Walter Winchell Movies

This episode is a wild and wacky spoof of the old TV series The Untouchables, which like The Lucy Show was a Desilu production (what a coincidence!). Struck by Lucy's resemblance to notorious gun moll Rusty Martin, Eliot Ness-like federal agent Briggs (who else but Robert Stack?) persuades Lucy (Lucille Ball) to pose as the moll in order to track down the money stolen by recently paroled gangster Big Nick (played by Bruce Gordon, who'd portrayed Frank Nitti on The Untouchables). The episode's nostalgia appeal is greatly enhanced by the rat-tat-tat narration of Walter Winchell -- and as a bonus, Lucy (as Rusty) performs a con brio rendition of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy." At the end of the show, Lucy breaks character and invites Robert Stack and Bruce Gordon to take a bow, thereby acknowledging her studio audience for the first and only time onscreen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In hopes of breathing life into the series' dormant ratings, ABC moved The Untouchables from the Thursday to Tuesday evening, removing the threat of NBC ratings-grabbing Sing Along with Mitch and counterprogramming the now four-year-old crime drama opposite the presumably "soft" competion of The Dick Powell Show and The Jack Benny Program. Alas, both of the competing programs held tightly to their timeslots, and The Untouchables was cancelled. In the months before the inevitable axing, the series' producers tried to hypo the show by encouraging star Robert Stack to lighten up his portrayal of flinty-eyed 1930s treasury agent Elliott Ness and make the character more human and vulnerable. There are also a handful of attempts to generate audience interest by offering potential Untouchables spinoffs. One of these, "Elegy", was planned as the pilot for a series starring Barbara Stanwyck as Lt. Aggie Stewart of the Bureau of Missing Persons. Two others, "Bird in the Hand" and "Jake Dance", were designed as trial balloons for a weekly show featuring Dane Clark as Dr. Victor Garr of the US Public Health Service. And finally, Scott Brady was headlined in "The Floyd Gibbons Story", an effort to transform colorful one-eyed journalist and globetrotter Gibbons into a viable TV-series leading man. More interesting than these failed pilots are the guest appearances by a number of stars in the making during The Untouchables' fourth and final season. The episode "Snowball" featured not only Robert Redford but also Star Trek's future "Chekov" Walter Koenig; Robert Duvall was given ample screen footage in "Blues for a Gone Goose"; and though Lee Marvin is officially the guest star in "A Fist of Five", it was hard to ignore the up-and-coming James Caan in a supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jerry Lewis now claims that his film directorial debut came about when his home studio, Paramount, needed a summer-release Lewis vehicle in a hurry. Jerry and his entourage headed to the Fountainbleu hotel in Miami Beach, and 29 days later returned with The Bellboy. As narrator Walter Winchell (and an actor pretending to be a Paramount executive in a pre-credits bit) explain, the film has no plot and no point; it merely exists for the audience's enjoyment. Lewis plays nebbishy bellhop Stanley, a nonspeaking bumbler who alternates between screwing up and taking his job too seriously. The film's Tati-like gags involve a Volkswagen engine, an overweight guest, a woman with a come-hither voice, a very effective flash bulb, an episode at the Greyhound track, a golf tournament, and a passenger jet. Weaving in and out of the proceedings is Lewis' cowriter (and former drummer) Bill Richmond, made up as the spitting image of Stan Laurel (the real Laurel was approached to play himself, but he gently turned Jerry down, insisting that his aged appearance would disappoint his fans). Miami habitues B.S. Pully, Joe E. Ross, Cary Middlecoff, The Novelites make cameo appearances, as does Milton Berle. Made for peanuts, The Bellboy amassed a fortune, assuring that Jerry Lewis would be permitted to direct many of his own films in the future. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Perhaps inevitably, the more popular the ABC crime drama The Untouchables became, the louder the series' detractors complained. Reaching its ratings peak as America's eighth-most-watched program during its second season, the series, which elaborated in the most violent fashion imaginable on the career of treasury agent Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) as he and his team of "Untouchables" challenged the criminal element of Depression-era Chicago, was besieged by a flock of clean-up-TV advocates, church and school groups, and especially the Italian Anti-Defamation League, which condemned the series for its preponderance of Italian villains. Executive producer Desi Arnaz argued that many of the real-life gangsters were indeed Italian, whereupon their critics counter-argued that the scriptwriters tended to use Italian-sounding names even for the series' fictional bad guys. Everyone from the Longshoreman's Union (which threatened not to deliver the sponsors' product) to singer Frank Sinatra converged upon Arnaz, and there were even rumors that The Mob had put out a contract on the beleagured producer (reportedly, the higher-ups figured that killing Desi wouldn't be worth the trouble). Finally, the producers agreed that, beginning with the series' third season, none of the fictional gangsters would be Italian, and that the genuine Italian miscreants would be counterbalanced with honest, upright and incorruptible Italian-American supporting characters--notably Nick Georgiade in the recurring role of "Untouchable" Enrico Rossi. Highlights of Season Two include Elizabeth Montgomery's bravura, Emmy-nominated portrayal of a duplicitous gun moll in the opening episode, "The Rusty Heller Story"; "Jack 'Legs' Diamond", with future Law&Order star Steven Hill in the title role and Robert Carricart as Lucky Luciano; "Augie 'The Banker" Ciamino" with Keenan Wynn, who ironically had played straight-arrow "Untouchable" Joe Fuselli in the series' two-hour pilot; and "Mr. Moon", which garnered a great deal of critical attention due the starring performance by 23-year-old Victor Buono. And as had happened with the first season "The Unhired Assassin", the second season of The Untouchables is distinguished by another elaborate two-part episode, "The Big Train", which brings Neville Brand back as Ness' number one nemesis Al Capone--and which got the producers into trouble (again!) by suggesting that the incarcerated Capone had been given preferential treatment in the Atlanta Pentitentiary. Also in the tradition of "The Unhired Assassin", "The Big Train" was later released theatrically as Alcatraz Express. