The Untouchables - Season Two, Vol. 1 (1959)

They messed with history

I enjoyed the release of this set except for 1 thing; the editing of the bumpers off of the close of each act. As another person pointed out it is a complete hack job; the music builds to a crescendo and then they fade it out and hack off the window at the end. Another person thought they had messed with music tracks, but I have Beta (taped off air copies) and the music is the same. In fact, I have worked in TV for a long time and this is the same music that was on the original series, then when it went into syndication in the late 60's and every repeat of it in various syndicated formats over the years. I used see the films come into a tv station I worked at back in 1972 and the unedited film used to run around 52 minutes. These episodes run around 50:20, so besides the windows being cut off of each act they edited another minute out somewhere. They may have also used speed processing to compress it to save the time. Does anyone know why they would cut the end act windows off? It can't be for time. It can't be for copyright. So why would they do this? I am extremely disappointed, but CBS/Paramount doesn't care, as they think they are doing us a favor by releasing them at all. July 1, 2008

Taking a pass on this release because of clipped bumpers

Thanks to all who offered the heads-up about the clipped bumpers.

These half-season releases are a sucker's game. Wait until all the episodes have been released. At that time CBS-Paramount will likely offer a complete series boxed-set release at a much cheaper per-episode cost. If not, the price of half-season "volumes" will have dropped substantially by that time. I'll get by with my bootlegs until then.
June 27, 2008

A Classic tv show

a great tv show and great episodes, 4 discs16 episodes recommend buying if you like the show June 13, 2008

Why the decline in quality??

Yes, the Untouchables Season II continues the same hard-hitting,
brilliantly filmed drama which equals the quality of the First Season; in fact, the "Purple Gang" episode, with it's dark, brooding atmosphere and the unhinged brutality of Steve Cochran's character, is about as intense as you'd be likely to see in the still-early days of TV.

I, too am disappointed in the editorial tampering with these episodes, including the lack of "bumpers" at the end of each act. WORSE though,for me, is the general visual quality of the shows, which is a DEFINITE step DOWN from the that of the first season---lots of graininess, etc. Apparently this set was taken from a set of tapes edited for TV syndication.

So what's up, CBS-Paramount? Why charge the same HIGH price per episode while delivering shoddier quality?

Another oddity of Season 2; for some reason (probably as a cost-saving
measure), there is a heavy use of what sounds like MUSIC-LIBRARY tracking
in the background scores of these episodes. There's lots of music that sounds like that goofy "symphonic-moderne" stuff from the 1950's, as if the music editor on the show was raiding the same library that Ed Wood did for "Plan 9". It's really disconcerting, having become used to the gritty, jazzed-up "noir" sound of the first season.

Still, it's darn good viewing, from TV's greatest era. June 4, 2008

The Untouchables Season 2 Volume 1

Just like the previous releases of this series, Season 2 Volume 1 continues to provide great watching. The quality of the video and sound is excellent and Robert Stack and the great narration by Walter Winchell add greatly to the collectibility of this series. Can't wait for future releases of The Untouchables series. May 31, 2008

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