Ensnaring the Purple Gang | Scenes from The Untouchables

📺 Read our episode review and breakdown here: https://theuntouchables.co/the-purple-gang/

Steve Cochran, already well known for the nasty characters he often played, including one in James Cagney’s celebrated White Heat (1949), is superbly cast as the Purple Gang’s ruthless leader, Eddie Fletcher. He eats chicken while impaling the hand of his pleading victim with a fork. He fires rounds into the wall next to the head of another as a warning. Utterly loathsome, he is one who elicits cheers from an audience when he finally gets his due. In Fletcher’s case, he is ripped apart in the end by Ness’ submachine gun in what many consider to be the most well-defined exit for any criminal in the series.

While it’s almost a footnote in this entry, "The Purple Gang" signals the return of Frank Nitti to his rightful place as a recurring character after he was knocked off at the conclusion of the First Season in "The Frank Nitti Story." For those viewers at home hardly keeping track of the series chronology, Nitti’s emergence is replete with a full re-introduction from Walter Winchell’s narration: “That evening, August 29th, 1932 at 9 PM, a black sedan with Illinois license plates was in Detroit. Inside the car was a man who was to die a violent death some years later, under the wheels of a train, but who at present was in control of the Capone empire. His name: Frank Nitti, known to the underworld as The Enforcer.”

THE PURPLE GANG
Airdates: December 1st, 1960 and July 27th, 1961
Written by John Mantley
Directed by Walter E. Grauman
Produced by Lloyd Richards
Director of Photography Charles Straumer
Co-starring Bruce Gordon, Werner Klemperer, Ilka Windish
Special Guest Star Steve Cochran
Featuring Carl Milletaire, Paul Lambert, Steven Geray, James Flavin, Rayford Barnes

ABOUT THE UNTOUCHABLES RETROSPECTIVE
Praised for its quality and famous for its drama, The Untouchables television show (1959-1963) roared like the decade it portrayed in grand, theatrical style. A controversial and Emmy award-winning series, its legacy in film and television has been felt from The Simpsons to The Sopranos. In recognition of the program's 60th Anniversary, The Untouchables Retrospective is a detailed and nostalgic account of American television's finest film noir. Learn more at http://theuntouchables.co.

From 1959-1963, the series brought to life the nightly wars between good and evil in the streets of Prohibition Chicago. With legendary lawman Eliot Ness (Robert Stack) and his band of incorruptible agents leading the way for justice, famed reporter Walter Winchell providing staccato narration and guest stars breathing life into colorful underworld characters, the true story of The Untouchables became legend in a film noir mix of true history and Emmy award-winning fiction.

Pick up your copy of The Untouchables: The Complete Series at http://cbshe.com/UntCS.

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