The Untouchables (TV Series) Loophole (1961) User Reviews

A great big bluff

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 27 November 2013]

A really fine cast of guest players graces the cast of this Untouchables episode. The story concerns Martin Landau a fast rising young hoodlum on the make who wants to be at the top rubbing elbows with folks like Frank Nitti and Jake Guzik. To do that he bumps off George Tobias who has his own operation and an ace defense attorney in Jack Klugman. Klugman comes highly recommended, he just got Tobias off a murder rap.

But The Untouchables are nothing, but dogged and determined and Robert Stack eventually runs a great big bluff on Klugman and Landau as Landau's number one trigger man Gavin McLeod is on trial for his life.

This cast performs pretty much as you would expect them to. Landau played many a villain before Mission Impossible and McLeod is something of a revelation as a truly murderous hood. Not what you'd expect from Captain Stubing of the Love Boat. In fact with Klugman doing The Odd Couple and later Quincy, M.E. and Tobias on Bewitched all four would be regulars on network television shortly.

My favorite was Klugman however, a brilliant lawyer who desperately wanted to rise to the top and was not squeamish in how he did it.

A good chance to see a bunch television favorites all in one show.

Solid Episode

[telegonus · 9/10 · 28 November 2013]

A solid third season entry of The Untouchables, Loophole tells the story of a lawyer named Halas. played by Jack Klugman who works mostly for the mob but who also has a soft heart for the underdog, and a penchant for candy that goes back to his childhood.

This is a man who came up poor, still feels that his hands are dirty even though he makes around 200 large a year. He doesn't like his cocky new upstart client and actually feels more of an affinity with Eliot Ness except that they're on the opposite side of the fence.

This episode is far more character driven than most, with a flashy performance from a very young looking Martin Landau playing a ruthless up and coming mobster (is there any other kind?) who, for various reasons, some of them ethical, Klugman the lawyer would rather not be working for; but once in he cannot seem to extricate himself from his predicament.

What makes this episode so good is guest star Jack Klugman, lower key in style than he would be later in his career, he gives a performance of depth and sincerity, showing the innate decency of a man who has lived for the most part a not very decent life.

It's difficult to not like his character, to want him to win, get out of the rackets altogether, do something better with his life, his brains, his heart (and he clearly has one). The odds are against him, and they get worse as the episode approaches its climax. This entry in the series is way above average.

Jack Klugman at his very best

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 21 October 2019]

I love this kind of ambivalent character in this series; there are so many of them. Klugman is awesome, litteraly, facing the ever smileless Elliot Ness. Tremendous episode, among the very nest of this show.

The Jack Klugman show....

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 3 March 2016]

Jack Klugman is mostly known for starring in "The Odd Couple" and "Quincy". Both were enjoyable TV shows but neither stretched off his acting range. To see that, watch any one of a number of shows from the late 50s and early 60s, when Klugman was a frequent guest on shows like "The Twilight Zone" and "The Untouchables". Here in "Loophole" he's at his finest...and totally dominates this episode.

Morton Halas (Klugman) is a darned good lawyer. He's able to win cases that seem unwinnable and he's proud that he's worked his way up from the streets to be one of the best defense attorneys. But Ness is less than impressed...after all, Halas has helped spring folks who seemed guilty. Still, there is some mutual respect between them. But this is seriously strained when Halas begins working with some seriously awful gangsters....and Halas thinks he can do this AND maintain his integrity. Yeah, right!

As I said, the show was Klugman all the way. He has several really nice monologues and more than carries the show. Among the best shows of the season.

The Odd Couple - Klugman & Stack

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 16 March 2012]

Before he made his fame on TV in "The Odd Couple" and "Quincy, M.E.," Jack Klugman played various roles on television shows such as this one....and sometimes as a villain.

Here he is not entirely a villain, but he's pretty close. He a defense attorney who has big-shot gangsters as his clients. He's also very good at what he does. Klugman, as "Morton Halas" gets in a little too deep, however, when his latest client is the hot-tempered "Larry Coombs" (Martin Landau, another famous actor). They knocked off Halas' last employer and are offering almost double for his services. He's reluctant but it's an offer he can't refuse.

"Elliot Ness" (Robert Stack) is on to all of them here and even has some friendly chats with Halas. The two seem to have a mutual respect for each other's talents, if not morals. The conversations between Klugman and Stack are fascinating, I thought.

Be ready for a big twist near the end which nearly throws Ness and his Untouchables for a loop.

Another solid episode with a great cast. Check out some of the supporting guest actors in here!

Jack Klugman is a crooked candy eating counselor in...

[AlsExGal · 9/10 · 29 January 2022]

.. a completely mistitled episode of The Untouchables. The term "loophole" usually means something that a clever attorney has found within the law to sway things in favor of his client. Here Klugman plays attorney Morton Halas who does all kinds of things outside of the law - steals evidence, suborns perjury, and pays off witnesses to just disappear - in service of his mobster clientele.

This causes Ness' cases brought against Halas' clients to go down in defeat, and obviously irks him. But Halas gets in over his head when he allies himself with a headstrong mobster and becomes aware of a murder before it even happens, yet says and does nothing.

This episode oddly makes Ness a - somewhat - friend of Halas, in the sense that they have mutual respect for one another. And that would seem totally odd so a backstory is invented for Halas' character that tries to explain his behavior. He was a poor abused kid who has grown up to be a Robin Hood of sort. He gives some of his time to defend poor but innocent defendants and gives out money to poor kids who remind him of himself. From that he has managed to justify, at least to himself, his many crimes.

The Untouchables always had lots of talent in their episodes, but this one is particularly stacked (no pun intended). Not only does it have Klugman as the primary guest star, but Martin Landau is a dapper mobster who is out of his league, Gavin MacLeod plays his muscle, and George Tobias is Landau's rather benign mobster rival.