Jack Webb was a one of a kind filmmaker. Whether it was in the movies or on television he was, in his own way, a genius. His was work is easy to spot. He had a style all his own. "Dragnet" is not Webb at his best but it's still good. I watch it for the straight detective story that it is but there are quite a few funny moments to. The "Naked Gun" movies have ruined this movie a little for me. The dated "hi-tech" stuff is pretty funny now. Those moments don't take any enjoyment away from the movie. They actually add to the fun. "Dragnet" is always a welcome visit.
25 Reviews
Chrome
Panamint29 January 2007
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.
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.
Great Film of Dragnet Fans
muvphreek28 January 2007
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.
Hard-hitting crime drama bearing little relation to TV series
Michael-20228 June 1999
"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.
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.
Early Friday.
rmax3048236 June 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Early Joe Friday, whom we see here, was different from later, more mature Joe Friday. His name was still Joe Friday and he still wore a gray jacket with dark slacks but the jacket sometimes had little STRIPES in it and, in one scene, he wears a DARK BLUE SUIT. I'll tell you the truth. I was shocked.
This feature film is based on the series from the 1950s. It's tougher than the stories that we're used to from "Dragnet 1968" and in some ways not nearly as good. Friday and his partner, Ben Alexander, don't bump into quite so many loopy characters. Most of those we meet here are hardened criminals. There is Virginia Gregg as the pitiful, drunken wife of an executed criminal, true. You can tell she's a wreck because there is a newspaper scattered untidily across the floor. My house looks worse than that every day. If my place looked as good as that of this dissolute, weeping wife, I'd consider it suitable for visits from guests.
The sets provide some continuity with the later series. They're cheap and sparse, and the lighting is high key and flat, as in "I Love Lucy." We can't help notice that this Joe Friday is given to seriousness and gruesome quips, not that the later Friday was ever a barrel of delicate laughs. But here, in questioning a suspect they're already convinced is involved in the initial murder, Friday comes on tough, sarcastic, humiliating, in a way he wouldn't have in 1968. He makes the guy use his own palm for an ash tray although there is a glass ash tray only a few feet away.
The plot is a little complicated, what with all the physical evidence, the hit men called in from out of town, advanced technology like a small tape recorder, and name after name thrown at us without much in the way of introduction. I could follow Max Troy okay. He was the guy with the bad stomach but no ash tray. The other flood of names merely mixed me up.
The movie adheres to the conventions of the time. There are allusions to "the syndicate" and "the organization" but nobody who's a member has an Italian name. As far as I could tell, there was no ethnicity at all.
I found myself a little disappointed in it. It's a fast moving policier. I expected the more relaxed approach of the series I was familiar with. Joe and his partner should have slowed down a bit. His partner should have formed a bond of affection with Pismo clams or Dr. Scholl's foot powder. But for the most part, the beefy Ben Alexander just tags along. Joe Friday himself is younger, sleeker. And when a good-looking policewoman asks if his concern for his safety is personal, he smiles warmly (for him) and replies that he just wants to see her live to make sergeant. I think we'd ALL like to know more about THAT part of Joe Friday's life.
This feature film is based on the series from the 1950s. It's tougher than the stories that we're used to from "Dragnet 1968" and in some ways not nearly as good. Friday and his partner, Ben Alexander, don't bump into quite so many loopy characters. Most of those we meet here are hardened criminals. There is Virginia Gregg as the pitiful, drunken wife of an executed criminal, true. You can tell she's a wreck because there is a newspaper scattered untidily across the floor. My house looks worse than that every day. If my place looked as good as that of this dissolute, weeping wife, I'd consider it suitable for visits from guests.
The sets provide some continuity with the later series. They're cheap and sparse, and the lighting is high key and flat, as in "I Love Lucy." We can't help notice that this Joe Friday is given to seriousness and gruesome quips, not that the later Friday was ever a barrel of delicate laughs. But here, in questioning a suspect they're already convinced is involved in the initial murder, Friday comes on tough, sarcastic, humiliating, in a way he wouldn't have in 1968. He makes the guy use his own palm for an ash tray although there is a glass ash tray only a few feet away.
