Original subtitles

(theme music plays)

Anything wrong, Mr. Ness?

Not anymore.

You're under arrest.

Another stalemate, Mr. Ness.

Put the gun down, Bauer.

Come out with your hands up.

I don't want to kill you.

I wouldn't talk if I were you.

I wouldn't talk or move.

ANNOUNCER:

"The Chess Game."

Starring Robert Stack as Eliot Ness.

Co-starring Murray Hamilton,

Barbara Barrie,

and Michael Constantine.

With special guest star, Richard Conte,

and narrated by Walter Winchell.

(door crashing)

WINCHELL: By mid-June 1932,

Eliot Ness and the Untouchables had uncovered and shut down

every champagne-producing operation

in the city of Chicago.

Four months later,

despite the Untouchables continued vigilance

against bootlegging's most profitable liquid,

champagne began to appear again

in a number of the West Side's most fashionable nightclubs.

Certain that the source of the champagne

was outside of Chicago,

Ness and the Untouchables made ready to raid

Chicago's swankiest speakeasy, The Silver Canary

in an effort to trace the champagne

back to its point of origin.

It's as good as the last batch.

Like I told you, Marty, it's always gonna be the best.

That's the only kind my outfit deals in.

And now that your happy, uh, it's time to make me happy.

All right, you earned it.

How much?

Well, let's see.

350 cases.

That's $86,000 worth.

(crowd talking, chatting)

Federal officers! Everybody stay where you are.

(people clamoring)

All right, calm down. Nice and easy.

Go right this way, please.

File out this way, please.

(pounding at door)

Marty, it's a raid.

Hold it!

What's all the fuss about?

I wasn't doing anything.

Nobody ever is. Come on.

(people clamoring)

Clear the way!

He's the only one who came out the back door, Eliot.

I wasn't

You'll get your chance to talk.

You'll all get that chance.

Take them out and book them.

All right, let's go.

(people groaning, complaining)

The Silver Canary.

Must be shipping it in and labeling it here.

Well, this shipment must have just arrived.

Glue's still wet.

Stand back.

It's frozen solid.

Check back there.

Enough champagne in there to launch a thousand ships,

but it's all room temperature.

Except for 12.

Must be from the same case.

How did they get frozen?

Could have been shipped in refrigerated equipment.

Why would they want to do that?

I don't know.

Let's check this out at the lab.

Champagne freezes

at approximately 23 degrees Fahrenheit.

When it's frozen then melted,

it loses a little flavor,

but it still has its effervescence

and it's, uh, really quite palatable.

No, thanks.

Do you have any way of telling when the champagne was frozen?

No, I'm afraid not.

Can you tell me how long it will take the thaw?

At what temperature?

Let's see, the temperature in those bar cabinets

is around 55 to 60 degrees.

Oh, four to five hours.

So, this bottle isn't too far

from its source of refrigeration.

Definitely not.

Let's find out what refrigerated equipment came into Chicago

during the past five hours.

Thanks, Frank.

Al right.

WINCHELL: During the night,

Bill Youngfellow questioned the authorities at Ogden Slip

to determine if any ships with refrigeration had docked

during the preceding five hours.

While Enrico Rossi went to the Union Station

to check on refrigerated freight cars,

Ness and Hobson visited

the Illinois Interstate Commerce Department,

where they obtained a list

of Chicago concerns using refrigerated trucks.

Eliot, you can forget about the ships.

Nothing with refrigeration was docked in the last three weeks.

{(phone rings)

Hello, Ness.

Eliot?

All those birds you picked up at the Silver Canary

are out on bail.

Except the one Hobson grabbed in the alley.

Want to hold him for resisting arrest?

Give him another 24 hours to think about it, then let him go.

Any luck, Rico?

We got the brass ring, Eliot.

Four refrigerated freight cars came into town

during the specified time.

Their cargo's consigned to eight of Chicago's top restaurants,

including the Silver Canary.

All shipped out from the same company in Boston.

Lee, get us on the first plane to Boston.

What's the name of the company?

The Marblehead Seafood and Ice Company.

(knock at door)

Hello, Charley.

I thought you left town.

They held me for an extra 24 hours,

as if you didn't know.

You looking for something, Charley?

Just the $86,000 you owe me.

