I just found out that Robert Stack passed away earlier today.
If Jack Webb's Joe Friday is broadcasting's Gold Medal cop, I
think a case could be made that Robert Stack's Eliot Ness
captured the Silver.
Robert Stack, through his forceful performance during the
four years that the noir-ish series ran, did more than anyone
else, more than sportswriter Oscar Fraley who convinced Ness
to write an autobiography and collaborated with him on it,
more than TV producer Desi Arnaz who bought the book for
adaptation as a TV drama, more, possibly, even then Eliot
Ness himself, to turn the Depression-era gangbuster into a
legend, into, arguably, the most famous policeman of the 20th
Century.
Stack could never quite shake the role. In THE NAME OF THE
GAME, in which he played a former FBI agent who becomes
editor of a true-crime magazine, he seemd to be playing Ness
as a journalist. In MOST WANTED and STRIKE FORCE, in both of
which he played a sternly incorruptible policeman who
commanded an elite squad of special investigators, he
essentially played Ness in modern-day dress under different
names. He finally returned to the role in a made-for-TV
reunion movie, THE RETURN OF ELIOT NESS.
If you're only familiar with the Ness/Capone conflict through
the Kevin Costner mocie, I highly recommend that you track
down the 2-part DESILU PLAYHOUSE presentation that directly
adapted Ness's book and served as the pilot for the
subsequent series. It's available on VHS under the title THE
SCARFACE MOB
(under which it was released to theatres). Not only is it
closer to the actual events than the 1987 movie, it's in
virtually every respect the equal (and in a few respects, the
superior) of that Oscar-winning film.
It seems fitting that Mr. Stack should've passed away on
Police Memorial Day.
Rest in peace, sir.
JIM DOHERTY
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