Ma Barker And Her Boys

Season 1, Episode 3, Aired
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Episode Summary

Eliot Ness, along with Bill Youngfellow and Martin Flaherty, are closing in on Ma Barker, who is holed up in a house along with 2 of her sons, Lloyd and Fred. But as Ness yells for Barker to surrender, the notorious criminal is anything but willing to come out peacefully.

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Fan Episode Reviews (2)

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  • Taken at face value, this one is exciting though not only is it historically innacurate - it hardly really needs the Untouchables to drive the story.

    7.2
    "Good"
    By Mac-Ale, Feb 04, 2008 Report Abuse
    Ma Barker and her boys face a bloody end to their criminal spree of terror.

    I can see how Hoover might have burst a blood vessel after seeing that "The Untouchables" series gave Eliot Ness credit for the demise of the Barker gang, but still, as a story, I find this one entertaining with a chance to see the human nature of villains in a little more depth than usual.

    There's a nice use of a building evil here, with good use of long flashback sequences that paint the picture. Claire Trevor chews some good scenery here, enabling her sons' nastiness, belittling her husband, and despising the women who compete for her boys' attention. Her mental illness is well-illustrated when she absolutely must send a birthday cake to Arthur in Chicago, exposing her location in the process. In a way, the plot device illustrates her delusions and misplaced affections just about as well as an hour of television can muster.

    So, though Ness and his men pass in and out of the story without driving much of the plot, in the end I think this is a story well-told in terms of drama and layered suspense.moreless

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  • Inconsistent episode

    4.0
    "Poor"
    By Mad_Buck, Jul 09, 2005 Report Abuse
    This episode ticked off FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover because it concerned a case which involved his FBI and he wrote a letter of protest to executive producer Quinn Martin. From then on the show never used real-life villains who had been captured by the FBI although it did use thinly veiled versions of George "Machine Gun" Kelly in The Lily Dallas Story and Bonnie and Clyde in The Doreen Maney Story.

    The episode itself is very inconsistent although we do see one technique here that is never used again in the series: a flashback sequence. Claire Trevor is way too over the top as Ma Barker. Her performance appears to have been parodied by Shelly Winters as "Ma Parker" in an episode of Batman. Future Oscar winner Louise Fletcher does have a nice bit as the moll of one of the Barker boys and Vaughn Taylor does a nice job as right thinking Pa Barker but those are the main highlights of the episode. It also marks the only time in show history that the Untouchables would kill a female.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

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    • In the real life battle of Oklawaha, FBI agents and the other law enforcement officials were almost out of ammunition and in the process of running back to nearby Ocala for re-stocking when things in the house containing Fred and Ma Barker grew deathly quiet. The law enforcement personnel stormed the house and discovered the two Barkers dead. Edit
    • Lloyd Barker, killed in the final shootout in this episode, was serving a prison term in Leavenworth and was never part of the Barker gang with his mother and brothers. Edit
    • Doc Barker, who was captured in Chicago as depicted in this episode, was sentenced to prison on Alcatraz where he died in an escape attempt in 1939. His final words reportedly were, "I'm all shot to pieces." Edit

  • Notes

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    • Robert Stack and Claire Trevor had earlier appeared together in the 1954 film The High and the Mighty. Edit
    • This is the only episode of the series where the flashback technique of telling the storyline is used. Edit
    • This episode features two Oscar winners. Claire Trevor had previously won for Best Supporting Actress in Key Largo and Louise Fletcher would go onto win for Best Actress in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Edit

  • Quotes

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    • Ma Barker: We're the Barkers! You'd better bring the army, navy and the Marines! Edit
    • Neighbor: Their name is Clark, not Barker. Ness: You'd be surprised how easy it is to rent a house under a false name. Edit
    • Neighbor: But Mrs. Clark goes to church with me on Sundays. Ness: She's the most dangerous woman in the country today. Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • There's a good chance that Shelley Winters parodied Claire Trevor's performance in this episode when she portrayed "Ma Parker" on Batman. Edit

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