The BEST episodes directed by Stuart Rosenberg
#1 - Road Hog
Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season 5 - Episode 11
When a traffic delay prevents a dying boy from reaching the hospital in time, his bereaved father and brothers swear revenge on the salesman who hogged the road when a life was on the line.
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#2 - Augie 'The Banker' Ciamino
The Untouchables - Season 2 - Episode 17
Summer 1931, Chicago. Eliot Ness and his Untouchables had smashed most of the big breweries owned by the mobsters. But racketeers, taking advantage of the poverty and desperation of many immigrants, forced them to make a gallon of whiskey a day in small stills in their homes-- makeshift stills which could be put together for less than $3. The absolute boss of Little Italy is Augie ""The Banker"" Ciamino, and with whiskey pouring out of 1,000 tenement stills, he was cancelling the gains that Ness had made. August 16, 1931. That night, at a street festival, Giovanni gets a hold of some bad whiskey at Raineri's bakery, and is sped to a hospital in an ambulance. Ciamino wants to find out who is responsible; he says to Raineri, ""You tell me where Giovanni got the bad stuff, I buy all your sfogliatelle.""* Uncooperative Raineri says, ""I don't make sfogliatelle."" (even though we see a sign in his bakery: Special Today: Sfogliatelle.) When Ciamino finds out it was Stefano-- and twice he'd
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Rawhide - Season 7 - Episode 30
Favor brings five of his men, sick from either food or water, into a ghost town to the Gray Rock Hotel. Lottie was on the way to Fort McCloud when her horse went lame. Favor asks Lottie to help care for the five. Favor sends Quince to Gold Ridge for a doctor. Four guys are looking for Lottie. She tries to create dissension among the drovers. Lottie tells Favor she is on the run. Mushy defends Lottie from Marty's advances. Quince falls off his horse. The four find him. Lottie asks Favor to teach her to use a gun.
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#4 - The Maggie Storm Story
The Untouchables - Season 3 - Episode 20
Chicago, after the Repeal of Prohibition; (so this would be around 1934). With booze legal, the racket czars step up their dealings in narcotics. Ness and Lee Hobson are chasing 2 dope-pushers, one of them is Benny Rivas. After the shootout, one hood is dead; Benny moans, ""Get me a priest."" Ness finds heroin on him; wanting to die with a clear conscience, Benny says, ""808"" and dies. That leads Ness to Maggie Storm's 808 Club. Maggie runs the 808 Club, and she's the featured entertainer; Ness had raided her during Prohibition. Maggie-- who bears no grudge against Ness, in fact she likes him-- tells Ness she is running the club for a Mr. Charles Banner; Maggie says soon she will be Mrs. Charles Banner. Ness points out to Lee Hobson that half of the big-time operators in town are in the crowd, and there are a lot of out-of-town bigshots, too. After Ness leaves, the waiters mingle with the customers and read off some interesting items on the menu: 10 kilos of heroin, $110,000 in co
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#5 - The Nero Rankin Story
The Untouchables - Season 2 - Episode 28
September 16, 1933. Although Eliot Ness had successfully destroyed The Underground Court (episode # 46), he had not smashed its parent organization, the big Syndicate, in control of over 50% of the nation's crime. With the death of Judge Foley, who was the chairman of the Syndicate, 5 top-ranking members are now assembling at a roadhouse on the outskirts of Chicago-- to vote on whether or not to appoint Nero Rankin as the new chairman; Nero had been designated by Foley to be his successor, in the event of his death. The 5 voting members are: Murray Brigger (boss of the Southwest), Lou Hyndorf (East Coast), Huey Barker (Midwest), Pat Polofski (Detroit), and Cy Brenner (New Orleans). Nero Rankin goes to his office. There is a secret vote. Huey Barker, Murray Brigger and another vote ""No."" Lou Hyndorf votes ""Yes"" and says ""because there's no one else""; one other member votes with him. 2 for, 3 against; Huey says, ""He don't make it."" But then Murray Brigger changes his vote, noting
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#6 - Death for Sale
The Untouchables - Season 2 - Episode 26
Chicago, last week of April 1933. Frank Nitti is offered a huge quantity of Chinese opium. Ever since the government had established the Bureau of Narcotics in 1930, the flow of opium from China to the USA had slowed to a trickle, and by 1932 the flow had almost ceased; now, with the end of Prohibition seeming imminent, the Syndicate is ready to deal in opium again. Late on the night of May 4, Nitti sends one of his top lieutenants, Ed Getty, to pick up some opium from Art Rele and his thug Cliff Anders. But Ness and Lee Hobson show up, too; in the shootout, only Art Rele escapes. On Getty, Ness finds some raw opium wrapped in a sheet of paper in an envelope. Later at Ness' office, the other hood is identified as Cliff Anders, who used to work for Phil Melnick, the one-time ""king of opium."" And so Eliot Ness and his Untouchables head to New York (on a train, not a plane as they usually do). Their only lead is the expensive bond paper that the opium was wrapped in; it was manufac