I thought maybe you were looking for this.

(laughs): Oh, I declare.

I was wondering what happened to it.

You know, Charley, this makes very interesting reading.

It's about a chiseler.

It's about a guy that sells to some customers

for 100% more than he sells to others.

Talk to me, you chiseler!

L-Look, Marty,

I'm stuck for a fortune to the Boston bookies, ponies, dice.

I gave you $150,000 for that first shipment.

That's $75,000 too much.

Now, I owe you one half of $86,000 for this shipment.

Don't try to add it up, Charley.

I'll tell you what it is.

That's $32,000 you owe me.

I want the money right away.

Come on now, Marty,

you've made money on the champagne.

Charley, you're trying to cheat me.

Nobody cheats Marty Balter. Do you hear me, nobody!

All right, all right.

All right, Marty.

I'll see what I can do.

No, whatever you do,

you're gonna do it right now,

because you're not gonna leave here, Charley.

You're not gonna leave here

until you raise the money, on the phone.

Look, Marty,

I tell you what.

The next shipment I send you, I'll double the amount.

A-and you'll only pay half for it.

Now that'll more than square us, won't it?

You can't do that, Charley.

What about your partner in Boston?

Well, now, why don't you just let

little old Charley worry about that.

What do you say?

Let me hear the order go in.

That's just what I was gonna do.

This has been a most gratifying year.

Our gross has doubled and, despite the Depression,

our net profit went well over the million mark

for the first time.

Excuse me?

Yes, Cheryl.

It's... telephone, long distance.

Oh, tell them I'll call back.

It's urgent.

So is this.

I am sorry, Mr. Ness.

Is there anything else?

Did you know that many of the restaurants

you sell seafood to in Chicago, Mr. Bauer, are speakeasies?

I didn't know, but it doesn't surprise me.

I gather it doesn't bother you, either.

Well, why should it?

I sell them seafood.

Whatever else they do is no concern of mine.

How frequently do you ship seafood to Chicago?

Oh, once a week.

Your last shipment was four carloads.

That's a lot of seafood, isn't it?

I'm happy to say that it is.

You see, Mr. Ness, because we do our own packing here,

and because we operate and service

our own refrigerated cars,

we manage to keep the spoilers down to an absolute minimum.

That's given us a good reputation

and a large volume of business.

We even make our own ice.

Come along, I'll show you.

The water is piped through here,

and poured into these ice molds.

Actually, I started in business making ice

and then expanded into seafood.

I sort of combined the two business

when I started shipping seafood out of the state.

You lit a match, Mr. Ness, but you haven't lit a cigarette.

There's no light in here, Mr. Bauer.

I'm sorry.

The bulb must have burned out.

I'm blind, Mr. Ness.

I can get around this whole plant without any light.

The world is a map of memorized numbers for me.

So many steps to here, so many steps to there.

I never leave this world.

I live upstairs, so I'm quite mobile.

Shall we go?

Any other questions, Mr. Ness?

Yes, I'd like to see the bills of lading

for your last shipment to Chicago.

Certainly, right this way.

Cheryl, would you get Mr. Ness copies of the bills of lading

from our last Chicago shipment, please?

Thank you.

I hope I've been of some assistance for you.

You have.

You can go out right through that door.

Good-bye, Mr. Bauer.

Bye.

He certainly gets around, doesn't he?

A map of memorized numbers.

Yeah, well, I'm afraid that part of that map's

the location of speakeasies in Chicago,

part of the numbers is how much money he's making on champagne.

Let's see how these check out with the railroad's records.

(phone ringing)

Hello? Ira?

Ira, on account of the raid the other night,

I'll need to double one of this week's orders.

There isn't gonna be any shipment this week.

NAILER: Why not?

I just had a visitor. Eliot Ness.

Ness? How'd he get to you?

BAUER: He found some frozen champagne at the Silver Canary.

But how?

I don't know how.

All I know is, they checked all the refrigerated equipment

coming into Chicago, and traced our freight cars back to me.

So? You ship seafood in refrigerated freight cars.

He's got nothing on us.

That's the way I intend to keep it.

We're gonna lay off for at least a month.

A month? That's too long.

We'll lose our customers.

What are you talking about?

Where else can they get champagne?

