The Untouchables (TV Series) You Can't Pick the Number (1959) User Reviews

The Beginning Of 'The Numbers Game'

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 2 July 2007]

The time is Oct. 19, 1932: the depth of the Depression in the U.S., which was a perfect time for gangsters to offer "the numbers." For desperate people, looking for any kind of unforeseen hope, a little financial break even for a day or two, this lure to put money down on a number from 0 to 999 was tough to resist. The mob made an absolute fortune on this. Their take was 40 percent, so the profit had to be big.

Elliot Ness' objective, of course, is to break this number's game. He's hoping a friend of fellow agent "Martn Flaherty" (Jerry Paris) will help him do so, but Marty is not happy about leaning on an old friend. Nonetheless, when an old man kills a racketeer in a rage over a wrong number, Ness knows more than ever that something has to be done about this new crime gimmick That, and the fact that many people spent their family's bread money to gamble it away on "numbers."

Jay C. Flippen and Darryl Hickman play "Al" and "Phil" Morrisey, respectively. They are father-and-son numbers runners and they are the key to the story

It's a decent episode but like a lot of these that I am re-visiting 40 years later, a lot slower than I remembered. It's just that times have changed and movie and TV shows are faster- paced than they were in the 1950s and '60s

Marty's friends...

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 12 January 2016]

This episode of "The Untouchables" is all about the numbers racket-- specifically a lottery that the mob runs and poor folks pay into hoping to get rich. If you think about it, this and the very low payouts are EXACTLY what he have in America today but it's okay because it's put on by the government! Well, back in the day, it was very illegal and Ness, of course, wants to put a stop to it. But of course the local cops turn a blind eye because they're on the take...and the 'little guys' in the organization won't talk. So Ness pushed one of his men, Marty (Jerry Paris) to try to get one of these little guys to talk. Years before, Al Morrissey (Jay C. Flippen) had saved Marty's life and they were friends...and Al was one of these little guys in the organization. But Al and his son, Phil (Daryl Hickman), are adamant....they won't talk. So what happens when Al ends up getting on the wrong side of his bosses?

This is a mildly interesting episode of the series and not nearly as memorable as most. I am not saying it's bad...but it lacks the sneering, crazed villains that made many of the episodes much more enjoyable...and lowbrow.

The Numbers Always Add Up

[Piafredux · 31 May 2012]

Sure, the mob took a 40% profit on however much it paid out on the one winning number, but the mob kept ALL of the profit from the money wagered on the other 999 losing numbers. The numbers game was very lucrative, which is why it's no longer in business as a criminal enterprise, but is very much in business in the form of state lotteries' Pick-3 and Pick-4 wagering games and, of course, in the form of state 5 and 6-number lotteries and in the form of the multi-state PowerBall and MegaMillions games.

Prohibition of the numbers racket didn't need to be ended by law enforcement, but merely by the state itself taking over the numbers game - and then adding assorted other lucrative forms of state and multi-state lotteries. You might be excused for thinking, then, that the state could end illegal drug trafficking (and all of the blood shed by criminals over its profits and by police in the course of their duty of enforcing drug laws) by legalizing marijuana and taxing it. But then that would put a lot of unionized local, state, and federal police and DEA agents out of a job - and out of a generous government pension and lifetime health and dental benefits.

Alcohol prohibition didn't work - it just turned a lot of people, even lots of ordinary mugs, into criminals (during Prohibition my grandfather, who worked a factory day job, made bathtub hooch that he sold or just gave away to his cronies on his city block). Which, if you think about it, is what the numbers game did to a lot of ordinary people who were numbers runners and bagmen - turned them into criminals until the state started running its numbers games and lotteries, and is what marijuana prohibition is still doing to a lot of small-time dealers and puffers.

Eliot Ness was still a Treasury agent when Repeal of the Volstead Act came along - and so will a lot of present day agents and police still be carrying their badges when, one fine day, marijuana prohibition comes to its logical, humane end when the state finally grasps the eternal fact that people like to sin - and that it's better for government than it is for murderous criminals to profit from people's wont to sin.

Two of the greatest actors in history

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 1 June 2012]

Although state lotteries have to some extent cut down on the numbers racket, still to a large degree in poor areas the traffic in it goes pretty much unabated. Eliot Ness and his Untouchables never in real life if memory serves got any kind of involved with this underworld vice. But the show was not much for accuracy.

Jay C. Flippen and Darryl Hickman are a pair of numbers runners who are father and son. Untouchable Jerry Paris has history with Flippen and tries to get him to rat out the syndicate. Of course they don't until some unfortunate circumstances that Flippen can't control make him a marked man with the syndicate.

Whit Bissell is the boss of the numbers racket and he's pretty good being cast against type. But he and Flippen have a scene where Flippen is on 'trial' at the headquarters for screwing up. Bissell is behind the curtain like Frank Morgan because no one but a handful know who Mr. Big is.

Flippen and Bissell may qualify as two of the greatest actors in history for not breaking out in laughter and keeping the straightest faces you can imagine for playing this incredibly hokey scene.

Not The Untouchables finest episode.