UNTOUCHABLES, THE: THE NIGHT THEY SHOT SANTA CLAUS {FOURTH SEASON PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The fourth season premiere in this series of dramas based on the cases of federal agent Eliot Ness and his team of investigators as they battle corruption during the Prohibition era. In this episode, on Christmas Eve 1930, one Hap Levinson dresses as Santa Claus and pays a visit to some local kids – and is ruthlessly gunned down on the street upon departing. Ness, who had been friendly with Hap despite his criminal associations, is saddened by the bizarrely cruel assassination, and he finds a wrapped gift for a "Renee" in Hap's pocket. The two young witnesses to "Santa's" death reveal only that he was killed by two "bad guys" in a black car, and Ness then visits Hap's wife Bertha, who is devastated – but not quite surprised – by her husband's untimely demise. She admits that he was present at the Criss-Cross Club when its owner and Hap's close pal, Mike Volny, drunkenly killed a man over a two-dollar bet, though Hap, having noticed that witnesses to the crime keep mysteriously dying, claimed not to have seen the murder.
Ness then questions another known criminal, Brikka, suspecting that he killed Hap to send a message to the still-in-hiding Volny, though Brikka points the finger at Volny himself, adding that "Renee" was Hap's mistress. Offended by the salacious claim, Ness heads to the Criss-Cross Club and talks to chef Warczek and a number of showgirls, all of whom deny knowledge of any Renee. Wardrobe mistress Sophie, however, catches Ness outside and confirms that Hap was "no angel," explaining that dancer Renee Grayson left the club about two years ago, having presumably become Hap's kept woman. Ness tracks her down, and Renee tearfully admits that she loved the schlubby Hap and intended to marry him. Ness hands over the present and returns to his office, frustrated by his lack of definitive leads in Hap's death – but he then learns that Jimmy Canada, the final witness to the Criss-Cross killing, who had gone missing and was presumed dead, has turned himself in at the police station.
Ness encounters Bertha, who admits that Hap was far more involved in Volny's criminal activity than she previously let on and did, in fact, witness the murder. Canada laments that he will now surely be killed like Hap and the other witnesses, but Ness urges him to "die a hero" and Canada relates the full, sordid story of Volny's murder of his card-playing buddy. Volny then sends his "first lieutenant" Art Tenney to kill Renee, though Ness manages to save her just in time, and Renee sadly admits that she and Hap shared a drug addiction and needed Volny's connections to get their fix. Ness then learns that Canada has hanged himself in his cell, and he returns to the Criss-Cross Club, where Volny is crassly celebrating the demise of the final witness to his crime. Furious, Ness arrests him for Hap's murder, having figured out that Volny considered his pal a loose-lipped liability because of his addiction. Volny is acquitted in his eventual trials, however, hardening Ness' resolve to take down organized crime in all its forms. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: September 25, 1962 9:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:49:56
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: B:27772
- GENRE: Drama, police/detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/detective; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Christmas; Murder; Organized crime
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1959-1963
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Leonard Freeman … Executive Producer
- Alvin Cooperman … Producer
- Del Reisman … Associate Producer
- Alex March … Director
- Mort Thaw … Writer
- Eliot Ness … Based on the book by
- Oscar Fraley … Based on the book by
- Walter Winchell … Narrator
- Pete Rugolo … Music by
- Nelson Riddle … Theme Music by
- Robert Stack … Cast, Eliot Ness
- Ruth White … Cast, Bertha Levinson
- Russell Collins … Cast, Mr. Edges
- Nita Talbot … Cast, Renee Grayson
- Paul Picerni … Cast, Lee Hobson
- Nicholas Georgiade … Cast, Enrico Ross
- Abel Fernandez … Cast, Bill Youngfellow
- Steve London … Cast, Jack Rossman
- Curt Conway … Cast, Lieutenant Clay
- Edward Asner (see also: Ed Asner) … Cast, Jimmy Canada
- Ben Astar … Cast, Warczek
- Isabel Jewell … Cast, Sophie
- John Duke … Cast, Brikka
- Murvyn Vye … Cast, Mike Volny
- Grace Lee Whitney … Cast, Penny
- K.L. Smith … Cast, Art Tenney