They'll wait for as long as they have to

and be tickled pink to get it whenever we ship.

I'm telling you, we've got to ship sooner.

You're not telling me anything. I'm telling you!

Yeah. Yeah, well... well, that's-that's better, Ira.

Much better, believe me.

Uh, look, I'm in Marty Balter's office now.

Uh, mark down a double shipment for the Silver Canary.

I'll call in the rest later.

Right, Ira.

Sure, we got to take care of our best customers.

(gunshot)

Hadn't ought have pushed me so hard, Marty.

I don't like that.

WINCHELL: An hour later, at the Boston freight yard,

Eliot Ness and Lee Hobson compared the bills of lading

of the Marblehead Seafood and Ice Company

with the shipping records of the CS&O Railroad Company.

Well, the number of cases are the same.

(bells clanging)

Then why is the charge less on this carload

than the other three?

There's not much difference in weight.

This car was shipped without ice.

There's an extra charge for hauling a reefer.

-Reefer? -MAN: A refrigerated car.

How can they ship seafood without ice?

That's their problem.

Marblehead owns their own reefers.

All we do here is check 'em,

weigh 'em and charge for hauling.

(bells clanging)

Thanks.

(bells clanging)

They must be shipping the champagne

in the unrefrigerated car.

And the seafood in the other three.

Somehow, a case of champagne got mixed in with the seafood.

Well, what's our next move?

Get a place down by the waterfront

within walking distance of the plant,

start watching it around the clock.

WINCHELL: At 9:55 the following night,

Charley Nailer returned to Boston.

You were supposed to be back two days ago.

I've been waiting in this waiting room

for over 48 hours.

These hard benches ain't exactly the last word in sleeping.

And milk for two days up to here.

The feds raided the speaks I supply in Chicago.

Oh, that's too bad.

Everybody has been having a rough time.

There was a boat race in Rockingham Park yesterday,

a $25 horse.

Boys got clipped for plenty.

Give.

I don't have the money.

One minute this place looks like a waiting room,

and then, all of a sudden,

it begins to look like a funeral parlor.

Look, Howie, I'm not worth a nickel dead.

So, if you give me a break

and say you never saw me get off the train,

I'll get the dough to you in a couple of days.

And there'll be $5,000 in it for you.

Make it ten.

All right, all right, ten.

I'm living at the Pilgrim Hotel, room 609.

Oh, and Charley, don't lose this.

It's like a reprieve from the governor.

You know what I mean?

Well, what do you say?

Louis, you're still not making a champagne

that's good enough for my customers.

You've been paying a fortune for that stuff from Nova Scotia.

I can double your profits.

Believe me, none of your customers

would ever know the difference.

But I'll know, Louis.

I can't figure you out.

What are you, anyway?

A bootlegger or a watchdog for the Better Business Bureau?

(car engine approaching)

Car just drove up.

See who it is.

(car door opening)

Charley.

Ira turned me down again.

Why won't you get it through your head?

He won't buy any of the colored soda water

you're always peddling.

It's good enough for half the clubs in Boston.

If Ira can't drink it, he won't sell it.

Well, if we all felt that way,

there wouldn't be ten bottles of booze sold in the whole country.

I'm sure it's the guy I caught leaving

the Silver Canary the other night.

Yeah, it's no use picking him up.

He'll just claim he's a seafood salesman.

Well, I better get back.

See you at midnight.

Because Ness is no fool, that's why.

Because he's probably watching the plant right now, that's why.

I need money, Ira. Bad.

That's your worry, Charley.

I've put up with your gambling long enough.

Besides, I am tired of beating you at chess.

You trying to tell me I'm through?

If you're telling me that the only way

you can stay alive is by getting more money from me,

then I'm telling you, you're dead.

I'll manage, Ira, without an advance.

That's more like it.

How we gonna operate this month?

We're gonna ship out seafood, our regular shipment.

(laughing)

What's so funny?

I was just thinking. In a way, this week might be

the perfect time to ship nothing but champagne.

Yeah.

Yeah, Daddy, why don't we?

There's one chance in a million Ness would dream we'd dare to.

We could really roll a natural.

I'm no gambler, Charley.

Even one chance in a million makes the odds too high.

But...?

No champagne.

