The Untouchables (TV Series) The Matt Bass Scheme (1961) User Reviews

The difference between plan and implementation

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 30 March 2022]

This week's episode features the exploits of Sam Bass (Telly Savalas) who teams up with an engineer he meets in prison to come up with a scheme that installs pipes in the sewer system that run liquor between a fake gas station out of town and speakeasies in Chicago, thus invalidating Ness' raids on liquor warehouses because his plan does not require any.

Now Bass has been in jail for twelve years - that would mean that in this story he would have been in prison since the year prohibition went into effect. So how could he have been part of Capone's gang before going to jail? And how would Frank Nitti even know who he was? It seems that all of his contacts would be rusty after such a long time. Questions never asked and thus never answered.

Bass is a nasty sort. He tells somebody he is their partner and then kills them when they are no longer useful. He even does that with the people he hires to lay pipe in the sewers. He even shorts his long suffering engineer partner - whose expertise he needs - when he can. I'm surprised anybody would want to trust him or work with him.

So you have the profit motive in full force here, thus lots of creative solutions worthy of the free market. And everybody drinks - probably more so - during prohibition. So The Untouchables keeps the emphasis on the sordidness of the gangsters involved and not so much on what is behind all of this enterprise - Prohibition - because in retrospect it all looks so silly. Meanwhile, Ness and the Untouchables are wondering why they can't find any trucks with liquor coming into Chicago, yet the speakeasies are brimming with customers. Both Ness and Bass have a problem with plan versus implementation.

A brilliant idea....an okay episode.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 3 March 2016]

When the episode begins, Ness is having incredible success against Nitti's breweries. Again and again, they uncover the places and arrest everyone. However, at about the same time Matt Bass (Telly Ssvalas) and Jason Fiddler (Milton Selzer) are getting out of prison and they have a plan to help Nitti avoid these raids. But Nitti isn't at all interested, so their pipeline idea isn't even considered. And so, they keep losing money and Nitti gradually starts losing his cool. Eventually, even the hard-headed Nitti is willing to listen to this plan...but naturally Ness is one step behind.

This marks the third episode out of the last 8-10 in which Michael Constantine appears. Otherwise, it's interesting but rather unremarkable.

A Lot Of Things To Like In This Episode

[ccthemovieman-1 · 10/10 · 15 February 2012]

Telly Savalas, who went on to become a huge TV star a decade later with "Kojak," plays the crook "Matt Bass" in this episode, which features Bruce Gordon ("Frank Nitti") and Michael Constantine "Seth Otis"). All are gangsters and all are figuring a way they could move their booze out of Chicago and then bring it back to the speakeasies. Things have gotten too tight in the city with Eliott Ness and his Untouchables wrecking one distillery after another.

Bass, a former boss of Nitti in the Capone gang, is now out of the stir and - thanks to an engineering genius in jail - has a plan.....but Nitti doesn't want to hear it. He has his own plan.

Bass makes sure Nitti will listen to him next time....and he does.

My favorite scene in this episode is when two of Capone's henchmen visit Nitti and give him a lecture on just what's what. It is a riveting scene.

Milton Selzer, John Harmon and Joseph Bernard are all convincing in supporting roles. The film noir photography is also fantastic.

Pipe Dream

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 26 November 2013]

Newly released from prison at the same time a city engineer who took some bribes played by Milton Seltzer is, Telly Savalas cooks up a scheme that will supply unlimited booze for Frank Nitti and the speakeasies that he takes care of.

Engineer Seltzer's plan calls for a pipeline to be laid in the Chicago sewers next to all the other pipes that will run Bruce Gordon's booze from the suburbs. Of course that also requires Savalas ratting out Gordon's current delivery system to Robert Stack and The Untouchables.

Savalas is one ruthless customer who is matching Gordon kill for kill in this episode. Stack has to be on his toes to shut down this operation.

An interesting scenario that may very well have been tried in Chicago and other cities. Those bootleggers were quite ingenious in their methods of avoiding Prohibition.

Alas as Walter Winchell narrates it turns out to be just a pipe dream.