The plot is a little complicated, what with all the physical evidence, the hit men called in from out of town, advanced technology like a small tape recorder, and name after name thrown at us without much in the way of introduction. I could follow Max Troy okay. He was the guy with the bad stomach but no ash tray. The other flood of names merely mixed me up.
The movie adheres to the conventions of the time. There are allusions to "the syndicate" and "the organization" but nobody who's a member has an Italian name. As far as I could tell, there was no ethnicity at all.
I found myself a little disappointed in it. It's a fast moving policier. I expected the more relaxed approach of the series I was familiar with. Joe and his partner should have slowed down a bit. His partner should have formed a bond of affection with Pismo clams or Dr. Scholl's foot powder. But for the most part, the beefy Ben Alexander just tags along. Joe Friday himself is younger, sleeker. And when a good-looking policewoman asks if his concern for his safety is personal, he smiles warmly (for him) and replies that he just wants to see her live to make sergeant. I think we'd ALL like to know more about THAT part of Joe Friday's life.
Not Nearly As Entertaining As The TV Show
ccthemovieman-11 January 2007
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.
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.
We begin TV Month!
ericstevenson1 March 2018
Oh, what a delight to begin TV Month with the first ever movie based on a TV show! Yes, that's right! This was based on the popular show "Dragnet" and it's too bad seeing as how I have never seen the original show. I think it might have set some record for prime time show with the most series revivals. I got to poobala's crossover website enough to know that. Anyway, this movie was well, good.
I'm surprised that the first would be in color and the color is quite nice. I admit it does run into the problem of seeming just like a long episode of a show. I will however, forgive that a bit seeing as how this was the first ever movie based on a TV show. The plot probably could have been bigger, but this is still well acted. It's great how consistently serious this movie is. While not a classic, I'm glad to have come across it. ***
I'm surprised that the first would be in color and the color is quite nice. I admit it does run into the problem of seeming just like a long episode of a show. I will however, forgive that a bit seeing as how this was the first ever movie based on a TV show. The plot probably could have been bigger, but this is still well acted. It's great how consistently serious this movie is. While not a classic, I'm glad to have come across it. ***
"The story you are about to see is true, the names have been changed to protect the innocent"
bkoganbing5 October 2015
So popular was Dragnet proving to be on the small screen that producer and star Jack Webb decided to expand it into a feature film. So what we got here is a television episode of Dragnet expanded to 90 minutes and in color.
Webb and partner Ben Alexander are assigned to the homicide of Dub Taylor whose familiar face and voice are hardly seen on the screen before he gets cut down with both barrels of a shotgun. The killer gave him two more while he was down to make sure. Altogether quite grisly and gruesome.
So the rest of the film under the command of their captain in gang intelligence Richard Boone, Webb and Alexander try to gather the evidence to nail the bad guys. Not that Taylor was any kind of solid citizen, he was a collector of bad debts for the mob and he was skimming on his collections. Still he was due justice.
Watching this film should make one realize how far we've come post the Miranda decision in protecting rights of the accused. One thing that Boone orders is something called a 'bumper tail' where the cops are assigned to tail up close and personal and to frisk at will. No way that would happen today except in some real right wing heaven.
Interesting film, nicely done in Dragnet's famous crisp, staccato style and be happy if you're a criminal you weren't operating back then.
Webb and partner Ben Alexander are assigned to the homicide of Dub Taylor whose familiar face and voice are hardly seen on the screen before he gets cut down with both barrels of a shotgun. The killer gave him two more while he was down to make sure. Altogether quite grisly and gruesome.
So the rest of the film under the command of their captain in gang intelligence Richard Boone, Webb and Alexander try to gather the evidence to nail the bad guys. Not that Taylor was any kind of solid citizen, he was a collector of bad debts for the mob and he was skimming on his collections. Still he was due justice.