Just seafood.

COLLINGS: No seafood, just champagne, huh?

NAILER: That's the action.

It's the perfect time for it.

You don't think the feds would dream

we'd ship champagne out of the plant

the same week they'd been there, do you?

If it's so perfect, why doesn't Ira do it?

"Cause Ira's not in debt up to here.

I am.

How would we work it?

It's a cinch.

I'll send you a truckload of our empty bottles

and a truckload of our seafood cases.

You fill 'em up with your champagne,

send them back to the plant.

I'll supervise loading them on the freight car myself.

When is your next shipment?

Tomorrow night.

What happens if Ira finds out?

Remember what happened to Wally March?

Is a carload of champagne at Chicago prices worth the risk?

I say yes.

Uh, rest is up to you.

Well, make up your mind, will you?!

It's a deal.

(steam hissing)

All finished, Charley?

Yeah.

What about those trucks?

What trucks?

Stop playing dumb, Charley. I heard them.

Oh, you must mean the oysters that just came in.

I forgot about them for a minute.

Oysters don't rattle like bottles, Charley.

Only bottles rattle like bottles.

All right. All right, so you heard 'em.

So I'm shipping champagne.

You wouldn't give me any money, I had no choice.

You did a lot of work for nothing, Charley.

That's what you say.

There's one shot in a million we get caught, I'm taking it.

That car is not gonna be shipped!

I got a different idea.

When the engineer comes,

who do you think he'll listen to, you or me?

If I'm the only one around...

I guess he'll listen to me.

I'm gonna miss your brains, Ira.

You're halfway up, Charley.

You've got eight more steps to go.

(grunting)

Mr. Ness?

Mr. Ness?

Yes?

I just killed a man.

ANNOUNCER: And now back to:

NESS: Police are on their way.

Now maybe you'll tell me what happened.

This man was my partner, Mr. Ness,

my outside salesman and collector.

His name was Charley Nailer.

You were quite right.

Nailer was shipping champagne out of here.

When I confronted him with this fact

and refused to let him ship it out tonight,

he started up the stairs.

He was gonna kill me.

I shoved a cake of ice at him.

Where's the champagne?

In the freight car.

Did you hear what I said, Mr. Ness?

The champagne is in the freight car.

There's no hurry, Mr. Bauer.

We got men on the CS&O engine

that's coming in to pick up your car.

They'll open it.

Good for you.

Very good.

Do you play chess?

Yes, I do.

Are you planning to stay in Boston for a while?

As a matter of fact, Mr. Bauer, I am.

Perhaps you'll drop in for a game.

Maybe I'll do that.

Here it is.

MAN: Who is it?

Federal officers. Open up.

(window opens)

What do you want from me?

First your name.

Howie. Howie Reif.

Charley Nailer was a friend of yours, wasn't he?

I never heard of him.

He had your address in his pocket

when he was killed.

M-My address?

I told you I never heard of him.

He was a bootlegger and he heard of you.

I ain't no bootlegger.

What are you?

Come on, talk.

You're just a little fish, Reif, I'm after a big one.

If you talk, I'll throw you back in the pond.

I run and collect for a bookmaker.

Charley owed a lot of money.

How much?

Over a hundred Gs.

That's all I ever had to do with him--

just trying to collect, that's all.

What do you think, Eliot?

I think I'll play a little chess, Lee.

Knight to king three.

I'm afraid we're playing to a stalemate, Mr. Ness.

That's one thing about chess that's very different than life.

There are no stalemates in life, Mr. Bauer.

Sooner or later somebody wins.

Knight to king's rook three.

Ha, that's the stalemate.

Shall we play another?

I think I've had enough for tonight.

Well, that's too bad.

I love chess.

Chess and books.

Good exercise for the mind.

How'd you like to give it another kind of exercise?

Exercise in logic.

Sure, go on.

A man is given credit for over $100,000.

Creditor must feel pretty sure

he has a good chance of collecting, wouldn't you say?

That's very logical.

That's how much Charley Nailer owed his bookie, Mr. Bauer.

Really?

He didn't make that kind of money in your company, did he?

No.

Doesn't offend your sense of logic that total strangers knew

he had access to great sums of money and you didn't?

Not in the least.

He was my partner, not my brother.

