The Untouchables (TV Series) Power Play (1961) User Reviews

You probably could have appointed someone better for crime commissioner!

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 2 March 2016]

So, if you are worried about crime and corruption, who would you want to appoint as a new crime commissioner? A politician....a priest....a school teacher....or perhaps a federal agent or judge? Well, in this one the new commissioner is a lawyer...so it's a good bet that Willard Thornton (Wendell Corey) is a crook! But he's not just a little crook...he's a guy building his own little criminal empire that makes its money off narcotics!!

The only problem with Thornton's new empire is his enforcer, 'Country Boy' Parrish (Albert Salmi)...and Parrish is in hiding because he now realizes his boss wants him dead. Will Ness get to Parrish before Thornton? And, what exactly is going to become of Parrish in his new hiding place and the strange, lonely woman who is offering to help him?

This is a pretty exciting episode...even if Ness' discovery that the commissioner is evil seemed to come from no where. The lady who helps Parrish is a great character and this one offered some original story elements. Worth seeing. And, by the way, in a small role is Carroll O'Connor as well.

Incidentally, although he looks kind of bad for his age, Wendell Corey was only in his 40s when he made this episode. Sadly, his haggard looks were due to his alcoholism...which took his life when he was only 54. What a shame.

If not the best, at least among the most interesting episodes.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 9/10 · 17 October 2019]

I love this kind of unusual stories, which focus on supporting characters, instead of the usual lead ones, who, in this topics are only the "audiences". The rotten commisionner is very unexpected and the scheme with the cold blooded killer Salmi "prisoner" of this poor lonely lady is so moving, so intersting and offbeat that this makes this episode particularely interesting. Don't miss the last scene, with the poor woman alone in her grief, whilst Ness and his goons leave her...

Veers off course...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 25 March 2022]

... in that it doesn't go where you are expecting it to go.

Gang violence is getting bad in Chicago, so a special crime commissioner is appointed, 48 year old recently retired attorney Willard Thornton (Wendall Corey). And immediately you find out that not only is he crooked, he is the head of the crime syndicate he is supposed to be investigating.

But to be such a smart operator Thornton makes some stupid mistakes. First he orders a hit on a junkie who messed up and allowed himself to be followed by the Untouchables back to the warehouse full of drugs. Then the guy who does the hit is caught in the same building as the dead junkie and arrested. So Thornton decides to have him bailed out of jail and hit too. This could not be good for morale! Who would he have killed next?

So I thought this might be about the mob turning on one another because of Thornton's thrill kill attitude or maybe the plot would investigate why a rich successful lawyer like Thornton would turn to crime minus a real financial incentive to do so. But no, instead it winds up with the hitman running from the mob, hiding in a service station/diner, and being the victim of the wanton female proprietor's desire to make him a victim of, what is called today, human trafficking. Life has been passing her by despite her frantic yoohooing and this becomes all about her and her desire for a boy toy who is not cooperating.

It is very weird ground The Untouchable is treading here, but it is interesting to see Wendell Corey play a bad guy for a change.

It never fails to amaze me, how good TV actors were in the '50s and '60s!

[clong-31586 · 23 August 2020]

Without giving anything away at all, Take a lesson in some of the most superlative acting on the planet! The story is flawless and the characters are all down the middle like one would demand. Watch and be mesmerized as you are transported to a time in US history that, I'm pretty sure wasn't embellished! Well, maybe it was a little... Just an outstanding series at every turn!!!

Lawlessness on the rise again

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 22 November 2013]

Lawlessness is on the rise again in Chicago and the governor has appointed white shoe lawyer Wendell Corey as head of the crime commission. What the governor doesn't know is that Corey is also the secret of the new syndicate being put together out of remnants of the old mobs. His number two is bail bondsman Carroll O'Connor and enforcer Albert Salmi.

Things unravel when Salmi is caught by The Untouchables at the scene of a junkie's murder. O'Connor bails him out and then tries to kill him, but Salmi does him in. After that he's a fugitive wanted by both Robert Stack's team and Corey.

Unfortunately for Salmi he takes refuge with Mary Fickett who runs a hash house for truckers and is kind of man crazy. Maybe on the run just might be better.

As you can see this Untouchables episode has top flight guest cast and they deliver a fine episode.

Archie Bunker, The Crooked Bail Bondsman!

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7 October 2011]

So far, Season 3 has gotten off to a great start. This episode, too, was excellent and was another that featured a great cast of guest stars. Wendell Corey played the lead villain, followed by - gasp! "Archie Bunker." Yes, it was Carroll O'Connor with dark hair and a mustache as a corrupt bail bondsman working with a new mob.

Albert Salmi, not a big name but an excellent actor in his day, was terrific as the thug, "Steve 'Country Boy' Parish." Stealing the show, however, was an unknown (to me) actress named "Mary Fickett" who was riveting as "Emma Sarver."

There were good outdoors scenes in here, not just studio shots, and the photography is fantastic. Robert Stack, as always, was fun to watch as "Elliot Ness." He got taken in, for most of the show, by Corey's character "Willard Thornton" but you know the truth would get out and justice prevail at the end. In fact, almost every "bad guy" in this story got knocked off at some point.

Note: Fickett just died last month (9/8/11) at the age of 83. She appeared on 58 episodes of the TV soap, "All My Children" from 1981-2000.