Watching this film should make one realize how far we've come post the Miranda decision in protecting rights of the accused. One thing that Boone orders is something called a 'bumper tail' where the cops are assigned to tail up close and personal and to frisk at will. No way that would happen today except in some real right wing heaven.
Interesting film, nicely done in Dragnet's famous crisp, staccato style and be happy if you're a criminal you weren't operating back then.
Great 1950's period crime drama
Marta23 January 1999
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".
Dragnet-More than Just the Facts Are Needed **1/2
edwagreen28 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Jack Webb and Ben Alexander, the two television icons of "Dragnet," made this 1954 film. As an inducement to get people to see it, the film was colorized. The television show was black and white.
The story centers on a runner who is rubbed out at the beginning. Unlike the television show, the killers are shown at the beginning so there is no guessing game. More action was needed. This film was made as if it were for television.
There are two very good supporting performances by Virginia Gregg, as the widow of the murder victim. Her scene of utter despair and drunkeness was memorable. When it showed her on one foot, your heart could give out. Also noteworthy was Georgia Ellis' portrayal of the murderer's wife, hard-boiled and abusive to police, she soon changes her ways when her husband is knocked off.
We have the usual elements of police harassment, but this time it's more than justified, a witness who is scared off, thereby making the case harder to get to the guilty.
When the head of the mob falls victim to cancer at the end, we can all say, "He deserved it."
Speaking of the latter dread disease, the film is marred in a way by Joe Friday's (Webb's) chronic smoking. The latter probably led to his early demise from a coronary some years ago.
The story centers on a runner who is rubbed out at the beginning. Unlike the television show, the killers are shown at the beginning so there is no guessing game. More action was needed. This film was made as if it were for television.
There are two very good supporting performances by Virginia Gregg, as the widow of the murder victim. Her scene of utter despair and drunkeness was memorable. When it showed her on one foot, your heart could give out. Also noteworthy was Georgia Ellis' portrayal of the murderer's wife, hard-boiled and abusive to police, she soon changes her ways when her husband is knocked off.
We have the usual elements of police harassment, but this time it's more than justified, a witness who is scared off, thereby making the case harder to get to the guilty.
When the head of the mob falls victim to cancer at the end, we can all say, "He deserved it."
Speaking of the latter dread disease, the film is marred in a way by Joe Friday's (Webb's) chronic smoking. The latter probably led to his early demise from a coronary some years ago.
Webb Unknowlingly tells it like it was
Mark_McD29 January 2007
Those looking for elements of the Red Scare in this movie may be overlooking an aspect of life in the 1950's that was closer to the everyday lives of Los Angelinos: that the LAPD was one of the most corrupt departments in the country, and Webb was polishing apples for police chief William Parker by presenting his cops as honest dispensers of justice. We may accept Friday's "bumper-to-bumper" harassment of a suspect because he "knows" he's guilty, but at the same time, the cops were doing this and much worse to ordinary citizens, especially blacks and Latinos. Webb stops short of lighting his Chesterfields with a copy of the Bill of Rights, but clearly he, like the PD, saw it as a list of amusing suggestions. Ironically, Joe Friday has a testy exchange with a member of a grand jury about the ethics of wire tapping. When the jury member suggests that once criminals know their phones are being tapped, they'll just conduct their business on street corners. Friday's reply, "And we'll have a cop on every one of 'em!" came as Parker was pulling beat officers off the street and having them work from patrol cars. (Of course, Parker supported Webb when "Dragnet" did stories about the dangers of guns in the hands of children, much to the consternation of the NRA, but that's a topic for the listing of the TV show. Anyway, people can be more complex than we think them)
Highly underrated noir film
planktonrules30 May 2005
Warning: Spoilers
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!
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!
how would you like to be held together by a platinum wire. I can't afford it.
sol-kay19 November 2011
Warning: 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.
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.