It's quite evident that the great sums of money

were coming from the champagne,

and I told you before, I knew nothing about it.

All right, you knew nothing about it.

But you do know

about the seafood that's being shipped out of here,

-don't you? -Of course.

Your last shipment to Chicago was made in four carloads.

The weight on all four cars was approximately the same,

but the charge on one car was considerably less

than the other three.

Didn't you wonder why?

(chuckles)

I knew why.

There was no ice in that car.

You built up your business

on your good reputation against spoilage.

Isn't that what you told me?

It's winter.

I checked out the weather throughout the area

where the train was going.

The weather was far below the temperature necessary

to keep the fish from spoiling.

There was no danger,

and as you say, the price was considerably less.

Why didn't you ship all the cars without ice?

The weather could have changed.

If it did, three out of the four cars would have been all right.

I would have made a profit no matter what.

Are you satisfied?

Except for one detail, Mr. Bauer.

I checked the weather that day, too.

I was curious to see if it had been cold enough

for a bottle of champagne to freeze.

And, uh, had it?

It was in the high 40s throughout the Middle East.

Hardly the temperature at which fish is safe from spoilage.

(chuckles)

Bravo, Mr. Ness.

You finally forced me to make a slip.

Checkmate.

You've been in on the champagne from the beginning, haven't you?

Within the confines of this room

and within the spirit of the game,

I am happy to tell you, yes.

Naturally, in a courtroom my answer would be no,

but we are not ready to go to a courtroom yet.

A case built on a carload of seafood without ice

would melt very quickly.

You've shipped your last bottle of champagne, Bauer.

I advise you not to, uh, underestimate me.

I underestimated you and look what happened.

I don't underestimate you.

Good.

I guess the next move is to be mine.

{gun cocks)

I was just preparing for a little diversion.

Won't you join me?

There's a switch right there.

I find this very relaxing.

Shooting at the sound of an object...

can be just as effective as seeing the object.

It took me a long time to master this.

I hope it doesn't take me as long

to find a new way to ship champagne.

Would you like to shoot, Mr. Ness?

I don't find guns a source of relaxation, Bauer.

I usually become involved with them

for just the opposite reason.

Why not make this an exception?

After all, we're about to embark on an exceptional contest.

I am very impressed, Mr. Ness,

not so much by your accuracy, which I fully anticipated,

but by the fact that you only fired five times.

You still have a bullet left in your gun.

You don't take many chances, do you?

Only when I have to.

Good night, Bauer.

Thanks for the games.

(bell dings)

(knocking)

Miss Hines.

I had to talk to you.

I followed you from the plant.

Yes, I know.

Won't you come in?

Thank you.

Sit down, Miss Hines.

Thank you.

Ira's...

Mr. Bauer's a good man, Mr. Ness.

We seem to have a difference of opinion

as to what constitutes good.

That's because you see everything in black and white.

If you'd spent eight years with a blind man,

you'd stop seeing life that way.

How would I see it?

I knew Ira...

before he was blind.

We grew up together in the same neighborhood.

We were all very poor in our neighborhood.

I'm not making any excuses, that's just the fact.

Some of the boys got into trouble...

and Ira was one of them.

Oh, petty larceny, you know.

One night he was... hit by a bullet.

We all thought he was going to die.

He lived.

But he was blind.

When he was released from the hospital, he disappeared.

I hadn't heard from him for over two years

when a man came and told me that Ira wanted to see me.

He asked me if I wanted to be his secretary.

He said he needed somebody he could trust.

I took the job in a flash.

Oh, I didn't come here to talk about me.

Ira's made a lot of money in the bootlegging business,

but he hasn't kept very much of it for himself.

He never tells anyone,

but most of that money goes for research for the blind.

If you're trying to tell me that Bauer is some sort

of a Robin Hood, Miss Hines, you're missing one fine point.

Robin Hood broke laws arbitrarily imposed

on the people.

-Prohibition is... -The law?!

The law is a book lying on a shelf!

What does it matter if some rich people are guzzling champagne?

What does it really matter?

Ira can't go to jail, Mr. Ness.

Hasn't he been punished enough?

I'm not a judge of human punishment

any more than you are, Miss Hines.

I've got a job, I've got a job...

