The Untouchables (TV Series) The Whitey Steele Story (1962) User Reviews

From Coast To Coast

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 25 January 2012]

"Eliot Ness" (Robert Stack) starts in New York City but goes undercover across the country in San Francisco in this episode. He pretends to be "Whitey Steele," some hood from Chicago and he's doing fine until, of course, someone gets suspicious and begins checking.

The episode is filled with suspense in the second half as Ness infiltrates a new operation designed to take over the "racing wire," a service to bookies across the country. There's also a problem with heroin involved with these hoods.

Henry Silva, one of my favorite "bad guy" actors of the era, guest stars along with Murray Hamilton, who is always good no matter what character he plays.

Eliot Ness undercover?

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 11 December 2013]

I couldn't really believe this one. As Eliot Ness properly points out every hood east of the Mississippi knows what he looks like, especially due to the rather public way he goes about smashing crime garnering a lot of publicity for himself. So with some reluctance Robert Stack goes undercover without any of his squad's backup in San Francisco where presumably they don't know him.

It all starts with some hoods gaining control of Murray Hamilton's racing wire service and its national connections. A new crime cartel is being formed and its head will be Eduardo Ciannelli and the racing wire service is all a front for narcotics distribution after its been imported from the Orient.

It all nearly gets undone when a really murderous hood played by Henry Silva recognizes Stack. But of course he gets out of it because of the next Untouchables episode to follow.

No way in the world Eliot Ness ever worked undercover, but a good cast that also includes Sean McClory as a San Francisco police captain makes this story entertaining.

Putting Ness under cover would have made just about as much sense as having Franklin Roosevelt go under cover!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 15 March 2016]

In general, I enjoyed "The Untouchables"...hence my decision to review the shows. However, occasionally the show had some real clunkers...shows which were horribly written and strained the audience's ability to suspend disbelief to the breaking point! Such is "The Whitey Steele Story"...a truly awful show.

When the show begins, you learn that some enterprising crooks have created what's called a 'racing wire' to sneak racing results back to bookies quicker than using conventional methods. However, the mob wants control of this and have killed two of the three men who created this racing wire. Only Barrigan (Murray Hamilton) remains...and he's plenty scared. So much so that he calls Ness...and the line goes dead in the middle of the call. It appears that Barrigan has met his end.

Ness' boss wants Ness to go undercover in San Fransico to investigate. So the plan is for Ness, a VERY famous and well known Treasury agent, to infiltrate this mob in the guise of 'Whitey Steele'. Apart from perhaps having J. Edgar Hoover, Herbert Hoover or Franklin Roosevelt do this, I cannot think of a worse choice and inevitably SOMEONE in San Francisco will identify him as Ness...duh. And, that is exactly what inevitably happens! Can Ness manage not to get his head blown off? And, what possessed the writer to come up with such a hair-brained and unbelievable concept?!