Second rate at best.
hmpulham28 January 2007
I saw this movie in 1954 as a child, and frankly, at that time it seemed to me to be both
amateurish and boring. I knew that Jack Webb had written, produced and directer it, and that's usually a pretty good prescription for a failure. Fifty-five years later, I still feel the same. This motion picture was made only because "Dragnet" (the TV series) was popular enough to draw in an audience, or at least, I'm guessing that the folks putting up the money thought so . If in fact "Dragnet" made a profit (I have my doubts) it was only because it was made on a very slim budget. What the movie audiences got for their money was just a thirty minute TV show that had been blown up -- filmed in color -- and little more. "Dragnet" was like a lot of films or TV shows that caught on at a particular time. They were different, rather than they were particularly good. "Dargnet" isn't something that holds up over time; rather, it becomes a curiosity, something that has to be defended. Several comments have have been made that this film reflected both the 1950's and Joseph R. McCarthy. Well, actually this film reflected Jack Webb, and his conception of movie making. If you see Joe McCarty here, it's because you want to see Joe McCarthy. This movie is not political unless you just think that policing is just a reflection of closet fascism.
amateurish and boring. I knew that Jack Webb had written, produced and directer it, and that's usually a pretty good prescription for a failure. Fifty-five years later, I still feel the same. This motion picture was made only because "Dragnet" (the TV series) was popular enough to draw in an audience, or at least, I'm guessing that the folks putting up the money thought so . If in fact "Dragnet" made a profit (I have my doubts) it was only because it was made on a very slim budget. What the movie audiences got for their money was just a thirty minute TV show that had been blown up -- filmed in color -- and little more. "Dragnet" was like a lot of films or TV shows that caught on at a particular time. They were different, rather than they were particularly good. "Dargnet" isn't something that holds up over time; rather, it becomes a curiosity, something that has to be defended. Several comments have have been made that this film reflected both the 1950's and Joseph R. McCarthy. Well, actually this film reflected Jack Webb, and his conception of movie making. If you see Joe McCarty here, it's because you want to see Joe McCarthy. This movie is not political unless you just think that policing is just a reflection of closet fascism.
Just like the t.v. show but longer and in color
secondtake6 December 2020
Dragnet (1954)
You can't watch this without knowing something about the t.v. series, which ran from 1951-1959. So this movie was a kind of spin-ff, but rather than creating a television show from a movie this goes the other way around.
The familiar voiceover is there, and the familiar voice: Jack Webb. He holds it all together with a clear factual style we expect and like. He is the creater of the t.v. show and he made this version come around (he directed). Why do it? Maybe just a different audience, and shooting in color, and maybe to create a longer story, over an hour.
Sadly, the Peacock TV (NBC) version streaming in 2020 was cropped to t.v. (4:3) proportions, and it feels cramped. I'm sure that Webb and the photographer, Edward Colman, wouldn't appreciate it. The color is restrained-the Kodak version called Warnercolor, not Technicolor-but it works well here.
I haven't seen the t.v. episodes in years, but I have a funny feeling you could find episodes that work with economy and power better than this one, which doesn't quite make use of the extra time well. There is a lot of clever, fast dialog, but to excess, making it strained and obvious. Fun, yes, but the movie isn't held up by these cheap quips.
Except sometimes. Early on, a cop says about the gun shots, "The first two cut him in half." Webb replies, "The second two turned him into a crowd." Classic Dragnet matter-of-fact style. It works. In fact, it might be this delivery, with fact after fact, that makes the show and the movie what it is, above all. The plot is routine as much as murder in the movies is routine, but the delivery is interesting.
But I have to just be blunt here...it's a huge bore on another level. Yes it has steady determination, but it's not a dramatic feature movie in any normal form.
You can't watch this without knowing something about the t.v. series, which ran from 1951-1959. So this movie was a kind of spin-ff, but rather than creating a television show from a movie this goes the other way around.
The familiar voiceover is there, and the familiar voice: Jack Webb. He holds it all together with a clear factual style we expect and like. He is the creater of the t.v. show and he made this version come around (he directed). Why do it? Maybe just a different audience, and shooting in color, and maybe to create a longer story, over an hour.
