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
AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards
1988 Won ASCAP Award Top Box Office Films Ennio Morricone
A highly successful TV show that ran on ABC from 1959 to 1963, The Untouchables starred Robert Stack as Eliot Ness, the no-nonsense “Fed” who took a bite out of crime in the days of Prohibition. People who had Stack’s portrayal in their minds as they headed for theaters emerged two hours later from the “R”-rated film with a new hero. As Eliot Ness, Kevin Costner created a whole new image for a character that had been mere cardboard for an earlier generation.
“The biggest challenge of Eliot Ness,” Costner said during filming, according to the movie's production handbook, “is that he’s not a flashy character, and the trick is to try not to make him flashy He’s a really steady character, a homebody with a real sense of what’s right and wrong…..and he’s kind of courageous,” Costner found offers pouring in after The Untouchables, his first starring role. His 1988 hit, Bull Durham, and 1989's Field of Dreams landed him on the cover of Time. In two short years, his price tag had risen to $5,000,000, and many were calling the handsome, intelligent actor a cross between Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper.
Under the direction of Brian DePalma, generally noted for blood-spurting thrillers like Carrie, Dressed to Kill and Scarface, The Untouchables focuses on the pursuit of gangster Al Capone (played magnificently by Robert De Niro) by Ness and his cronies, a 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. The plum role, though, went to Sean Connery, as Jimmy Malone, a seasoned cop who tests Ness’ abilities to take on Capone. Connery proved he had outgrown the James Bond image with his Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor.
Although the picture is violent, as is to be expected with most De Palma Elms, there are fine production values and The Untouchables received praise from critics. Daily Variety called the crime drama “a beautifully crafted portrait of Prohibition era Chicago` in which "script, directing, characterization, wardrobe, art direction and score jointly evoke the celebrated conflict between gangster bootleggers and Federal agents.” The reviewer had special praise for Connery, Costner and especially De Niro, “a compelling figure who stops just short of caricature. With the addition of 30 pounds and the legendary facial scar De Niro is quite convincing - perhaps never more so than during one powerful scene in which he wields a bat while philosophizing about business with his lieutenants.”
Anyone who has seen this picture will instantly recall this scene, brutal yet wonderfully directed. Like the man said, this is a study in good film making and, incidentally, entertainment on a very adult level.
INTERESTING FACTS
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.
FAMOUS QUOTES
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.
GOOFS AND BLUNDERS
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.
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