In 1959, The Untouchables emerged as a popular TV series. Originally created as a pilot, The Scarface Mob offered a film-length project that aired in April 1959 and prompted ABC to greenlight Untouchables virtually immediately.

Set in Chicago circa 1929, gangster Al Capone (Neville Brand) runs roughshod and leaves bloodshed and criminal violence in his wake. Because Capone buys off both local cops and politicians, he seems impossible to bring to justice.

Nonetheless, Federal Agent Eliot Ness (Robert Stack) gets the assignment to take down the notorious Capone. He assembles a team of fellow operatives dubbed “Untouchables” due to their inability to be bribed and goes after Capone.

Given the continuing appeal of the Ness story, Mob offers a historical curiosity at the very least. As the first cinematic exploration of Ness’s experiences, it earns a special place.

Does this mean Mob actually delivers a compelling story, though? Not really, as it seems somewhat spotty.

Though not bad, as the end product musters enough tension and drama to provide a moderately watchable affair. It just fails to go anywhere more interesting than that.

A lot of the issue comes from the less than concise exploration of the narrative. While Mob essentially traces Ness’s pursuit of Capone, it detours too often to hit the spot.

Some of this splits off to less than necessary romantic elements, while other moments just focus too much on secondary characters. Ness can feel borderline superfluous at times.

Mob also simply fails to muster much urgency or drama. It uses a documentary style for attempted verisimilitude, but this doesn’t give the tale the urgency and impact it desires.

Instead, Mob mostly just kind of feels… there. It manages enough intrigue to keep us mildly engaged but it never threatens to turn into anything more than that.

At least Stack offers a pretty good performance as Ness. I suspect the part became a bit of an albatross for him, as he wound up stuck with this sort of upright, blunt-talking role for much of the rest of his career.

Nonetheless, Stack embodies the cinematic Ness well, and his signature style works for the character. A good supporting cast helps as well.

As much as I want to like Mob, though, I just can’t find a lot to warmly embrace here. The movie offers an interesting historical footnote but it only sporadically entertains.

Note that Mob played theatrically outside the US in 1959 and eventually got a domestic big screen release in 1962. This Blu-ray appears to represent the movie version and not the original US TV presentation.

The Scarface Mob appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie came with a largely solid transfer that only suffered from a few concerns.

My only complaints connected to print flaws, as sporadic examples of small specks, spots and lines manifested. Honestly, these remained pretty modest, but I’ve become so accustomed to defect-free scans that any issues turn into a surprise.

Sharpness mainly satisfied, as most of the film offered strong accuracy. Occasional shots could veer a little soft, but the majority of the movie boasted positive delineation.

Neither jagged edges nor moiré effects manifested themselves, and I saw no edge haloes. With a nice layer of grain, I didn’t suspect issues with digital noise reduction either.

Blacks looked deep and dark, and the image brought us appealing contrast and whites. Low-light shots seemed smooth and well-depicted. Outside of the minor print flaws and the sporadic soft elements, this was a good presentation.

As for the film’s LPCM monaural soundtrack, it seemed acceptable for its era. Dialogue became the main component, and it worked reasonably well. The lines could seem a bit reedy and edgy, but they remained intelligible.

Music appeared fairly full most of the time, though the score could become a little harsh. Effects came across as acceptably accurate, albeit with some roughness at times as well. This wound up as a workable soundtrack for something from 1959.

A smattering of extras appear here, and Gang Busters offers a “video essay”. It goes for 23 minutes, 10 seconds and provides comments from critic David Cairns.

“Busters” looks at how Eliot Ness’s semi-fictionalized life came to media as well as notes about Mob director Phil Karlson, the production of Mob and elements of the Untouchables TV series. Cairns brings an informative overview.

Philip Kemp on The Scarface Mob goes for 19 minutes, five seconds. This provides another video essay, with information from critic Kemp.

We get info about the nature of Prohibition and related crimes as well as notes about the real Eliot Ness and adapted versions of his life and career. Kemp’s piece offers a good complement to Cairns’ and fills out the subject matter nicely.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we find Image Galleries for “Posters” (27 elements) and “Stills, Lobby Cards and Publicity Photos” (61). Both compilations add value.

As essentially the pilot for the Untouchables TV series, The Scarface Mob offers an intriguing historical curiosity. It proves only sporadically successful as a film, however. The Blu-ray comes with generally good picture, adequate audio and a smattering of bonus features. I’m glad I got a look at this early iteration of Untouchables but I can’t say it exists as a terrific movie.