Sadly, the Peacock TV (NBC) version streaming in 2020 was cropped to t.v. (4:3) proportions, and it feels cramped. I'm sure that Webb and the photographer, Edward Colman, wouldn't appreciate it. The color is restrained-the Kodak version called Warnercolor, not Technicolor-but it works well here.
I haven't seen the t.v. episodes in years, but I have a funny feeling you could find episodes that work with economy and power better than this one, which doesn't quite make use of the extra time well. There is a lot of clever, fast dialog, but to excess, making it strained and obvious. Fun, yes, but the movie isn't held up by these cheap quips.
Except sometimes. Early on, a cop says about the gun shots, "The first two cut him in half." Webb replies, "The second two turned him into a crowd." Classic Dragnet matter-of-fact style. It works. In fact, it might be this delivery, with fact after fact, that makes the show and the movie what it is, above all. The plot is routine as much as murder in the movies is routine, but the delivery is interesting.
But I have to just be blunt here...it's a huge bore on another level. Yes it has steady determination, but it's not a dramatic feature movie in any normal form.
Cool Old Detective Movie
bellabanana9314 October 2017
Dragnet is an interesting Crime Drama film released that was released in 1954. It is about 2 detectives, Sargeant Joe Friday played by Jack Webb and Officer Frank Smith played by Ben Alexander, assigned to investigate a shotgun murder. The acting, the cinematography, and the dialogue are the best parts of the film.
Ben Alexander and Jack Webb play their parts incredibly well. In the beginning of the film, they are given a briefing on their case and after-ward they proceed to begin bringing witnesses for questioning. The dialogue is entertaining and the actors executed their lines well.
Ben Alexander and Jack Webb play their parts incredibly well. In the beginning of the film, they are given a briefing on their case and after-ward they proceed to begin bringing witnesses for questioning. The dialogue is entertaining and the actors executed their lines well.
A Disappointment
amazeika8 August 2009
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.
Joe Friday Takes On Mob Boss Guilty Of A Gangland Hit
stp4321 February 2003
Contains Spoilers With the success of his television series, Jack Webb extended the working territory of Sgt. Joe Friday into widescreen color cinema with the first Dragnet motion picture, scripted by Richard Breen from an actual LAPD case file - complete with realistically detailed rap sheets on the perpetrators involved.
Miller Starkey, White Male American, aged 44 - in LAPD lingo WMA 44, with an LA prison number of 106484; bookmaker, gambler, procurer, with no known legitimate occupation, and debt collector for Vegas bookies. Upon hearing George Fenneman's announcement of the truth of the story with name alteration to protect the innocent, we witness the actual commission of the crime in a field near Loma Vista, Third, Wentworth, and Rachel Avenues, as Starkey is gunned down in cold blood by hit-man Chester Davitt and West Coast mafia second-in-command Max Edward Troy (Stacy Harris). This dramatic device was comparatively unused in film at the time, predating by nearly two decades the formula made standard by one of Joe Friday's fellow LAPD detective lieutenants, a man named Columbo.
Starkey's record is such that suspects in his killing are fairly easy to identify. The department rounds up Starkey's mob associates, and Friday and Frank Smith have the task of interrogating Max Troy, who despite four hours of often bitter questioning, refuses to admit to anything.
Joe and Frank are given 36 hours to find evidence against Troy and his pals or they will have to walk. Despite a heated argument with Deputy DA Adolph "Alex" Alexander (Vic Perrin), the suspects have to be let go when the 36 hours elapses. Friday and Smith, though, continue the investigation, assigning Policewoman Grace Downey (Ann Robinson) to infiltrate a swanky nightclub at which Troy and his pals hang out (and which is covertly co-owned by Troy), and eventually finding Starkey's "work book," a diary of names and addresses of gambling debtors.
From their sources the two officers learn that Starkey was badly beaten up and also that gambling debtors visited by Starkey were revisited by other enforcers who never got paid. From Grace Downey they also learn that Troy borrowed the nightclub bartender's car and that there is a package in the glove box that must be disposed of.
