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18 reviews in total

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17 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Great 1950's period crime drama, 23 January 1999

Author: Marta from United States

This film is so true to the atmosphere of the 1950's that you could show it in a history class, but it's a lot of fun. Jack Webb is fantastically straight as Joe Friday; he never had a better role. He speaks every word with a cement-like conviction; he's always got a snappy answer for every sarcastic criminal. Everyone in the movie is great, but the standouts are Virginia Gregg as the murdered man's alcoholic and handicapped wife, Stacy Harris as Max Troy, insincere head of the crime syndicate, and Richard Boone as the police captain, who says to his men with angry authority "all right, bumper to bumper tail; get up with em in the morning and put em to bed at night".

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9 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Interesting, but not what it could have been., 11 October 2001
Author: yarborough from northridge, ca

I agree with the other comments that it is somewhat disappointing that we already know the identity of the killer at the beginning, but it is obvious that the killing was shown so that we know Friday and Smith aren't harassing an innocent man throughout the movie. And harass they do. Because we know the killer, we can laugh they way Friday and Smith do when they frisk him four times a day and tailgate his car. The main problem with the movie is that the story just isn't as interesting as most of the stories of the television episodes were, and, as someone wrote, Friday is a different, tougher man, not as likeable as before. Another unfortunate thing is that in making the movie in color to attract audiences who had only seen "Dragnet" in black-and-white, the movie loses the stark film noir feel that many of the television episodes had. In addition, the movie was made when the television series started to bring more silly comedy into it, and, as a result, the movie contains far too much of it. The early episodes had a lot of dark humor, but not silly humor like this movie does, such as the scene with the big-busted singer, and the scene in which the bystanders watch Friday and Smith frisk Max Troy. Even Friday's one-liners aren't as darkly funny or clever as they are in the early television episodes. That said, the movie is still very interesting and rather entertaining if you give it a chance. Webb directs with a nice pace and the big production gives it a grand atmosphere that the television show can't capture. Had a "Dragnet" movie been done in black-and-white, with a more accessible story, and during the 1951-52 season when the only comedy was dark comedy, the movie would have been a bonafide classic.

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10 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Hard-hitting crime drama bearing little relation to TV series, 28 June 1999
Author: Michael J. Hayde from Manassas VA

"Dragnet" was the first theatrical feature to be based on a successful television series. Too bad its script bears little relation to the elements of that show.

In the 1952-59 series, viewers never saw the crime being committed. "Dragnet" was a mystery program; Sgt. Friday and Officer Smith would be called in to solve a crime, then locate and arrest the guilty party/parties. (As Webb put it, "This makes YOU a cop, and you unwind the story.") "Dragnet" (1954) begins with the actual crime, so that we KNOW who's guilty even before the titles appear. The movie is no mystery, merely the depiction of a murder investigation, in toto.

Worse, the Sgt. Friday in this film is not the quiet, dedicated cop of the radio and TV original. The feature marks the beginning of Friday the Supercop, the holier-than-thou sergeant never without a wisecrack for the criminal ("Unless you're growin', sit down!") or a put-down for the recalcitrant citizen ("Mr. Friday, if you was me, would you [testify]?" "Can I wait awhile... before I'm you?").

The film was a huge box office success, the most profitable of Webb's five theatrical productions. It cost a hair over $500,000 to make, and took in nearly six million. It was Warner's second-highest grossing film of 1954, after "The High and the Mighty." And, of course, it opened the door for the TV crossovers that continue to this day. It's just a shame that the "real" Sgt. Friday didn't appear, and an even bigger shame that this 'evil twin' eventually eclipsed the original.

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12 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Not Nearly As Entertaining As The TV Show, 1 January 2007

Author: ccthemovieman-1 from United States

I really enjoyed the Dragnet television shows back in the 1950s with Jack Webb and Ben Alexander and later Harry Morgan. They were very entertaining and fast-moving. I say that because this feature-length film was just too boring to add to my collection. I wouldn't watch it again.

Oh, it started off with a bang as a man was murdered in a field, but then the rest of it is mostly detail work which gets pretty boring after 40 minutes! Some of the dialog is good: nice '40s-type film noir stuff.

What I missed was the humor of the TV show, in which Webb and his partner, Officer Frank Smith, would interview a number of crackpots and those interviews would be funny. Most of the characters in this movie did not invoke laughs. It needed a bit more action, too, for a crime movie.

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8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Excellent movie adaption of TV series., 20 June 2000
Author: lartronic from Akron, Ohio

This is the 1954 film version of the 1951-59 original TV series. This time it's in color, but it's not exactly the same as the show. We know who the killer is at the beginning, so it's not even a surprise. They didn't even say what happened to him in the end (you know, when they show the criminal in handcuffs, with the narrator telling what the judgement was) because he died (which they still did on the show, they'd say the suspect was deceased instead). Despite that, it's an excellent film, and well worth seeing if you're a fan. Joe still has Frank Smith as his partner, well acted by Ben Alexander and the performance by Jack Webb is classic. Track this one down for sure.

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9 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Highly underrated noir film, 30 May 2005

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

First, I need to point out that there is hardly any similarity between this film and the television series (both the original of the 1950s and the late 1960s versions of Dragnet). Yes, Jack Webb is playing Sgt. Friday but this film NEVER would have been shown on TV when it was first made--it was way too violent and the dialog was repulsively cool. Snappy dialog is THE reason I watch film noir and this one is among the best. Let's give a few examples: 1. The film begins with some sap betting blown away in a field with a shotgun. When Friday appears later to investigate the crime scene he says: "The first shot cut him in half--the second made him a crowd". Yuck.

