The Untouchables (TV Series) The Underground Court (1961) User Reviews

Joan Blondell Steals this Episode

[uber_geek · 8/10 · 13 February 2012]

The first part of the plot is typical Untouchables. There is a mobster thought dead in an accident on a passenger ship who has $500K of syndicate money. He sees it as a way to leave the mob and retire. The underground court is a mob court who wants to know if Valentine Ferrar is dead or alive and what happened to the money.

But that plot line takes a back seat when Ferrar shows up at widow Hannah 'Lucy' Wagnall home and takes a trip with her and her raven named Gordan, although it's not really clear why he's using her for a getaway avenue. Once a year, since her husband died, she takes a man up to the cabin she and her husband had shared for their second honeymoon. Even though she apparently has a photographic memory, she insists on calling all her men Gordan after her husband. And she seems unaffected by the position she puts herself in when she memorizes and destroys a letter to Ness by Ferrar spilling information on the mob. Blondell's character is dizzy, a bit scary and yet remains very likable throughout. You soon realize that, however, she has a secret of her own and Ferrar isn't as smart as he thinks.

The Untouchables enter the world of the macabre

[AlsExGal · 9/10 · 5 March 2022]

The ship Morro Castle really did burn and sink off the New Jersey coast on the date mentioned in 1934. This episode begins with that event, and gangster Valentine Ferrar allegedly dies in the disaster, at least according to his companion Inky Beggs. The mob is interested because Ferrar was carrying a million dollars of their money, and they wonder if Ferrar is using the disaster as a smokescreen to steal their money, and they'd be right.

For some reason that is never clear, Ferrar answers the personal ad of somebody who wants a traveling companion to go to the country. Why could he not find another way to leave town that does not take chances with a stranger? But then we would have no story. I imagine Ferrar was planning to travel to the country with this person and then kill them so nobody could say where he had gone and if he was even alive.

But the person whose ad he answers, Lucy Wagnell (Joan Blondell), is a very weird widow who goes on a "second honeymoon" every year with a random man who answers her ads as a way of remembering her dead husband. Let's just say that Ferrar gets more than he bargained for in this very strange and oddly cheerful and unflappable woman. Meanwhile Ness and company have figured out Ferrar is alive because he has left a trail of dead bodies behind him.

There is also some strange bit about an underworld court where a self proclaimed psychic says he can tell if somebody is telling him the truth via brain waves. And the rest of the mob buys this?? This must have been an attempt to shake things up with an episode that had some of the ingredients of the horror films that were making the rounds in the early 60s, often featuring a mentally unbalanced older woman, and I must say I found it oddly appealing.

The Untouchables stumble upon a black widow!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 22 May 2024]

Surely an unusual episode concerning the premise of the series, aside it is linked with the underground, it has elements of black humor and flirting with ominous on a bleak character of Joan Blondell as Lucy or "Lucifer" as his former husband Gordon used to call her, it already implied a hint what coming next.

In the beginning a Mobster Valentine Ferrar (Richard Devon) settled on Cuba has to running from there, due the ship liner went to sink, he is presumed dead, therefore a million dollars went down on the water with the dead body, turns out that the syndicate has a court lead by Judge Coley (Frank De Kova) that suspect that Ferrar assembly a plot to steal the money.

Meanwhile Ferrar perceiving the menace of underground court, he has a thump card, a letter addressed to Eliot Ness exposing the mobsters delivery previously to his Angel Lucy, that has others plans for him.

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5.

Interesting and weird

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 23 July 2012]

One of the more interesting and weird episodes of The Untouchables is this one where syndicate messenger Richard Devon steals half a million dollars in collection money that he got while in Havana. Devon uses the famous sinking of the Morro Castle to as part of his getaway.

Of course the syndicate is after him. But Devon has an interesting followup to the Morro Castle. He answers an advertisement from a very strange widow woman played by Joan Blondell who wants someone to share the driving to her 'honeymoon castle'. And thereupon take a honeymoon with Joan as a reminder of her husband who died on their's.

I can't go any more on describing this episode, you have to see this one for yourself. But Blondell has an agenda as interesting as Devon's trying to get away with half a million dollars. It might not do him any good though.

A guy steals $500,000 from the mob and then goes on a road trip with a loopy lady...I see no potential problems here!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 1 March 2016]

When the show begins, there is an accident where a boat coming from Cuba catches fire off the New Jersey coast. A mobster aboard, Valentine Ferrar (Richard Devon), takes advantage of this by stealing $500,000 of the mob's money and faking his death. He also kills a couple people before hooking up with an extremely kooky lady. Mrs. Wagnall (Joan Blondell) is looking to share the ride and costs with someone...and Ferrar is her partner for a little trip. During the course of the trip, it's very obvious that Wagnall is a totally strange lady and her weird bug-eyed expression and weird smile would creep out pretty much anyone! The way she behaves is even more strange...especially when she is taken prisoner by mobsters. You'd think she'd be scared or at least concerned...but this odd-ball just reacts in the strangest manner.

So is all this weirdness any good? Well, it's not terrible. But I think the show's attempt at making a humorous episode was far from a total success--mostly because Blondell's character was too goofy and too annoying to be realistic. Worth watching but far, far from a good episode. But at least the very end was a nice twist!