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#7 - The Seventh Vote
The Untouchables - Season 2 - Episode 29
Chicago, April 25, 1932. With Capone in prison doing his rap for income tax evasion, his 8 lieutenants are running things; their HQ is the Montmartre Club, in Cicero, 4 miles west of Chicago. Capone's booze trucks are being hijacked, his speaks are tommy-gunned; Capone's breweries are being smashed, and not just by Eliot Ness, but by rival gangs. Right now, the 8 overlords running the Syndicate are deadlocked over how to run things-- on one side are Frank ""The Enforcer"" Nitti, Brenner, Urcel and another lieutenant; on the other are Jake ""Greasy Thumb"" Guzik, Levinsky, Grecko and another lieutenant. A gang war is raging. Nitti's plenty sore. He slams his fist on the table and growls, ""6 breweries in 2 weeks, at 100 grand each!"" Guzik says he's not worried; booze is going out because Prohibition will be repealed soon. Nitti says at $60-million a year, booze is in. Guzik says that they should increase their narcotics racket: no breweries, no warehouses, no trucks-- only small pack
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#8 - He's Alive
The Twilight Zone - Season 4 - Episode 4
Peter Vollmer, a small-time neo-Nazi leader, yearns for more power. Advised by a shadowy benefactor, Vollmer's following grows, as does his ego...
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#9 - I Shot an Arrow into the Air
The Twilight Zone - Season 1 - Episode 15
Three astronauts believe they have crashed on an asteroid.
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The Untouchables - Season 4 - Episode 3
By mid-June 1932, Eliot Ness and his Untouchables had uncovered and shut down every champagne-producing operation in the city. 4 months later, however, champagne appears again in the fashionable Westside nightclubs. Ness is about to raid the swankiest speak, the Silver Canary. At the club, Marty Baltin is paying Charley Mailer for the last champagne shipment: $86,000 for 350 cases (that comes out to about $245 per case of 12, about $20 a bottle). Ness and his men raid the place; as Charley Mailer exits quickly, he accidentally leaves his small ledger book on Marty Baltin's desk. Ness and Hobson find a dozen bottles in the bar area, wherein the champagne is frozen solid, the bottles must have accidentally arrived in a refrigerated shipment. Enrico Rossi checks with the railroads, and finds out 4 refrigerated freight cars had arrived from the Marblehead Seafood & Ice Company in Boston; the Untouchables fly to Boston. Next day, Mailer is meeting with Baltin again. Baltin found out M
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#11 - Hammerlock
The Untouchables - Season 3 - Episode 10
New York, middle of 1932. The Syndicate-- headed by Joe Kulak, Louis ""Lepke"" Buchalter and Dutch Schultz-- has the city's huge garment industry organized and under control. Now they are setting their sights on bakeries; there are 500 independent wholesale bakers in the city. They give Bull Hanlon the word: get the biggest independent baker, Adam Stone, to sign up and all the rest will fall in line. Hanlon is to use any means at his disposal. And so Eliot Ness and his Untouchables arrive in New York. Ness wants to fight fire with fire: just as the Syndicate is trying to force all the truck drivers to join their crooked United Bakers Trucking Association, Ness wants honest Adam Stone to organize all the independent bakers into a legit union. Mr. Stone wants no part of it, he is independent, and says he can fight the hoods on his own; he's been fighting to keep his business going for 30 years, just him and his business partner, his life-long friend Max Turkin. When Ness says they m
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#12 - Downfall
The Untouchables - Season 3 - Episode 22
Chicago. Pete ""The Persuader"" Kalmisky, former bodyguard of Al Capone, accompanied by Syndicate business manager Alan Sitkin, have a meeting with Joey December, president of the debt-ridden Great Lakes Pacific Railroad. They form a crooked alliance; Joey agrees to transport their illegal liquor on his trains, in exchange for ""20% off the top."" After Kalmisky leaves, Sitkin talks privately with Joey. Sitkin gives Joey $100,000 for 10,000 shares of Canada Central stock, now worth $10 a share; Joey says they will be worth $50 a share in 3 weeks. Sitkin says he has incriminating evidence against Kalmisky, to ""keep him in line""; Sitkin carries a key to a safety deposit box with him wherever he goes. And so, within 2 weeks, Canadian whiskey (the good stuff) is loaded into boxcars in Manitoba, where it's later shunted onto the main routes by Lake Superior, to be distributed throughout 5 states; the boxcars are labeled Retail Milk Co. February 16, 1930. An elderly railroad man stumbles
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#13 - Escape to Sonoita
Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season 5 - Episode 37
A pair of truck drivers stranded in the Arizona desert find themselves at the mercy of two kidnappers who are heading to the border ... and determined to take the last of the drinking water with them.
