The Untouchables (1959): (continued) Sunday, August 19, 1934. At 2:30 a.m., the Big Train is backed into the prison yard of the State Pen in Atlanta. 54 hardened criminals, including Al Capone and Tony Diaz, are handcuffed and loaded onto the train. On board are prison guards armed with machine guns. Once seated, the prisoners are additionally given leg shackles and told to put them on. Then, at 5:00 a.m., the Big Train pulls out-- right on schedule. Ness and his men fly to Salt Lake City, Utah, and get there 3:00 p.m.; they head straight to the Lone Eagle Flying Service. One of Nitti's boys, Seth Gordon, carrying 300 grand in a suitcase, has just hired Fred Noonan to put his plane "on hold" until the 22nd, and then fly a client to Mexico. Ness and Lee Hobson pose as potential customers and Noonan tells them all about the trip to Mexico, what the guy who hired him ("Mr. Green") looks like, the timeframe, etc. August 21, 1934. That morning, the Big Train is passing through Kansas on its way to Denver, Colorado. Ness and his men wait impatiently in Salt Lake City. And meanwhile, 32 miles northeast of San Francisco, in the (fictitious) town of Cloverville-- a tiny town that exists only because of the railroad depot there--the Western gang hired by Nitti arrives: 3 carloads, about a dozen hoods. They go to Sheriff Warren and Deputy Sheriff Jerry Matthews; the 2 top hoods, Eric "the Swede" Hovick and "Handsome" Johnny Rollins, introduce themselves as Henry Nelson, and Frank Dudley from the Attorney General's office in Washington, DC. The sheriffs, totally deceived, show the rail layout to the mobsters and give them all the information they need. But when a telegraph tips the sheriff off, the hoods take out their guns and shoot the Deputy. Now the gangsters take the whole town hostage. In Salt Lake City, Ness and his men learn of a telegraph sent to Fred Noonan: Mr. Green is arriving at 11:42 p.m. The precise time tips them off that a plane from Chicago is arriving at the airport then. Ness and his men are there where Mr. Green shows up, with a suitcase with 300 Gs-- and Joe Gianbattista, "Three-Fingered" Jack White and Gus Mencken. They tell the pilot he will be flying exactly 440 miles. There is a big shootout; Gianbattista, White and Mencken buy the farm and Green is apprehended. Based on a flying distance of exactly 440 miles, Ness figures they were going to fly to Cloverville, Calif. (note: the distance between Salt Lake City, Utah, and San Francisco, Calif., is 605 miles.) Ness and his men will take the plane there in their place: Ness will pretend to be Italian Gianbattista, while Lee Hobson will pose as "Three-Fingered" Jack White. August 22. Ness and his men fly to San Francisco, and meet up with Edward A. Garth, West Coast head of the department. Enrico Rossi and Bill Youngfellow ride in a car with Garth and 3 of his men, and go "the 38 miles" to Cloverville. Ness and his other 2 men fly to Cloverville with Fred Noonan, as scheduled. When they meet with Eric "the Swede" Hovick, Jack Rossman's alias as Gus Mencken is okay-- but Hovick is suspicious of Ness as Gianbattista ("You don't look Italian"), and Lee Hobson as "Three-Fingered" Jack White (who isn't missing any fingers). But for now, Hovick just counts the 300 grand. The Big Train is due to arrive in Cloverville at 10:20 a.m.; Capone checks his Bulova watch, it's 10:14. (note: prisoners are not allowed to wear watches for this exact reason, so they can't time things like prison breaks. That Al Capone would be allowed to wear a watch on the Big Train is inconceivable.) Guard Lafferty slips Capone a key to unlock his ankle shackles. In Cloverville, Garth and Rico overpower some hoods and free the sheriff, and get some guns. Ness and Lee and Rossman join them; now, they are all armed to the teeth with choppers, etc. On the Big Train, Capone rips the bandages on his right forearm, where he was stabbed, and he starts bleeding again. He yells for the doctor. Lafferty takes Capone's handcuffs off. In a very dramatic scene, Rico, Lee Hobson, Ness, Garth, the Sheriff & 3 other guys come marching down the street-- 8 across, shoulder to shoulder-- firing their weapons. (this looks great on camera, but in real life they'd be quite a target). The crooks blast with their shotguns, but only hit one of the good guys. Rossman and Youngfellow blast a hood out of the town water tower. Ness guns down Handsome Johnny Rollins. Seeing how poorly things are going for his men, Hovick surrenders. The Big Train stops, but there are no hoods to rescue Capone; the guards slap the irons back on him. They ask the doctor to treat the injured in town. Tony Diaz goes nuts and tries to escape; a guard shoots him. (Capone had said that during his escape, he'd get a gun and shoot Warden Hubbard-- he no doubt would have shot Tony Diaz, too. Diaz was doomed either way.) 10:35 on the morning of Wednesday, August 22, 1934, the Big Train effected the switch-over in Cloverville. Capone's hopes for freedom were gone. At 11:40 a.m., in the port of Tiburon, the cars were detached from the train and backed onto a barge, which took the 54 prisoners (including dead Tony) the 15 miles to the island of Alcatraz. Ness and his men watch as Capone is locked up. Lee Hobson quips, "the Napoleon of crime." Ness notes, "Napoleon ended up on an island, too." This was the prison that Ness had envisioned, and helped to create-- there are no bigshots on the Rock. (synopsis by: kdh) --------------------------------- [facts: Al Capone was released from Alcatraz on January 6, 1939, having served almost 7 years and 3 months of his 11-year sentence (at Chicago, Atlanta & Alcatraz). Capone died on January 25, 1947, from complications due to syphilis, in his Florida home-- he was 47.] [did you know: Alcatraz, also known as "The Rock," is located in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. The 12-acre rock island became a federal prison in 1934, and housed America's most dangerous criminals, until it was closed down in 1963.]

Starring:

Abel Fernandez, Nicholas Georgiade, Paul Picerni, Robert Stack, Steve London, Walter Winchell

Genre:

Action, Crime, Drama