BOARDWALK EMPIRE {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The first episode in this historical drama series based on the nonfiction book by Nelson Johnson about the gangsters and bootleggers who rose to power in Atlantic City during the years of Prohibition. In this episode, a large shipment of whiskey is brought into Atlantic City by boat at night. As the bootleggers drive through the woods to New York, they are overtaken by two masked gunman. Three days previously, Atlantic City treasurer Enoch "Nucky" Thompson attends a meeting of the Temperance League and tells an inspiring and made-up story to the women present. Nucky and his protégé, 22-year-old Jimmy Darmody, pass by a spirited "funeral" for alcohol as they head to Babette's Supper Club on the boardwalk, where they dine with the mayor, Nucky's brother Sheriff Eli Thompson, and other ward bosses. They toast to the Volstead Act, which outlaws liquor, pleased that they can now sell booze at increased prices. Nucky welcomes Jimmy back from the war and announces that he will now work for Paddy Ryan, one of his employees. The clock strikes midnight, and the crowd rings in 1920 in style. Jimmy returns home to his common-law wife Angela and his young son Tommy, complaining about having to work for the "sap" Ryan, while elsewhere Supervisor Elliot swears in a group of "incorruptible" new Prohibition agents, observed by the humorless Agent Nelson Van Alden.
In the afternoon, a hungover Nucky and his mistress Lucy are awakened by his manservant, Eddie, and Nucky meets with Margaret Schroeder, a timid Irish housewife who saw his speech at the Temperance League. She explains that she is pregnant with her third child and requests a better job for her drunken, gambling husband Hans. He tells her that he himself is a childless widower and promises to help as he gives her some cash, then telling Jimmy to drive her home. Nucky strolls the boardwalk and lingers by the incubator display, where premature babies are housed, and then meets with Bill McCoy, from whom he agrees to buy a regular shipment of alcohol for $35,000 a week, starting the following day. Later, Nucky and Jimmy visit a funeral home and meet with the annoying Mickey Kuzik, now calling himself "Doyle," who shows them his secret distillery where he makes low-quality alcohol mixed with formaldehyde, among other things. Jimmy nearly gets into a fight with him, and when Nucky scolds him, he objects to working for Ryan and asks for a better position. Nucky chides him for dropping out of Princeton to join the military and urges him to "slow down" and make his own opportunities. At home, Hans questions Margaret roughly in front of their children about the cash from Nucky.
Van Alden and his bumbling partner Sebso watch as Nucky meets with crime bosses Arnold Rothstein, from New York, and Johnny Torrio and "Big Jim" Colosimo from Chicago. At dinner, Rothstein and his protégé "Lucky" Luciano request to buy liquor from Nucky, and he offers them the following day's shipment for $60,000. Rothstein agrees to the inflated price, while outside Jimmy talks to Torrio's "muscle" about the war in which they both served and about Luciano, who is their age but far wealthier. When they part ways, the man introduces himself as Al Capone. Later, the Darmodys attend the pictures, and Jimmy is then taken in for questioning by Van Alden and Elliot, who ask about Nucky's criminal activity and try to turn him to their side. Nucky and Lucy's intimate moment is interrupted by the news that Rothstein has won a great deal of money gambling at Nucky's casino, and when he arrives, Rothstein tells him that he, Nucky, now owes him $33,000, even after the liquor money. Nucky also spots Hans gambling away the money he gave Margaret and angrily throws him out. As Nucky and Lucy enjoy Eddie Cantor's comedy routine, Van Alden and his men invade the funeral home while the masked robbers, revealed to be Jimmy and Al, hold up the liquor shipment and, in a moment of panic, gun down the five bootleggers. An angry Hans beats Margaret badly, and when Eli updates Nucky about the shooting and the missing truck, they realize that Jimmy was likely behind it, having told the Feds about the funeral home to throw them off.
Rothstein calls Nucky to ask about the missing booze, and Nucky learns that Margaret was "injured" and lost her unborn child. He meets with the powerful Commodore Louis Kaestner, who urges him to "give them someone" to arrest for the shooting, apparently impressed that Jimmy could have orchestrated it. Nucky encounters Jimmy and lectures him furiously, but Jimmy observes that Nucky will not have him killed for his actions and admits that he himself is "nothing but a murderer" since the war, telling his mentor that he "can't be half a gangster anymore." Al drives the liquor shipment to Torrio in Chicago, and Eli grabs Hans and takes him out onto a boat, where he beats him soundly and tosses him overboard. Elsewhere, another gangster, Frankie Yale, shoots Colosimo execution-style in his restaurant. When Hans' body turns up, the radio reports that he was likely the shooter in the woods, and Jimmy returns home to his family as Nucky takes flowers to Margaret in the hospital.
