The Untouchables (TV Series) The Seventh Vote (1961) User Reviews

Quite Kafkaesque.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 2 March 2016]

It's a real shame that the episodes of "The Untouchables" weren't written and aired in chronological order. Instead, they bounce about sequentially and this isn't usually a problem. However, in "The Seventh Vote" it is a bit of an issue. That's because in episode one of the first season, Nehemiah Persoff played 'Greasy Thumb' Guzik and he and Frank Nitti were locked into a battle over control of the Capone organization now that Al Capone was in prison.

Here, the old story picks up with the same story line and re- examines much of the same material and people. The big difference is that now the impasse is going to apparently be settled by bringing in Mr. Kafka to break the stalemate in the ruling council. The problem is that Kafka was deported over a decade earlier and they'll need to sneak him into the United States...which still seems like an awfully short-term sort of solution.

To get this guy into the country, Nitti and Guzik hire the services of Stavros (Joseph Ruskin)...a guy who doesn't take any guff off anyone...even these two gang leaders. But naturally, Ness is out to stop this and investigates Stavros' organization.

This is a pretty interesting show and in spite of being way out of sequence and a silly lucky shot by Ness at the end, it's well worth seeing. Some great support here with Persoff and Ruskin--two very familiar faces who make this show even more menacing than usual.

So business can be done

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 15 November 2013]

In this Untouchables episode all is not well in the Capone organization that Al left behind while he was in jail. There is a struggle for power in the group between Frank Nitti and Jake Guzik. The ruling council is split down the middle with Bruce Gordon having four votes and Nehemiah Persoff having four. Then some hits are made and it becomes three and three.

Orders from the top even though Capone is in the joint. He wants another man, a deported gangster brought back in secret to be the seventh vote so business can be done. For that Gordon and Persoff contact Joseph Ruskin, a man who specializes in smuggling people in and out of the USA for a big price.

Ruskin's a cold fish of a human being and Nitti and Guzik hate him more than each other, but he's got a service they need. And of course Robert Stack and his squad is on the trail.

I always liked what Nehemiah Persoff did with Jake 'Greasy Thumb' Guzik and I wish he did more episodes in that role.

In this good Untouchables episode it all gets nicely resolved.

Art Passarella Never Credited

[Morrisonhig · 9/10 · 2 December 2017]

Art Passarella plays A Jake Guzik Henchman, and is often in other Episodes such as a Nick Moses henchman, but why is he never credited here, and does not appear in the list of "Full cast and crew", why this is I am not sure as he was a well known Baseball Umpire, he is credited as Officer Sukulavich in the Streets of San Fran Cisco. so why not here.

Persoff as Jake Guzik is back...

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 18 March 2022]

... which is odd since another episode set shortly after Capone's imprisonment has him headed for federal prison, shot and betrayed by the widow of an employee. But then facts never got in the way of a good story on The Untouchables, even though Jake Guzik was a real person.

Jake Guzik (Nehemiah Persoff) and Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon) see things differently. Nitti wants to use brawn, Guzik, the syndicate's bookkeeper, uses brains Because they both have equal numbers of kindred spirits on the syndicate governing council, every vote ends in a tie. Capone, doing time in prison, doesn't like this stalemate, so he decides a neutral deciding vote will be brought in, in the person of Kafka, formerly Capone's mentor and someone who has been deported.

Now most of this episode is about the cat and mouse game of The Untouchables trying to intercept Kafka before he gets successfully smuggled into the United States. Ness is clever, but the person actually doing the smuggling for the mob -Joseph Ruskin - is equally clever and is also a cold blooded killer when he feels that he has to be.

There are a couple of odd things going on. The first one is that you never see Kafka's undisguised face and you never hear his voice. The second thing is this - Somebody is systematically doing away with both Nitti's and Guzik's subordinates who have voting rights in what seems like an effort to break the tie vote on the council. But you never find out who this person is who is ordering the hits, although it can be assumed that Nitti and Guzik are having their henchmen do the hits. It is odd to see a villain not eventually fess up to whatever bad deeds he's been up to.

Recommended because of the cleverness of the storyline, plus there is lots of good old fashioned police work and forensics in this episode for a change.