The Untouchables

Al Capone, the gangster who runs Chicago, lives like a king in the Lexington Hotel. The real hotel was closed when the film was made, so its interiors were shot partly in the upper foyer of this old movie palace, where Capone is pampered and handed the morning papers. A real filming location, standing in for the hotel.

Access · From the street at any time. Inside only with a show ticket or the official theatre tour, which does not run every month: check its calendar for your dates.

The film opens with a warning from Capone's men to a shop owner who refused to buy their illegal beer: a bomb goes off and a little girl is killed. That death is what brings Eliot Ness to the case. The explosion was filmed at this corner building on Clark Street, today a bar.

Access · Private business: look from the street.

Eliot Ness, a young agent of the Treasury sent to bring down Capone, works out of this office building: its exterior plays the police headquarters. The film also ends here, as Ness walks out for the last time and heads down LaSalle Street. Only the exterior was used.

Access · Working office building; the lobby is often open to visitors, check before you go.

Ness's first raid. Tipped off that Capone hides liquor in a post office, he leads his men and the newspapers across LaSalle Street from the Rookery and breaks in, only to find umbrellas. This bank building, right across from the Rookery, was dressed as the post office.

Access · Private building: look from the street.

After the failed raid, Ness walks across the bridge at night and meets Jim Malone, an honest old Irish beat cop (Sean Connery) who becomes his guide. It was filmed on the lower level of this double-deck bridge, then called the Michigan Avenue Bridge.

Access · Public bridge, free at any time.

Ness asks Malone to join him, and in the pews of a church Malone explains how to fight Capone: 'He pulls a knife, you pull a gun... That's the Chicago way.' Filmed inside this large basilica on the West Side.

Access · Active parish church: visit outside services and dress respectfully. Check opening times before you go.

Today part of Roosevelt University, this stone building plays the outside of Capone's Lexington Hotel. In its lobby Ness confronts Capone as the gangster comes down the grand staircase with his bodyguards. A real filming location, standing in for the hotel.

Access · University building, also home to the Auditorium Theatre: check before you go about access to the lobby.

Capone's dinner. Walking around the table with a baseball bat, he talks to his men about teamwork, then beats to death the one who let him down. Filmed in the hotel's Crystal Ballroom, which was renovated in 2008.

Access · Working hotel; the ballroom is used for events, so ask at the front desk. Check before you go.

The raid on the Canadian border: Ness, Malone and Royal Canadian Mounted Police on horseback ambush a whisky convoy on a bridge, and the team captures Capone's bookkeeper. The border is far from here: Paramount wanted a 1930s bridge, Montana's film office suggested this one over the Missouri River, and it was closed to traffic for two weeks in October 1986 for the shoot. The cabins seen in the film were built by the crew.

Access · Public road bridge in open country with few services nearby. Check before you go.

Ness's family home. Frank Nitti, Capone's hitman in a white suit, waits outside as Ness comes home for his daughter's birthday and makes a quiet threat. Later the team meets here while Ness sends his wife and daughter out of town.

Access · Private house: look only from the street and respect the residents.

The climax. Ness and George Stone, a young police recruit and sharp shot (Andy Garcia), wait on the station stairs to seize Capone's bookkeeper. A mother struggles up the steps with a baby carriage, the shooting starts, and the carriage rolls down the stairs in slow motion. Both staircases of the Great Hall were used.

Access · Working train station: the Great Hall is open to travellers. Guided tours of film scenes in the station are sometimes offered, check before you go.

Several scenes. Capone talks to the press on the grand staircase and raises a glass at the opera in Preston Bradley Hall, under its glass dome. During Capone's trial, Ness pulls Nitti out of the courtroom in the Grand Army of the Republic Rotunda, chases him up the stairs and onto the roof, and pushes him off.

Access · Free entry, open daily except holidays (check hours on the City of Chicago site). The staircases and halls are public rooms; the rooftop is seen from the street.

The long view down LaSalle Street, closed by the Chicago Board of Trade Building, is the backdrop of the film's poster. Ness and Stone race down this street to catch Capone's bookkeeper before he leaves town.

Access · Public street, free at any time; cross at the lights.