The Untouchables: Shooting Up the Box Office

Ripe violence and gangster flash make The Untouchables the new sleeper hit

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Casting Capone was potentially explosive as well. De Niro, the first choice, deferred accepting the role for so long that English Actor Bob Hoskins (Mona Lisa) was hired. Then De Niro said yes, and the studio fired Hoskins and ate his $200,000 salary. De Niro's scenes were to be filmed at the end of the twelve-week shoot. "I met him when we were in the final stages of rehearsals," Linson says. "He was thin. He looked about 15, 20 years too young to play Capone. He had a ponytail. I panicked. We'd fired Bob Hoskins for a quiet guy in a ponytail looking 30. Then De Niro went off to Italy for ten weeks, and when he came back he was unrecognizable. His entire head was redesigned. His hairline was moved back. He had gained 25, 30 lbs. He had his own tailor and costume designer. He wore special silk underwear from A. Sulka & Co., who made Al Capone's underwear. All these things helped him get into the character."

And, presumably, helped get audiences into the picture. But only word of mouth can get them to keep coming. They probably will, for The Untouchables has all the right lures: ripe violence, period flash and the triumph of good over venal. As De Palma puts it, "It's like a John Ford western. A good guy is on a mission and gets help. At the end he walks off into the sunset. It's a simple story told in a classical way." That might seem a bit too simple for De Palma, Mamet, De Niro and the other smart lads who have made careers breaking popular icons instead of retooling them. But like Ness's, and Capone's, theirs is a story of hard-earned success. And what's so bad about making good?

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