Although state lotteries have to some extent cut down on the numbers racket, still to a large degree in poor areas the traffic in it goes pretty much unabated. Eliot Ness and his Untouchables never in real life if memory serves got any kind of involved with this underworld vice. But the show was not much for accuracy.
Jay C. Flippen and Darryl Hickman are a pair of numbers runners who are father and son. Untouchable Jerry Paris has history with Flippen and tries to get him to rat out the syndicate. Of course they don't until some unfortunate circumstances that Flippen can't control make him a marked man with the syndicate.
Whit Bissell is the boss of the numbers racket and he's pretty good being cast against type. But he and Flippen have a scene where Flippen is on 'trial' at the headquarters for screwing up. Bissell is behind the curtain like Frank Morgan because no one but a handful know who Mr. Big is.
Flippen and Bissell may qualify as two of the greatest actors in history for not breaking out in laughter and keeping the straightest faces you can imagine for playing this incredibly hokey scene.
Not The Untouchables finest episode.
Jay C. Flippen and Darryl Hickman are a pair of numbers runners who are father and son. Untouchable Jerry Paris has history with Flippen and tries to get him to rat out the syndicate. Of course they don't until some unfortunate circumstances that Flippen can't control make him a marked man with the syndicate.
Whit Bissell is the boss of the numbers racket and he's pretty good being cast against type. But he and Flippen have a scene where Flippen is on 'trial' at the headquarters for screwing up. Bissell is behind the curtain like Frank Morgan because no one but a handful know who Mr. Big is.
Flippen and Bissell may qualify as two of the greatest actors in history for not breaking out in laughter and keeping the straightest faces you can imagine for playing this incredibly hokey scene.
Not The Untouchables finest episode.