2. When Friday completely ignores the Bill of Rights (and all good noir cops MUST ignore the 4, 5 and 6th amendments) by harassing the man he KNOWS committed the crime,he has MANY snappy one liners. In one case, he (for the 6th or 8th time) pulls the man over and frisks him--making him empty out all his pockets. The guy complains that he is being harassed and is tired of it. Then he requests that he get the contents of his pocket back. Friday says "you have the Cadillac--why don't you drive over and get it yourself". Cool, man.

Finally, after badgering this guy through almost the entire movie, the prime suspect literally DIES from being harassed!! Cool.

PS--read the quotes on the title page for this movie--they are INCREDIBLE!

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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Chrome, 29 January 2007

Author: panamint from United States

Check out the Chrome on the shiny 1950's automobiles. Look carefully and you will see the clear plastic air-conditioning tubes inside the rear window of the Cadillac. Wood furniture (not fiberboard), non-filter cigarettes by the ton, neon signs, 8-miles per gallon autos. This is authentic 1950's retro (and wastefulness) at its best.

Expensive color film and fine film editing. First-class musical scoring is seamlessly blended into the movie.

"Dragnet" is a meticulously planned movie project. Looks like every scene was thought out well in advance of the actual production. Webb must have been a very hard-working movie craftsman.

Stylistically, Webb's brisk handling of actors and clipped, monotonous dialog is not appealing to my tastes, but directing style is in the eye of the beholder I suppose. His style is OK for television shows but less so in a full-length movie. However, this is a good crime movie and Webb at least gives it a kind of watchable uniqueness.

Modern TV's "Law and Order" breaks no new ground. This "Dragnet" movie has the cops and detectives, then the District Attorney, then some sort of judicial hearing, etc. And of course "Law and Order" doesn't have those big chrome dinosaurs.

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how would you like to be held together by a platinum wire. I can't afford it., 19 November 2011

Author: sol from Brooklyn NY USA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

***SPOILERS*** It's when mobster Miller Starkie, Dub Taylor, is blown to pieces in an open field in L.A proper that the Homicide as well as Intelligence divisions of the LAPD is brought in to not only find out who murdered Starkie but why.

The murder investigation headed by the tough talking and take no BS Sgt. Joe Friday, Jack Webb, and his partner and faithful Tonto-like companion Officer Frank Smith,Ben Alexander, soon find an eyeball, or eye, whiteness to the murder Jesse Quinn, James Griffith. Quinn when learning that the mob was behind Starkie's murder, in him holding back on in shake down money in collected for it, suddenly loses his memory and refuses to point out his killer: The imported from Cleveland via San Diego hit-man Chester Davitt, Willard Sage. This makes it almost impossible to have a grand jury indite Davitt as well as the person who hired him big time L.A mob boss Max Troy, Stacy Harris, who's reportedly dying of stomach cancer.

Sgt.Friday together with Officer Smith in trying to break down Troy hound the dying man unmercifully day and night like a bulldog chewing on a bone until he almost cracks under the pressure. The two law enforcers go so far as interrupt a card game that Troy is participating in where they end up getting black and blue, you should see what the other guys looked like, all over in a knock down drag out fist fight with some of Troy's card playing buddies! With the cops and especially Sgt.Friday and Officer Smith breathing down his neck Troy finally orders a hit on hit-man Davitt who get's it as he leaves his flight at the Cleveland Municipal airport.

***SPOILERS*** With Sgt.Friday and Officer Smith finally getting enough evidence on Troy, by wiretapping his phone,in the Davitt hit-job to put him behind bars he suddenly checks out for good as he dies at L.A General Hospital while being operated for his cancer condition! Your left wondering if it was the cancer or Sgt. Frday and Officer Smith's constant hounding and harassing the guy, sometimes for 24 straight hours in two 12 hour shifts, that finished Troy off! "Dragnet" the movie has the distinction of being be the very first TV serial to make it to the big screen. Something that many many other TV serials like "The Flintstones" "Mission Impossible" and the "Fugitive" were to follow in its footsteps.

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Great Film of Dragnet Fans, 28 January 2007
Author: muvphreek from San Jose, CA

Every time I see this movie, I find something else about it that makes me like it all the more. Whether its the cars, the attitudes, the clothes or just the story itself. I liked the cast from the very first time and recognized most of them from the TV series. Seeing again, now, was like getting visit from some old friends. It departed from the TV show in that you saw the crime committed up front and there was no epilogue of the outcome. But otherwise, it was classic Joe Friday. Just the facts. Not a lot of superfluous rhetoric or endless scenes of police tailing bad guys. Lots of voice over with details like time of day, location, etc. Simple interrogation from Friday with smart-mouth answers from the bad guys and the snappy, emotional responses from Joe. It kind of gets you, right where you live, you know? Don't miss this one. You won't be sorry.

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0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
A Disappointment, 8 August 2009

Author: Albert Mazeika from United States

1954's DRAGNET is well-cast with Jack Webb's stock company, plus a pre-PALADIN, Richard Boone and pre-CHESTER on GUNSMOKE, Dennis Weaver. However, the plot takes WAY too long to get to an ultimately UNsatisfying conclusion. I am a fan of Jack's but I believe this was his first crack at directing a feature and, unfortunately, it shows. Many scenes drag on for too long (the bar room brawl seems interminable) and as a result, the story just plods along. The running time is listed at only 88 minutes, but it SEEMS longer. The crisp, clean pace of Webb's radio and TV DRAGNET episodes is lost in this full-length treatment.

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