| Series: | Playhouse 90 |
| Series No: | 3 |
| Episode: | 11 |
| Director: | Franklin J. Schaffner |
| Story: | Howard Browne |
| Presenter: | Edward G. Robinson |
| Producer: | John Houseman |
| Length: | 90 mins |
| Prev: | Free Weekend |
| Next: | The Nutcracker |
"Seven Against the Wall" is an episode of the American anthology series Playhouse 90. It was about the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre.
The show was based on a book by Howard Browne.[1]
The Los Angeles Times called it "a serviceable documentary" with "some extremely effecitve moments."[2]
The show was very popular and John Houseman claimed it helped revive the popularity of gangster films. "There hadn't been a real Al Capone gangster film for a long time and this brought them back again, both at the cinema and on television", he said.[3]
Howard Browne later wrote other film versions of the story, including The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967) and Capone (1975).[4]
Industrialist Titus Haffa sued the show's makers for $10 million for libel and defamation complaining the show showed a headline "Titus Haffa gets two years" associating him with crime.[5] Haffa later issued a second complaint.[6] A person called Abe Bernstein also sued claiming the show said "Abe Bernstein" was head of The Purple Gang.[7]