"The Untouchables" Augie 'The Banker' Ciamino (TV Episode 1961) Poster

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7/10
Menace in every breath
bkoganbing29 October 2013
Eliot Ness and his squad of Untouchables take on Keenan Wynn who plays the boss of Chicago's Little Italy and who has followed the infamous Genna Brothers who had the same set up having immigrants manufacturing illegal alcoholic beverages in their homes. They get personally involved when a man dies from alcohol poisoning. Later on Sam Jaffe goes blind from the badly cooked stuff.

Jaffe's friend Will Kulava who goes to night school in an effort to improve himself does not buckle under to Wynn's hoods. But what he doesn't know is that his son Lee Phillips is already working for Wynn handling his account books.

What happens to Kulava and his family forms the basis of this episode's plot. They and the rest of Little Italy are facing some pretty murderous people. There is a fine performance here from Harry Dean Stanton as Wynn's special trigger man who has as few words to say as Jack Palance in Shane, but they carry menace in every breath.
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7/10
Augie...a serious jerk.
planktonrules1 March 2016
This episode is about Augie 'The Banker' Ciamino (Keenan Wynn). His claim to fame is organizing lots of home brewers and small-time operators into his own little fiefdom. In order to keep these employees from opening their mouths, Augie and his 'associates' use intimidation and murder.

Standing up against this menace is Renzo Raineri, an old man whose son works as a bookkeeper for Ciamino. This dolt thinks he can work for Ciamino and keep his hands clean...he also thinks he can maintain breathing when his father bucks this system. Can Ness and his men get to Renzo after he steals Ciamino's books or is he about to become yet another crime statistic?

This is a mildly interesting episode--one that is good but not a standout in any way. Worth seeing but nothing more.
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7/10
Home-brewed booze, also exposes the pluralistic immigrants!!
elo-equipamentos16 March 2024
Squeezed by Eliot Ness the smuggling of liquors gained on more chapter, when the mobster Augie Ciamino (Keenan Wynn) decides to beat in home-brewed booze to supply the thirsty market, therefore the cunning Eliott aware by such sudden move track down a clue to reach in the mastermind, everything began with a old bakery man Renzo Raineri (Will Kuluva) an Italian immigrant who worked hard to raise and teach his elder son Paul (Lee Philips) to be bookkeeper, nonetheless would ever guess that him should be work for an outlawed from underworld.

The slippery Ciamino tries hard to mislead Eliott by any means, staying out of range of Eliott's clutches, then came up the unexpected when the conscientious Mr. Renzo raises suspicious over his son keep the book files in a safe-box, fearing that Paul didn't make the right thing, he pushing him to tell the truth, in the meantime Ciamino also already perceives the menace and kills the possible squealer, it triggers a payback from the fearless father that held the accounting books aiming for deliver it to Eliott Ness.

Episode driven to those pluralistic immigrants that chosen newly America to re-start a decent life after troublesome years at their homeland shattered by many wars, hungry and extreme poverty, the outsider in question is available to late night lean in a school that US's government addressed to them.

Thanks for reading

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First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5.
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Very Strong Episode
ccthemovieman-122 November 2011
The is the second story we've seen on The Untouchables that involves local residents making whiskey and then combining all their efforts to feed a big gangster with the stuff. In this one, the main hood is Augie Ciamino who has got residents of Little Italy making the product with a unique way of then collecting it (through Root Beer bottles that appear empty!).

Keenan Wynn, as he did so often, plays the rough bad-guy Ciamino. He and his thugs are pretty brutal, at one point giving a night-school teacher a beating in the face with a chain.

His tactics, however, don't scare one man - baker "Renzo Rainiri" (Will Kuluva) - who has a special stake in this after he finds out his kid is handling the books for Ciamino.

What happens with the old man, his kid, the crooks and Elliot Ness is very interesting,from start to finish. Add to that another good guest appearance by veteran actor Sam Jaffe and you have a strong episode.
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