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: September 19, 2010 9:00 AM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:12:19
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 110186
- GENRE: Drama, historical
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, historical; Crime and criminals; Prohibition
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV series, 2010-2014
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Tim Van Patten … Executive Producer
- Stephen Levinson … Executive Producer
- Mark Wahlberg … Executive Producer
- Martin Scorsese … Executive Producer, Director
- Terence Winter … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Eugene Kelly … Co-Executive Producer
- David Coatsworth … Producer
- Rick Yorn … Producer
- Steve Turner … Co-Producer
- Emma Tillinger Koskoff … Associate Producer
- Dana Kuznetzkoff … Line Producer
- Stewart Lerman … Original Music Producer
- Christina Graff … Visual Effects Executive Producer
- Magdalena Wolf … Visual Effects Producer
- Glenn Allen … Visual Effects Producer
- Richard Friedlander … Visual Effects Producer
- David Taritero … Visual Effects Producer
- Nelson Johnson … Based on the book by
- Pat Birch … Choreographer
- Steve Buscemi … Cast, Enoch "Nucky" Thompson
- Michael Pitt … Cast, James "Jimmy" Darmody
- Kelly Macdonald … Cast, Margaret Schroeder
- Michael Shannon … Cast, Nelson van Alden
- Shea Wigham … Cast, Eli Thompson
- Aleksa Palladino … Cast, Angela Darmody
- Michael Stuhlbarg … Cast, Arnold Rothstein
- Stephen Graham … Cast, Al Capone
- Vincent Piazza … Cast, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano
- Paz de la Huerta … Cast, Lucy Danziger
- Michael Kenneth Williams … Cast, Albert "Chalky" White
- Anthony Laciura … Cast, Eddie Kessler
- Paul Sparks … Cast, Mickey Doyle
- Dabney Coleman … Cast, Commodore Louis Kaestner
- Greg Antonacci … Cast, Johnny Torrio
- Danny Burstein … Cast, Lolly Steinman
- Frank Crudele … Cast, Big Jim Colosimo
- Dana Ivey … Cast, Mrs. McGarry
- Peter McRobbie … Cast, Supervisor Elliot
- Erik Weiner … Cast, Agent Sebso
- Stephen DeRosa … Cast, Eddie Cantor
- Joe Sikora … Cast, Hans Schroeder
- Pearce Bunting … Cast, Bill McCoy
- Johnnie Mae … Cast, Louanne
- Billy Smith … Cast, Davey Murdoch
- Jordan Gelber … Cast, Simon
- Chase Coleman … Cast, Billy Winslow
- Kevin Carolan … Cast, Boardwalk Barker
- Tracy Lynn Middendorf … Cast, Babette
- John Rue … Cast, Mayor Harry Bacharach
- William Hill … Cast, Ward Boss O'Neill
- Robert Clohessy … Cast, Ward Boss Neary
- Samuel Taylor … Cast, Paddy Ryan
- Noel Wilson … Cast, Ward Boss
- Scott Jaeck … Cast, Ward Boss
- Vince Giordano … Cast, Bandleader
- Loyita Chapel … Cast, Crying Wife
- Allen Jared … Cast, Crying Husband
- Connor Noon … Cast, Tommy Darmody
- Brady Noon … Cast, Tommy Darmody
- John Mainieri … Cast, Brighton Hotel Manager
- Steve Witting … Cast, Funeral Director
- Jeanette Gould … Cast, Funeral Attendee
- Prudence Wright Holmes … Cast, Widow
- Emily Gallina … Cast, Emily Schroeder
- Josie Gallina … Cast, Emily Schroeder
- Declan McTigue … Cast, Teddy Schroeder
- Rory McTigue … Cast, Teddy Schroeder
- George Sheffey … Cast, Traymore Hotel Concierge
- Randy Neumann … Cast, Referee
- Nick Novicki … Cast, Carl Heely
- Adam Mucci … Cast, Deputy Halloran
- Charleigh E. Parker … Cast, Lady Jean
- Joseph Riccobene … Cast, Frankie Yale
- Jonathan Brody … Cast, Reporter
- Chloe Harting … Cast
- Francesca Scorsese … Cast
- Curtis Shumaker … Cast
- Jeff Ware … Cast