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#14 - The Tommy Karpeles Story
The Untouchables - Season 2 - Episode 11
May 8, 1931. The special U.S. mail train, coming from Rock Island, is stopped by emergency flares on the tracks in Hillsdale, Illinois. Gangsters wearing Army gas masks lob tear gas grenades into the train; they shoot a postal clerk and make off with a million dollars in negotiable securities. 3 months later, ""Tough"" Tommy Karpeles, former big-time Chicago hoodlum, is arrested for complicity in the case; his 2 accomplices were not caught. With his previous record as an ex-con, who had done 5 years for robbery, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in the State Pen. Since crimes involving the U.S. Postal Service are a federal offense, Eliot Ness and his Untouchables are on the case. Ness thinks Karpeles is innocent; the thought that the real killer is on the loose bothers Ness, so he visits Karpeles in prison. Karpeles tells Ness he was nailed on a bum rap. Karpeles had 3 witnesses who testified he was at Mendy's bar that night; his daughter works there. Ness thinks it's odd
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#15 - Tunnel of Horrors
The Untouchables - Season 3 - Episode 3
August 28, 1933. That night, Eliot Ness and his Untouchables, and some undercover plainclothes police, are staking out an amusement pier on the Chicago lakefront; they are tailing Alexander Raeder-- owner of the pier, and the source of the new narcotics flooding the Windy City. Ness had received an anonymous tip that Raeder was delivering 15 pounds of heroin, half a million dollars' worth, to a syndicate contact. The drop-off point being the Tunnel of Horrors, a carnival ride which sends small boats through dark tunnels, operated by Johnny Selkirk, who works for Raeder. On the Midway, Ness spots a hood named Marty Mattern along with Arnold Justin, former cop, who now handles the graft for Nitti; if Justin sees the undercover cops (his former colleagues), he'll recognize them and their cover will be blown. Justin does; Mattern panics and makes a run for it, then fires at Ness' men, and Enrico Rossi shoots him. Ness and his men storm into the Tunnel, and find a back room. While Rae
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#16 - Dead Weight
Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season 5 - Episode 9
Lovers' Lane becomes a dark and deadly destination when an ad executive and his former girlfriend are attacked by a young thug, and his efforts to protect them quickly go from heroic to something much more criminal.
#17 - The Stryker Brothers
The Untouchables - Season 3 - Episode 18
March 3, 1932. It's the great train robbery, on the southbound express headed for Chicago. The Stryker brothers steal mail sacks containing 750 grand in payroll money. During the robbery, a baggage man and Lippy Carson (an associate of the Stryker brothers, who had worked as a mail clerk) are killed, and thrown from the speeding train. Since mail robbery is a federal offense, Eliot Ness and his Untouchables are called in. Morton Stryker is the eldest, and leader of the 4 brothers; then there's Alvin and Nate, and Benny Stryker, the youngest. Benny Stryker is an arsonist (former student of Mr. Jaeger), and their file keeper. When the 4 brothers were released from Leavenworth, Al Capone gave them permission to rebuild their empire-- if they had the cash to pay his tab. They are all going through the stolen money. Benny Stryker finds some registered mail; they tell him to keep the dough and burn the rest. They can't even keep the checks, even one letter traced back to them would
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#18 - The Man with Two Faces
Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season 6 - Episode 11
The theft of a woman's purse is the start of a tale of profit and loss which strikes close to home when the identity of the culprit is sought through a series of conflicting photographs.
#19 - Mute
The Twilight Zone - Season 4 - Episode 5
A 12-year-old girl who lost her parents in a fire doesn't speak because she has grown up in a secret telepathic community. The couple who take her in, and her teacher, are determined to help her adapt to their society, no matter the cost.
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#20 - Backward, Turn Backward
Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season 5 - Episode 18
A middle aged plumber is suspected of bludgeoning to death the father of his 19-year-old love interest, but the Sheriff can't figure out how the man could have done the crime and been caring for his baby grandson at the same time.