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Introduced as a highly successful two-party dramatization on the CBS anthology Desilu Playhouse, The Untouchables officially began its four-season ABC run in the fall of 1959, with Robert Stack returning as grim-visaged 1930s treasury agent Elliot Ness and Neville Brand making token appearances as his nemesis Al Capone ("Big Al" would virtually disappear from the series proper after the Capone estate threatened to sue producer Desi Arnaz for unfairly profiting on the Capone name). The premiere episode, "The Empty Chair", depicts the power struggle to control all illegal activities in Chicago after Capone's arrest for income-tax evasion in 1931. Nehemiah Persoff is the series' first guest star, cast as real-life hoodlum Jake Gusik, while Bruce Gordon is established as Capone's heir apparent Frank Nitti, who would get his own episode, "The Frank Nitti Story" (what else?) a few weeks later. Other genuine lawbreakers depicted during Season One include Ma Barker, played by Claire Trevor in an episode that incurred the wrath of the FBI for suggesting that Ness was largely responsible for Barker's downfall; George "Bugs" Moran, enacted by Lloyd Nolan; Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, portrayed by Clu Gulager; Dutch Schultz, impersonated by Lawrence Dobkin; and Wally Legenza, cold-blooded leader of the vicious Tri-State Gang, played by William Bendix. The highlight of the season is the two-part "Unhired Assassin", reenacted the unsuccessful attempt by a fanatic named Zangara (Joe Mantell) to assassinate president-elect Franklin Roosevelt; Robert Middleton played Zangara's ultimate victim, Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, in this extended episode, which was later released theatrically as Guns of Zangara. Though The Untouchables never got any higher than 43rd in the ratings during its first season, the series was nonetheless very popular with fans and not so popular with advocates of non-violent television, who would of course become more vocal as the series became more successful in subsequent seasons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ann Blyth plays famed "torch singer" Helen Morgan, from her humble beginnings as a carnival dancer to the height of her nightclub fame in the 1920s. Helen spends most of her spare time anguishing over the on-and-off affections of her boorish boyfriend (Paul Newman), who had discovered Helen during her carnival days and promoted her to stardom. By 1927, Helen is headlining in her own nightclub, with further fame and fortune greeting her when she is cast as Julie in the blockbusting Broadway hit Show Boat. But when she realizes that her erstwhile boyfriend has been using her as a "meal ticket", Helen turns to drink. Losing her fortune to Revenue agents and the Stock Market crash of 1929, Helen hits rock bottom, ending up in the Bellevue alcoholic ward. Her boyfriend suddenly has a change of heart and declares his love for Helen, arranging for a lavish testimonial in her honor, hosted by Walter Winchell. The film ends at this point, suggesting that Helen Morgan is on the road to lasting success and happiness (tragically not the case in real life). For reasons unknown, Ann Blyth, an excellent singer in her own right, was dubbed in The Helen Morgan Story by songstress Gogi Grant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Daisy Kenyon stars Joan Crawford as the eponymous heroine, a Manhattan commercial artist. Daisy is torn between two men: a handsome, married attorney (Dana Andrews) and an unmarried Henry Fonda. Deciding to do the "right thing", Daisy marries Fonda, but carries a torch for the dashing Andrews. When the lawyer divorces his wife, he calls upon Daisy and tries to win her back. She is very nearly won over, but her husband isn't about to give up so easily. Both men argue over Daisy, who is so distraught by the experience that she nearly has a fatal automobile accident. In the end, Daisy realizes that she truly loves Fonda, and gives Andrews his walking papers. Daisy Kenyon is given a contemporary slant with a subplot about child abuse (in a Joan Crawford film!); and, in one scene set at New York's Stork Club, several celebrities (Walter Winchell, Leonard Lyons, John Garfield) make unbilled cameo appearances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Before sitting down to watch Love and Hisses, it's important to know that columnist Walter Winchell and bandleader Ben Bernie were engaged in a phony but highly publicized feud in the late 1930s. For the purposes of this film, the source of the Winchell-Bernie contretemps is pretty nightclub singer Simone Simon. Secretly signing the girl to a contract, Bernie spreads rumors that the girl has no talent, knowing full well that his "friendly enemy" Winchell will then give her a huge build-up in his newspaper column. Upon finding out that he's been hoodwinked, Winchell gets even by having Bernie kidnapped by a gang of phony hoodlums. With all this going on, it's easy to forget that legendary Broadway clown Bert Lahr is also in Love and Hisses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide