MovieChat Forums > The Untouchables (1993) Discussion > Catherine Ness + Other Fictions

Catherine Ness + Other Fictions

posted 13 years ago by Firefly-That-Was
6 replies | jump to latest

I've just done some reading on the real Untouchables and compared it to the characters in the movie, and both TV series.

Does anyone know why they didn't use any of the agents real names in any of these? Only Eliot and the mobsters are being portrayed.
For example, Eliot never married anybody named Catherine (at least, not according to his biography).

Were there legal reasons for this or wast here another reason they fictionalized so much of it?

I noticed that in 1959 when the first tv show aired, several of the people being talked about were probably still alive, and maybe that influenced the decision to make so many changes...?

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] GaelinW 10 years ago

I would imagine to protect themselves from being sued.

One could argue that Eliot Ness was a public figure but not his family or the other agents. And as the other poster pointed out, Ness didn't use real names in his book which might have made it possible for TV/Movie writers to use them. But without some sort of basis, if you "fictionalize" the life of a real person, you risk being sued.

"I am allowed to think everyone is stupid for 10 minutes."-- Randy Susan Meyers

[–] solex10 9 years ago

Eliot Ness was long dead, and could not have objected to showing his wife depicted (besides, his son died as a child, so he had no heirs or family to object to any portrayals.)

[–] GaelinW 9 years ago

So, you can guarantee that he doesn't have some 3rd cousin 6 times removed who could object?Or, a great-grand niece or nephew? Nor that his wife doesn't have the same? O

An heir with the right to object to a depiction doesn't have to be a direct descendant.

I don't trust people who don't like pets and I don't trust people who pets don't like.

[–] solex10 9 years ago

There are no successors to Elliot Ness anywhere in the world.

[–] GaelinW 9 years ago

A "successor" and "heir" with legal rights are not the same time.

He was the youngest of 5 children. You know for a fact that none of his siblings had children and their children no children?

He had 3 wives. None of them had siblings with children?

Any of them could be heir with legal rights to the Ness image.

I don't trust people who don't like pets and I don't trust people who pets don't like.