#21 - The Troubleshooter
The Untouchables - Season 3 - Episode 1
In the summer of 1934, a new gambling device was sweeping the nation: the punchboards. Even though they were nickel-and-dime games, it added up-- they made more money for the mob than the numbers racket. After Ness and his men smash some of the punchboard manufacturing sites, the 5 members of the syndicate running the punchboards hold a meet at a building by the freight yards: the top mobsters from Chicago (Jake ""Joe"" Petrie), Cincinnati, St. Louis, Detroit and New York (Max Riegel). Petrie says he can sum up all their problems in 2 words: Eliot Ness. Max says in New York, they aren't losing so much-- they have Nate Selko the Trouble Shooter to make sure money goes to all the right places: police, judges, the legislature. Nate Selko walks into the room, to offer his services to the Chicago boss. Later, in a private room at a restaurant, Selko tries to bribe Ness, with a Swiss bank account with $500,000 in it (the deposit in the bank book is dated Feb. 26).* Selko says it would ta
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#22 - The Matt Bass Scheme
The Untouchables - Season 3 - Episode 5
In mid-June 1932, Eliot Ness, having compiled a list of Frank Nitti's breweries & distilleries, began a series of raids designed to break the back of the Capone empire. This puts the pressure on Frank Nitti, Capone's lieutenant. Nitti calls a meet with Seth Otis and Phil Grier, who jointly own the biggest speakeasy in Chicago, the Hotsy Totsy Club. Nitti tells them he's going to build new breweries and distilleries outside of town, where Ness can't find them, and have the liquor delivered by trucks. It'll take about a month, maybe 6 weeks. The speak owners are shocked, they can't go that long without beer and booze. Nitti tells them nobody better buy booze from out of state and have it hustled in-- and he's going to make sure the 2 speak owners ""set a good example"" for everybody else to obey his orders. In the meantime, at the State Pen, 2 cons cook up a scheme: the brains is Jason Fiddler, an engineer who will be sprung in a month, and his partner is Matt Bass, who is being paro
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#23 - Man Killer
The Untouchables - Season 3 - Episode 8
Chicago, July 1934. Anonymous phone calls have been tipping off Ness and his men to narcotics activities; they do a bunch of raids. On August 4, even though sales have fallen off, Frank Nitti is ordering 15 kilos of heroin*, the biggest single shipment ever. That night, one of Nitti's boys makes the trade: dough for the H. He gets into a car driven by another of Nitti's boys, Manny Kravitz. But next to him in the back-seat is Maxie, who pumps him full of lead. They dump his body from a speeding car. Next morning, Ness gets another of the regular anonymous tips; on another line, Enrico and an operator are slowly tracing it. (no Caller I.D. back then.) Ness doesn't know it yet, but the call was made from a phone booth by Nick Dolov; he walks to the Windy City Cab Co., which he owns along with his estranged wife, Georgiana Drake (around age 40, she could be attractive but has a harsh facial expression). In Dolov's office, there is a suitcase with the 15 kilos of heroin on his des
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#24 - The Ginnie Littlesmith Story
The Untouchables - Season 3 - Episode 24
May 17, 1932. There are many free soup kitchens in Chicago, but one of them in the skid row section is really a front; upstairs, gangster Chiz Gosher, twice convicted of white slavery, has his office. His partners in crime are the powerful, nationwide vice ring known as The Group, represented by hood Vic Cassandros. Chiz's niece is Ginnie Littlesmith, who runs the soup kitchen, and she is not involved in the rackets. Downstairs, Enrico Rossi is working undercover-- he's dressed in dirty old clothes, and phones Ness; Eliot tells him the raid is set for 12:45.* But Vic is soon tipped of Ness' impending raid; Vic goes upstairs and demands the ledger books from Gosher. But Gosher only wants to escape via the trapdoor, and tells Vic he'll never get the books. Vic shoots him, leaving him fatally wounded; but the tough old guy doesn't die right away-- before he croaks he turns the ledgers over to his niece, Ginnie Littlesmith, and tells her they'd be worth $100,000 to the Group. Anxious
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#25 - The Underworld Bank
The Untouchables - Season 1 - Episode 26
New York City. Saturday, September 23, 1933. Top rackets boss Milo Sullivan is the head of ""Crime, Inc."" He has a meet with 5 other crime lords: Augie Epstein (gambling, Miami); Harold Bishman (political power in Louisiana); Ralph Lucci (rumrunner, Detroit Purple Gang); Dino Monteiro (slots, K.C.); and Arte Martin (numbers, prostitution, Seattle). Their profits from Prohibition had been enormous; with Prohibition ending, they were going to put their money to good use, creating the Underworld Bank. For every $1 they lend out, they'll get $2 back; they will provide the funding for hoods, who are preparing men and materials to pull off big jobs. Milo Sullivan says that right now, their $50,000 funding of a million-dollar fur heist will get them $100,000 in return. The Bank's operations are financed and managed on a business basis.