Mr. Moon

What was nice about this Untouchables episode is that they stuck strictly within the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department, in this case going after a very clever counterfeit scheme. Too often in The Untouchables Robert Stack and the squad are going into areas the Treasury Department would never be involved in.

Step one in this scheme was the hijacking of a truck where a shipment of paper for the Treasury to print money on is accomplished with driver and guard killed. After that the Treasury agents in every major region are on alert including The Untouchables in Chicago.

Chicago's involved all right, but the scheme originates in San Francisco with antique dealer and crime boss Victor Buono who operates out of Chinatown. Buono works step two to spring master engraver Karl Swenson from Leavenworth and put him to work. In no time he's printing nearly perfect bills of large denominations.

But he's also got Swenson working like a slave and cooped up in an apartment with a triggerman who does not appreciate Swenson refined taste in classical music. That in fact proves to be his undoing and what brings Buono's scheme with Frank Nitti in Chicago to a screeching halt.

Eliot Ness and the squad were at the top of their game in this episode.

Victor Buono plays Mr. Moon...a very cultivated criminal with expensive tastes. His antique shop doesn't allow him to live in the lifestyle to which he's become accustomed so he has created a side business...counterfeiting. To get the lucrative business up an running, he first orchestrates a robbery where they steal the same paper used to make US paper money. Next, he shows even more nerve and breaks the best counterfeiter out of prison and has him make perfect copies of $100 bills. And, in each case, lots of folks die and the cold-blooded Moon doesn't seem the least bit concerned. He's a very cool character...cool enough to then enlist the help of the Nitti gang to peddle his phony bills. The guy seems to have thought of everything...right?

This is a really good episode...well written, creepy and well made in every way. Buono makes a very slick baddie and it's one of the better episodes of season two.

Victor Buono channels his inner Sydney Greenstreet in this episode, copying his speech and mannerisms so well I forgot he wasn't Sydney, lol!! Entertaining episode.

The rotund (they call him "fat" a number of times in this episode) Victor Buono guest-stars as "Mr. Moon," a man who has a great scheme worked out in which he can counterfeit $100,000,000.

With the exact papers bills are printed on and the best counterfeiter in the businesses, (see the episode how those two are acquired), the master criminal is ready to roll.

How can he be stopped before this money gets into circulation? That's the main storyline here.

The episode includes a few other interesting characters, small-time guys working for the big man and the ending.....well, you have to see this wild scene to believe it!!! I guarantee you'll get a "bang" out of it! Of the guest stars, I particularly enjoyed Karl Swenson's performance as the master forger "Hans Dreiser."