Eventually Chester Davitt, Troy, and two others are arrested and taken before the grand jury, but the grand jury votes not to indict, which angers LAPD Intelligence chief James E. Hamilton (Richard Boone) enough that Friday and Smith are assigned a bumper-to-bumper tail - which humiliates Troy and leads to a brawl with several toughs.
Grace Downey then comes up with a major clue, and wiretap recordings of the nightclub lead Chester Davitt's wife, who has furiously refused to cooperate with police, to suddenly change her mind and finger Troy and her husband, all of which gives the DA's office ample evidence to send Troy and company to the gas chamber. But Max Troy pulls one final fast one on the police ensuring he will never be arrested.
Miller Starkey, White Male American, aged 44 - in LAPD lingo WMA 44, with an LA prison number of 106484; bookmaker, gambler, procurer, with no known legitimate occupation, and debt collector for Vegas bookies. Upon hearing George Fenneman's announcement of the truth of the story with name alteration to protect the innocent, we witness the actual commission of the crime in a field near Loma Vista, Third, Wentworth, and Rachel Avenues, as Starkey is gunned down in cold blood by hit-man Chester Davitt and West Coast mafia second-in-command Max Edward Troy (Stacy Harris). This dramatic device was comparatively unused in film at the time, predating by nearly two decades the formula made standard by one of Joe Friday's fellow LAPD detective lieutenants, a man named Columbo.
Starkey's record is such that suspects in his killing are fairly easy to identify. The department rounds up Starkey's mob associates, and Friday and Frank Smith have the task of interrogating Max Troy, who despite four hours of often bitter questioning, refuses to admit to anything.
Joe and Frank are given 36 hours to find evidence against Troy and his pals or they will have to walk. Despite a heated argument with Deputy DA Adolph "Alex" Alexander (Vic Perrin), the suspects have to be let go when the 36 hours elapses. Friday and Smith, though, continue the investigation, assigning Policewoman Grace Downey (Ann Robinson) to infiltrate a swanky nightclub at which Troy and his pals hang out (and which is covertly co-owned by Troy), and eventually finding Starkey's "work book," a diary of names and addresses of gambling debtors.
From their sources the two officers learn that Starkey was badly beaten up and also that gambling debtors visited by Starkey were revisited by other enforcers who never got paid. From Grace Downey they also learn that Troy borrowed the nightclub bartender's car and that there is a package in the glove box that must be disposed of.
Eventually Chester Davitt, Troy, and two others are arrested and taken before the grand jury, but the grand jury votes not to indict, which angers LAPD Intelligence chief James E. Hamilton (Richard Boone) enough that Friday and Smith are assigned a bumper-to-bumper tail - which humiliates Troy and leads to a brawl with several toughs.
Grace Downey then comes up with a major clue, and wiretap recordings of the nightclub lead Chester Davitt's wife, who has furiously refused to cooperate with police, to suddenly change her mind and finger Troy and her husband, all of which gives the DA's office ample evidence to send Troy and company to the gas chamber. But Max Troy pulls one final fast one on the police ensuring he will never be arrested.
Dragnet comes onto the big screen with little to justify stretching to feature length and advocating some rather fascistic leanings
IonicBreezeMachine7 January 2024
After low level hood Miller Starkie is murdered by fellow hood Max Troy (Stacy Harris), Sergeant Joe Friday (Jack Webb) and his partner Officer Frank Smith (Ben Alexander) pursue an investigation to find out who killed Starkie.
Dragnet is a 1954 feature film adaptation of the franchise of the same name created by Jack Webb that originally began life as a radio series in 1949 with its presence expanded by Jack Webb with two TV series in which he had direct involvement as well as two subsequent TV series done by other parties after Webb's death. At the time when Warner Bros. Announced a feature adaptation of Dragnet, the show was at its peak as the number 2 most popular show on the airwaves and laid the groundwork for the TV staple of police procedurals where characters would tackle a "case of the week" usually ripped from real events causing a slew of imitators as well as a formula that continues to be a staple of broadcast TV to this day. While Dragnet is an influential show with a well-earned stop in TV history, I'm not really a fan of this franchise which mostly comes down to the self righteous sermonizing of the Joe Friday character and the show's overly whitewashed look at law and order with a black and white dichotomy (hence why my favorite part of the canon is the Dan Aykroyd/Tom Hanks film that spoofed this series). While I understand the series has its devotees I'm not among them, but I don't hold that against the movie because the movie itself is a different and considerably uglier beast than the series.
