Companion piece to ‘The Untouchables’

Press, 7 July 1989, Page 25

Companion piece to ‘The Untouchables’

By

DAVID CLARKSON

“Nitti: The Enforcer” is an interesting companion piece to “The Untouchables.”

It tells the story from the other side of the law, and it gives the impression of being a far more realistic, less fanciful portrayal of events. Here is the story of the rise to power of Al Capone’s Chicago gang, the special agents’ attempts to bring the evil of the gangs to an end, and the life of one Frank Nitti, a Sicilian migrant to Chicago in 1913. The Adelaide actor, Anthony LaPaglia, makes a convincing mobster, as Nitti.

The video begins with his suicide in a railyard. He must be one of the very few people to have shot himself twice in the head.

The police then reminisce through his career, believing him to be a man without remorse or fear.

That may be true. But it is also true that he was a devoted husband, and a

loyal friend. When Capone was finally sent to prison, it was Nitti who ran the Chicago mob in his absence, showing enough foresight to move it into new areas for expansion as prohibition ended.

An interesting quirk of the story is that while courting his wife-to-be, the family man, Nitti, organised . the St Valentine’s Day Massacre. The other interesting facet is the insights into the workings of the appalling, crooked Chicago police force.

Virgin has released the title through Videocorp International. It has a rating as suitable for viewers 16 years and over, with a warning that its violence and language may offend.

The mob makes a rather less serious appearance in the Palace Entertainment release, “Beverly Hills Body Snatchers,” an endearing farce about people in various stages of death. “Rest in Prosperity”

reads the sign on the gates of a Beverly Hills cemetery, where the story begins with a pair of grave robbers in action. They are working at a funeral parlour to perfect a formula to bring the dead back to life. It has a few bugs in it. The main problem is that the bodies brought back to life are not in the greatest shape. They cannot walk too well, they grunt, rather than talk, have no table manners and tend to kill people a lot. This creates more bodies that have to be brought back to life in order to hush up the funeral parlour’s unusual little project.

The video stars -Vie Tayback, Rodney Eastman, Warren Seiko and Art Metrano, but it is Frank Gorshin who steals the show as the mad scientist.

The video has a rating for viewers aged 15 years and over, with a warning about language and violence.

Demi Moore (above) plays a pregnant woman who holds the fate of the world in her hands in the apocalyptic thriller, “The Seventh Sign.” The film takes its title from an ancient prophecy which foretold that the Apocalypse would be heralded by seven signs from God. This mystical tale has some interesting special effects.