Best scene from The Untouchables

dud

I knew I was going to forget one; the drunken alley fight between Malone and Jimmy

I know it was cribbed from some other film (Hitchcock maybe?), but the Union Station stroller-down-the-steps shootout takes a giant dump on all other contenders.

baseball deniro

The stroller scene is lifted from Battleship Potyemkin.

I'd do this exact same poll with Dressed to Kill, but I don't need to do it to see that it will get only 5 votes.

He sends one of yours to the hospital vs baseball hmm

baseball deniro is cribbed from lee j. cobb in nichola ray'ss Party Girl. the whole movie is a pastiche, i thought.

i'm always mad the blood in the elevator spells out 'touchable' and not 'touch'

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Mountie Captain: I do not approve of your methods!
Ness: Yeah, well... You're not from Chicago.

this

Stroller.

do the DRESSED TO KILL poll!

ness telling off capone with the flashbulbs in the background, held apart by the croud, the climactic courtroom scenes are great. I like Mamet-speak only in spectacle form, like this one and Hoffa. It's not characteristic of Depalma in a lot of ways but obviously one of his best.

i'm always mad the blood in the elevator spells out 'touchable' and not 'touch'

-- poortheatre, Friday, March 21, 2008 4:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

that would be lame

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

this movie is fucking excellent. hadn't seen it in maybe 20 years.

i'm always mad the blood in the elevator spells out 'touchable' and not 'touch'

-- poortheatre, Friday, March 21, 2008 4:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

that would be lame

― s1ocki, Saturday, March 22, 2008 6:46 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Watching for the first time since it came out, and wow, this film is ridiculous. I get that the good guy corniness is part of the vibe, but De Palma really lays it on thick. Also, about 50% of the scenes are

Accountant: Capone's financial records look really suspicious.

Costner: eh...

In the opening scene , Capone’s barber (the one who cuts him accidentally) is Luca Brazzi from the godfather
I think

TOUCHABLE

Even conceding the pull of nostalgia, man, what a great, rousing Hollywood movie. You've got De Palma going work-for-hire and toning down some of his most lurid impulses without abandoning his trademark tricky shots and cribbing/references, you've got a great cast, you've got imo one of Morricone's best scores, and you've got what may be a perfect script from Mamet, expertly paced, full of memorable lines, and running a tight two hours. That's the stuff.

I remember it as an entertaining variation on the archetypal gangster film. It's exactly the thing you'll like, if you like that sort of thing. The plot details don't really matter bcz you go in knowing Capone will lose out in the end. All that matters are the scenes, the characters, the action, and the dialogue and these mesh together to carry you along swiftly and surely to the climax.

Costumes by Giorgio Armani!

The banquet scene so horrified me as a kid that I still kinda squirm watching the Simpsons spoof of it.

xpost I know! The credits are stacked!

The stroller scene is lifted from Battleship Potyemkin.

― Tuomas, Friday, 21 March 2008 16:03 (eighteen years ago)

Weird, I was thinking about this on my way home from work today and just saw this thread revive.

The editing alone of that sequence in this movie is something else. And so many subtle, almost invisibly long tracking shots throughout, especially the sequence where Sean Connery is gunned down. I am wondering if it is an homage to Argento's audacious rooftop tracking shot in Tenebrae.

Need to rewatch this to see if it’s as entertaining as I remember.

Write in vote for “I told him his name is in the ledger too.”

Ha I randomly watched this last night and this is dead-on:

Even conceding the pull of nostalgia, man, what a great, rousing Hollywood movie. You've got De Palma going work-for-hire and toning down some of his most lurid impulses without abandoning his trademark tricky shots and cribbing/references, you've got a great cast, you've got imo one of Morricone's best scores, and you've got what may be a perfect script from Mamet, expertly paced, full of memorable lines, and running a tight two hours. That's the stuff.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 17 June 2026 02:38 (seventeen hours ago)

Also an incredible looking film, the costumes, the production design, the cinematography, all great.

I was today years old when I realized that Charles Martin Smith directed Air Bud

Mamet winning the Pulitzer for Glengarry and then doing this is up there for a prestige/popcorn one-two. And, as JiC said, DePalma taking a break from his pervy self without watering down his cinematic sensibility.

"you've got imo one of Morricone's best scores"

Not really!?

Touchable

When I was a kid I looked at the ending scene from this with such admiration for Ness, a man of principle, the law matters whether he agrees or not!

These days I think "ffs dude, so what was all this bloodshed and chaos for then?"

The movie remains equally engaging either way.

"you've got imo one of Morricone's best scores"

Not really!?

I would say one of his best post 70's works, a best case scenario for his descent into generic orchestral stuff.

Yeah ok I can see that