Starting off with the production itself, this film version of Dragnet looks and feels essentially like a bigger budgeted version of the TV series complete with Friday's trademark terse narration with the only real differences between it and the show being some more locations, cast members, and a bit more violence than could be shown on the television at the time. In terms of production it feels very economical and aside from the opening murder and being filmed in color it's more or less in line with what you got from the show of the time. In a departure from the format of the show the film comes out and shows us Max Troy committing the murder in an inverted detective story format, while the inverted detective story is a great way to showcase a cat-and-mouse type game of wits, Dragnet suffers from having our adversaries be a not all that interesting hood and Webb's archetypical Friday who's positioned as a bland paragon of virtue but his actions throughout the film say otherwise. Over the course of the film we see Friday lament "the law only protects the guilty", brazenly insult a scared witness who's in fear of his life for testifying, and in the third act engage in some morally dubious actions where they harass Max Troy at every turn. As another review pointed out, this is probably why they chose to invert this story because it gets the audience and Friday's side by "knowing he did it", and there's no real consequences for Friday and Smith's flagrant abuse of power with the movie seemingly inviting the officer to laugh at it.
On a personal note if you must see a film version of Dragnet, watch the Dan Aykroyd/Tom Hanks film. If you want to see "actual" dragnet watch either the 60s revival series or what episodes you can find of the original 50s run. Dragnet 1954 is just unpleasant in what it does that the TV show didn't and while I can't speak to how well it did, given that people who like Dragnet don't seem fond of this film seems to speak volumes as to why it's the only one.
Dragnet is a 1954 feature film adaptation of the franchise of the same name created by Jack Webb that originally began life as a radio series in 1949 with its presence expanded by Jack Webb with two TV series in which he had direct involvement as well as two subsequent TV series done by other parties after Webb's death. At the time when Warner Bros. Announced a feature adaptation of Dragnet, the show was at its peak as the number 2 most popular show on the airwaves and laid the groundwork for the TV staple of police procedurals where characters would tackle a "case of the week" usually ripped from real events causing a slew of imitators as well as a formula that continues to be a staple of broadcast TV to this day. While Dragnet is an influential show with a well-earned stop in TV history, I'm not really a fan of this franchise which mostly comes down to the self righteous sermonizing of the Joe Friday character and the show's overly whitewashed look at law and order with a black and white dichotomy (hence why my favorite part of the canon is the Dan Aykroyd/Tom Hanks film that spoofed this series). While I understand the series has its devotees I'm not among them, but I don't hold that against the movie because the movie itself is a different and considerably uglier beast than the series.
Starting off with the production itself, this film version of Dragnet looks and feels essentially like a bigger budgeted version of the TV series complete with Friday's trademark terse narration with the only real differences between it and the show being some more locations, cast members, and a bit more violence than could be shown on the television at the time. In terms of production it feels very economical and aside from the opening murder and being filmed in color it's more or less in line with what you got from the show of the time. In a departure from the format of the show the film comes out and shows us Max Troy committing the murder in an inverted detective story format, while the inverted detective story is a great way to showcase a cat-and-mouse type game of wits, Dragnet suffers from having our adversaries be a not all that interesting hood and Webb's archetypical Friday who's positioned as a bland paragon of virtue but his actions throughout the film say otherwise. Over the course of the film we see Friday lament "the law only protects the guilty", brazenly insult a scared witness who's in fear of his life for testifying, and in the third act engage in some morally dubious actions where they harass Max Troy at every turn. As another review pointed out, this is probably why they chose to invert this story because it gets the audience and Friday's side by "knowing he did it", and there's no real consequences for Friday and Smith's flagrant abuse of power with the movie seemingly inviting the officer to laugh at it.
