The Untouchables (TV Series) 90-Proof Dame (1961) User Reviews

Brandy Drinkers can tell

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 20 November 2013]

This Untouchables episode is based on the premise that brandy drinkers are a discerning lot and can tell the real deal from the swill that is floating around during Prohibition. Steve Cochran who owns a burlesque theater manufactures such swill and he'd like to drive the real stuff out of existence.

The best real imported brandy is from Steven Geray who on a visit to Chicago is killed by Cochran and his hoods. But Geray a titled Frenchman bequeathed his title on his wife Joanna Barnes. She may be a marquise now but back in the day she was a dancer in Cochran's burlesque house.

Robert Stack comes to her for help when her husband is killed, but Barnes is working on her own plan to get even.

Cochran is his usual silky and cruel villain. And Barnes is quite the lady scorned. This one Untouchables fans will like.

Once a dame, always a dame?

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 2 March 2016]

Apart from some logical inconsistencies, this is a pretty good episode of "The Untouchables" and, as usual, Steve Cochran stars as a real dirt-bag.

When the show begins, the crazed hood, Kester (Cochran) is announcing to an unhappy man that he's going to be buying his Brandy*. However, the stuff is just crappy liquor stuck into counterfeit bottles. It's not the good stuff, de Bouverais, but his usual swill. Kester's plan (not a very logical one) is to destroy all the de Bouverais** in the city and then replace it with his crap. A bit later, the man responsible for the de Bourverais, the Marquis de Bouverais, visits America and Kester's plan is to force him to stop selling it to anyone in the States...and he plan on using the man's wife, the Marquise. How? Because before marrying this rich Frenchman, she was a stripper who worked for Kester...and he threatens to blow her cover.

As for Ness, he assumes when Kester is meeting with the Marquise it is because she is just cheap dame...once a cheap dame, always a cheap dame...as he knows of her past. But is she on the level? Could she actually be a decent woman? And, more importantly, can Ness count on her help?

As I already mentioned, this one is enjoyable because Cochran played such florid and nasty baddies on this show. The plot is also somewhat interesting, though it makes little sense at times.

*Although they call it Brandy throughout the episode, the crates say 'Cognac'--a very high quality version of Brandy from the Cognac region of France. It usually is more expensive and more prized than Brandy.

**The logic behind this really is screwy. Kester destroys cases and cases and cases of the stuff instead of stealing and selling it. He also then later says he needs SOME de Bouverais as a base for the swill he's making. Why not use the de Bouverais instead of destroying it?! It didn't seem like this was very well thought out by the writer.