For some reason, despite repeated reunions in their "Honeymooner" roles as Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton, Jackie Gleason and Art Carney never appeared together in a straight (or close to straight) film until a year or so before Gleason died. Then they appeared in this made-for-television film about Prohibition American, and two of it's forgotten heroes: Izzie Einstein and Moe Smith. As has been mentioned before this is not historically accurate by any standard. But it is nice as a record that the two stars' chemistry could sustain a non-"Honeymooner" plot.
Historically Izzie and Moe were Prohibition agents. That would actually set the public opinion of them at a low, as most people (except died-in-the-wool prohibitionists) disliked the rise in crime across the country due to the idiotic Volstead Amendment. Most of the Prohibition agents were a humorless, businesslike group. The only one who permanently raised himself above the bunch was Eliot Ness, by his memoirs THE UNTOUCHABLES, which became a hit television show. But Izzie and Moe almost did the same. From 1920 - 1926 their antics at swooping down on illegal gin mills and distilleries convulsed the nation. Izzie and Moe used a wide variety of disguises. They could come into a speakeasy as Harvard professors, or as doctors, or as actors, or as drunks...whatever, if they knew it would not raise suspicion they would try it. And when they did, the newspapers printed the stories...which delighted the public who otherwise might have supported the speakeasies and not the government. Finally, in 1926, the Department of Justice fired them as agents: they claimed that their notoriety had rendered them useless as effective agents. In reality it was pure jealousy. They were the only two agents (before the belated arrival of Ness) who gained public liking.
The actual story would be worth a serious retelling in movie form. That is not the case here, which does touch on their use of colorful disguises (although I don't think either of them ever dressed up as a woman). It does show the failure of Prohibition due in part to corruption within the Department of Justice and it's agents. However, the story of Moe's (Carney's) so-called romance with a speakeasy hostess named Dallas (based on Texas Guinan) is totally false. Also the fight against one super mobster (based on Dutch Schultz in the film) is not true either - he was one of many targets for them. But with such defects the film is good to watch the two old pros having a ball in the gin-mills of the 1920s. Hopefully it will be released again sometime.
Historically Izzie and Moe were Prohibition agents. That would actually set the public opinion of them at a low, as most people (except died-in-the-wool prohibitionists) disliked the rise in crime across the country due to the idiotic Volstead Amendment. Most of the Prohibition agents were a humorless, businesslike group. The only one who permanently raised himself above the bunch was Eliot Ness, by his memoirs THE UNTOUCHABLES, which became a hit television show. But Izzie and Moe almost did the same. From 1920 - 1926 their antics at swooping down on illegal gin mills and distilleries convulsed the nation. Izzie and Moe used a wide variety of disguises. They could come into a speakeasy as Harvard professors, or as doctors, or as actors, or as drunks...whatever, if they knew it would not raise suspicion they would try it. And when they did, the newspapers printed the stories...which delighted the public who otherwise might have supported the speakeasies and not the government. Finally, in 1926, the Department of Justice fired them as agents: they claimed that their notoriety had rendered them useless as effective agents. In reality it was pure jealousy. They were the only two agents (before the belated arrival of Ness) who gained public liking.
The actual story would be worth a serious retelling in movie form. That is not the case here, which does touch on their use of colorful disguises (although I don't think either of them ever dressed up as a woman). It does show the failure of Prohibition due in part to corruption within the Department of Justice and it's agents. However, the story of Moe's (Carney's) so-called romance with a speakeasy hostess named Dallas (based on Texas Guinan) is totally false. Also the fight against one super mobster (based on Dutch Schultz in the film) is not true either - he was one of many targets for them. But with such defects the film is good to watch the two old pros having a ball in the gin-mills of the 1920s. Hopefully it will be released again sometime.