I know you've got a job, Mr. Ness,

but I've seen this man suffer

and I've seen what he's made of his life.

It's not 100%, okay.

Can't you find it in your heart to have a little compassion

for a man that suffered so much?

Is that too much to ask, Mr. Ness?

Is it?!

I'm sorry.

I guess I'd better go.

WINCHELL: The next day,

Eliot Ness received a message asking him

to come to the Marblehead Seafood and Ice Company.

Good afternoon, Mr. Ness.

Good afternoon.

Your walk is rather distinctive.

I've only heard it three times before this

and I can already recognize it.

What's on your mind, Bauer?

I trust my secretary didn't talk you

out of your sworn duty last night.

I wouldn't like that.

I'm a taxpayer, you know?

Besides, before I retire, I want to prove to you

that I can ship champagne right under your nose.

You planning to retire?

From bootlegging, yes.

This is a presidential election year.

My feeling is that prohibition is on its way out.

Most of the bootleggers will be left high and dry.

But not me.

I'm planning on a new,

foolproof method of distribution,

for narcotics.

Why are you telling me all this?

Because the game is on again, Mr. Ness.

This isn't a game, Bauer.

Yeah, I know.

It's like when we used to say when we were kids:

'This is for keeps.

WINCHELL: During the next five days,

constant surveillance revealed nothing out of the ordinary

at the Marblehead Seafood and Ice Company.

Maybe he was kidding you, Eliot.

Maybe he's not gonna send any champagne at all.

He'll ship, all right.

My only worry is that it may not be coming out of the plant.

Where else? Bauer never leaves the place.

There is someone who comes and goes regularly.

Louis Collings.

Bauer's always had someone on the outside.

Now that Nailer's dead, it must be Collings.

We'll stay on him for a while.

WINCHELL: After an invigorating Turkish bath,

Louis Collings led Ness and Hobson to his bottling plant

on the south side of town.

At 11:50 p.m., he locked up and went home.

(car door slams)

Let's take a look inside.

"Marblehead Seafood and Ice Company.”

That's interesting seafood.

Same bottles, but they're empty.

Think they'll be filled up here?

Wouldn't that be nice and easy? Too easy.

Let's go back outside and give it 24 hours.

(knock at door)

Come in.

Yes, Cheryl?

What is it?

I---

Hmm?

Anything the matter?

I was just about to go home and...

Yes, and what?

I've had this premonition all day.

A feeling that something bad is going to happen.

That's, that's silly, Cheryl.

It may be silly, but it's,

it's so strong that I just had to tell you.

I appreciate it.

There's, um...

something else I want to tell you.

We've been together a long time, Ira.

Yes, we have.

I wanted you to know that...

being with you...

has been the one important thing that's happened in my life, Ira.

I wanted to tell you that.

I'm glad that you did.

If you didn't say it, I would've said it.

Don't ship anything tonight, Ira, please.

Good night, Cheryl.

And Cheryl?

I like your new perfume.

Oh, Ira.

WINCHELL: That evening, at 7:05 p.m.,

the empty champagne bottles were loaded on two trucks.

Where do you think they're taking them?

Looks like they're going to Chicago, empty.

What about the champagne?

That'll probably come later.

How?

That's what I got to find out.

Keep your eye on the truck.

Be careful, those lobsters will bite you.

I've heard you searching down here for over half an hour.

You won't find it.

If I don't find it here, I'll find it somewhere,

if I have to take this place apart.

You're welcome to search for as long as you want to,

but please hurry with the cars.

The engine will be here in an hour and a half.

If you need me, I'll be in my room.

Good night.

Anything wrong, Mr. Ness?

Not anymore.

I have a piece of ice in my hand, Bauer.

A piece of ice from your refrigerated car.

You're under arrest.

Another stalemate, Mr. Ness.

The odds are even now.

Don't be a fool!

I wouldn't talk if I were you.

I wouldn't talk or move.

Put the gun down, Bauer.

Come out with your hands up.

I don't want to kill you.

I believe you, Mr. Ness,

but that's the only way you'll ever get me out of my world.

That's it, Bauer.

I'm coming up after you.

WINCHELL: At 12:31 a.m.,

on November 18, 1932,

Ira Bauer had made his last move.