses of prostitution out of Depression era soup kitchens. Talk about something extra with your meal. Anyway on a raid, Harry Swoger who runs this kitchen is killed, but his niece Phyllis Love, a plane jane sort of girl runs off with the books. She'd like to turn them over to Eliot Ness, but hoodlum Don Gordon is giving her the big romance and wouldn't you know it he starts to fall for her.

Which doesn't sit well with Madame Brook Byron, a cold blooded piece of work if I ever saw one. I think you have the basic ingredients for this story. It's one of the more ridiculous Untouchables episodes.