Blackstone Hotel - 636 S. Michigan Avenue, Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA - (ballroom where Capone kills guy with baseball bat)
Chicago Cultural Center - 78 E. Washington Street, Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA - (chase between Ness and Nitti)
Hardin, Montana, USA
Hardy Creek Bridge, Great Falls, Montana, USA - (bridge where Ness intercepts shipment of Canadian whiskey)
Roosevelt University - 430 S. Michigan Avenue, Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA - (front entrance and main lobby used as Lexington Hotel, where Al Capone lives)
Union Station - Canal St. & Jackson Blvd., Near West Side, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Kevin Costner portrays Eliot Ness in The Untouchables, which focuses on the pursuit of gangster Al Capone (Robert De Niro) by Ness and his select team of investigators who couldn’t be bought or bribed - hence the designation “untouchables.” The team includes George Stone (Andy Garcia), an Italian rookie cop and Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), a government accountant sent by Washington to get the goods on Capone. Sean Connery, is Jimmy Malone, a seasoned cop who tests Ness’ abilities to take on Capone.
Albert H. Wolff, the last survivor of the real-life Untouchables, was a consultant to the film and helped Kevin Costner with his portrayal of Eliot Ness.
Michael Douglas, Don Johnson and Mel Gibson were considered for the role of Eliot Ness and rejected. Harrison Ford was offered but turned down the role before Kevin Costner was signed.
Robert De Niro insisted on wearing the same style of silk underwear that Al Capone wore, even though it would never be seen on camera. The producers, knowing DeNiro's reputation as a Method actor, gave in.
Robert De Niro hadn't much time to gain the extra weight needed for his role, so that he had to wear pads and pillows for the desired effect of looking like the chunkier Capone.
Despite the final courtroom scene in this movie, the real Al Capone and Eliot Ness never came face to face during their battles.
In real life, Eliot Ness brought the only non-tax-related charges against Al Capone which resulted in 5,000 separate Volstead Act indictments.
Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Andy Garcia engaged in police tactic and weapons training for the film - from the 1950s.
According to Brian De Palma and Art Linson in the DVD documentary, it was Sean Connery's idea to film the "blood oath" scene between Ness and Malone in a Catholic church. Originally it was going to take place on the street (in the same scene that follows the church scene). Connery felt that a church would be the only "safe" place in Chicago where the two characters would make such a commitment to fight Capone.
The scene where Al Capone (Robert De Niro) suddenly pulls out a baseball bat at a dinner party and beats to death one of his men is based on a true incident which happened on May 7, 1929. Two of Capone's most feared hit men, Albert Anselmi and John Scalise, had hatched a plot to kill Capone and take over his gang. Capone got wind of it and invited all his associates to a dinner party, including Anselmi and Scalise. In the middle of the party, Capone pulled out a baseball bat and battered both men to death, then shot them both in the head. A conflicting version of the story has Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo, one of Capone's hit men, as the man who bludgeoned the traitors to death.
The set for Capone's personal barbershop at the Lexington Hotel included a number of small items (cologne bottles, shaving brushes) that belonged to the real Al Capone.
Jack Nicholson was also offered the role of Elliot Ness but declined.
William Hurt was considered for the role of Elliot Ness but was too busy with other projects.
You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.
People are gonna drink! You know that, I know that, we all know that, and all I do is act on that. And all this talk of bootlegging - what is bootlegging? On a boat, it's bootlegging. On Lake Shore Drive, it's hospitality. I'm a businessman!
Isn't that just like a wop? Brings a knife to a gun fight.
The boom mike is visible during the restaurant scene.
When the knife-man is sneaking into Malone's apartment, a camera and operator are reflected in the window.
Frank Nitti falls to his death into the car below, and Eliot Ness says "He's in the car." In the next shot, the camera is moving slowly toward the damaged car and Frank's body. If you look closely, you can see the camera crew gradually reflected in the car, as they walk toward the car from behind.
In one of the closing scenes of the movie, Eliiot Ness kills Frank Nitti. The real Frank Nitti actually committed suicide in 1943.
SPOILER: When Frank Nitti kills Malone in the alley, if you look closely you can see raised areas on Malone's vest. They're the blood packets exploding.
This movie (loosely inspired by the TV series, which, in turn, was broadly influenced by historical facts) may not have much thematic depth, but it represents two hours of pure, exuberant entertainment – an epic gangster tale rendered on a grand scale. Reviewed by: James Berardinelli of Reel Views.
Here is a movie about an era when law enforcement resembled gang warfare, but the movie seems more interested in the era than in the war. "The Untouchables" has great costumes, great sets, great cars, great guns, great locations and a few shots that absolutely capture the Prohibition Era. But it does not have a great script, great performances or great direction. Reviewed by: Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times.
Hollywood's latest big-budget, high-concept, mass-market reworking of material not entirely fresh, has more endings than Beethoven's Fifth, but it's also packed with surprises, not the least being that it's a smashing work. It's vulgar, violent, funny and sometimes breathtakingly beautiful. After this ''Untouchables,'' all other movies dealing with Prohibition Chicago, Al Capone and the lawmen who brought him to justice (for income tax evasion) must look a bit anemic. Reviewed by: Vincent Canby of The New York Times.
