The Untouchables: Behind the Scenes in Chicago's Union Station
- Chicago Movie Tours
- May 26, 2023
- 3 min read
(This Bonus Features guide accompanies our mini course Editing and Chaos in The Untouchables.)
If you completed our mini course Editing and Chaos in The Untouchables and want to dig in to the 1987 gangster film even more, have a look at these two behind-the-scenes accounts.
The first is a fun podcast with actress Melody Rae, who discusses her role in The Untouchables. In the film, Rae plays the woman with the baby carriage in the shootout in Chicago's Union Station.
The second is an article from the journal American Cinematographer that explains how the cast and crew recreated a 1930s Chicago in the mid 1980s.
Scroll on down to go behind the scenes with The Untouchables!
The Untouchables with Melody Rae: Podcast
In this episode of the podcast I Was There Too, actress Melody Rae discusses her role in The Untouchables. In the film, Rae plays the woman with the baby carriage in the shootout in Chicago's Union Station.
At the time of this podcast, Rae worked as an elementary school teacher in western Washington state.
For The Untouchables fans, the conversation, which runs less than 30 minutes, is well worth a listen!
If you don't have time to listen, here are 10 fun facts from the talk:
Rae took a high school film course in which she had to watch Battleship Potemkin, having no idea she'd help recreate it one day!
Rae worked as waiter in Chicago when she got the call that director Brian DePalma wanted her for the role. No auditioning required!
The staircase sequence was apparently heavily improvised. Rae recalls the scene was "coming out of DePalma's head" while the cast and crew filmed in Union Station.
Between her actual job (waiting tables in Chicago), Rae worked on the sequence in Union Station from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM.
The scene, she remembers, took about five 12-hour days to shoot.
The prop department created 6-8 baby carriages, most of which ultimately broke during production.
The baby was the stunt director's child, Colin, and was actually a very happy baby!
Rae's suitcases were weighed down with ammunition so they would be too heavy for her to lift easily.
On working with Kevin Costner: not only "was he gorgeous," but he also "had a charisma onscreen" and "was incredibly kind with the entire cast, as was Andy Garcia."
The shootout was originally conceived to take place on a 1930s train, but the production spent too much money on the U.S./Canada border sequence, so that had to be reconfigured. (Thank goodness that didn't work out!)
Cinematography and Chicago in the 1930s
This article from American Cinematographer's archives details Stephen H. Burum's visual approach to The Untouchables.
Some of the article is technical, discussing the film stock, camera lenses, and aspect ratio used. Other sections tackle filming in Chicago specifically. Take this quote from the cinematographer, for example:
“In Chicago it’s almost impossible to shoot a period picture. The city has always been in the architectural forefront, and there are so many new buildings, that no matter in what direction you shoot you see a modern building.”
Things we don't always think about for period pictures that set design had to: replacing light poles, removing TV antennas, and finding period lamp fixtures. All of this is, of course, "enormously expensive and time consuming,” the article points out.
The article also includes some fun behind-the-scenes photos of the shoot like the one above. Enjoy!
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