User Reviews

The first season Untouchables episode The Noise Of Death is one of the best of the season and of the series as a whole. Well directed by Walter Grauman, from a Ben Maddow script, it tells a tale that has no moral, as such, as it doesn't concern people of principle but rather men of Code, the code of the Mafia. As such it's a fascinating study of a man, Joe Bucco, who's done nicely for himself, is a high ranking capo in the Organization, and an aging one at that, but not a don. His "territory" is a Chicago neighborhood, over which he rules like a benign despot, when in a good mood, and a not so benign one when he has to. The man is a criminal who does not like to see himself as one.

One doesn't sense a whole lot of cruelty in Joe Bucco, as his story develops, but rather a man capable of doing bad things when it's absolutely necessary. The big guys, the men just above him, want him to retire. They mean him no harm at first; they simply believe that a young rival of Joe's, whom we know only as Little Charlie, is a better man for the now somewhat more complicated position that Joe holds, and who demonstrates a more street smart business sense. He's also more ruthless than Joe. Little Charlie resembles the much older man in being stubborn and in not taking no for an answer.

This is the gist of the episode, which plays more like an entry in an anthology series than of a TV show with regular characters; and while the eponymous Untouchables play a role, they're mostly witnesses to the decline and fall of a career criminal, a man Eliot Ness calls a monster, and yet a monster with a man inside. Ness appeals to Joe Bucco the man and in the end is humiliated for his efforts. There's lots of death in this one, and only some of it's noisy. Guest stars J. Carrol Naish and Henry Silva are excellent as, respectively, the old lion and his young rival. Naish, who can go over the top at the drop of a napkin, shows occasional restraint, allows the viewer to see the inside of a very human monster.