On a personal note if you must see a film version of Dragnet, watch the Dan Aykroyd/Tom Hanks film. If you want to see "actual" dragnet watch either the 60s revival series or what episodes you can find of the original 50s run. Dragnet 1954 is just unpleasant in what it does that the TV show didn't and while I can't speak to how well it did, given that people who like Dragnet don't seem fond of this film seems to speak volumes as to why it's the only one.
Interesting, but not what it could have been.
yarborough11 October 2001
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.
Failure as a movie but great fun
davost6 May 2005
It's nice to be among my fellow Dragnet fans. There is an important point to be made about the fifties and that is that it was an age of excess. It was big brass, big dance number, and big build up to every stupid little deal to the point that it was obnoxious and oppressive, especially to a kid. The landmarks in pop culture of the era were things that stood in opposition to that and provided blessed relief with a sense of brevity and minimalism. In westerns it was the emotionally and geographically beak landscape of Kansas in Gunsmoke. In comedy there was a show called The Honeymooners with a set that consisted of a table, one or two chairs, and a door that Ed Norton kept bursting through. In jazz it was the three, four, and five piece combos as opposed to big band. In popular music, it was Elvis with lead, rhythm, bass, and drums. (Actually not even drums at first). But the Daddy of them all was Dragnet. Terse is not the word. It's minimalism was blatantly self conscious to the point of absurdity. The public was stunned. It had the effect of being stripped of all nonsense so that you thought you were seeing the real thing. You weren't but you sure thought you were. When Joe Friday came on with his tired monotone and said "This.......is the city........it has churches........it has schools........it has parks.......", we thought it was so cool we could hardly stand it. But the biggest quote was "just the facts, ma'am". We used to repeat that all over the playground. Every time somebody was going too far it was "hey there, just the facts". And that's why the movie is a failure. That incredibly stylish brevity can't be stretched out. It has to be a half hour, otherwise it just looks like they're going around in circles. However the movie is still very enjoyable and a worthy addition to your collection (or mine anyway). The reason for that is that the movie has plenty of this other thing that the TV show was famous for which a vast array of delightfully god awful two bit loser punk criminals. Dragnet never dealt with Mr. Big, it was always these awful little two bit people, con men, purse snatchers, etc. There was even one incredible child molester episode (The Big Crime Sept 9, 1954). Jack Webb could really get the creepy feel going with these characters. I don't know if it's my imagination but does LA have a creepier underworld than other cities? Maybe the authors and screenwriters have made it seem so. But I recently read a biographical sketch of Barbara Graham (I Want To Live) and I honestly wish I hadn't, it was too creepy. So anyway in the movie you lose the terseness but keep the criminals. As for the color, of course it's not Dragnet but it's still fun if only for the sake of contrast. So check it out. Tell them Groucho sent you.
It gets scarier with each new viewing
burgbob97529 July 2002
Were the 'fifties really this awful? The mind boggles.
Moviegoers in 1954 got excited when they heard that one of their favorite TV shows, Dragnet, had been made into a feature film. (I remember because I was one of them.) One now stares in wonder at this icon of the strange and far-off 'fifties, an era that was Eisenhower-sunny on the surface and dark and menacing just beneath it.
Dragnet the movie (eventually there was a second, on TV), now largely forgotten, was nothing more than an extended television episode made in color, while home sets were still black and white. Judging from the picture's low-rent set-ups, it must have been one of Warner Brothers' most cheaply made films for that year. A couple of scenes take place in empty fields, and---with the single exception when filming was done at the African wing of the Los Angeles County Museum---the indoor sets were not much more imposing. Many of the actors were frequently unemployed second-string players whose work did not make a deep impression.
In the intervening time since it was made the film has largely gone unseen and although it made it to video, it is little viewed in this form. (I found a dusty copy at a Half-Price book store, selling for a desperate-to-get-this-turkey-off-the-shelf $3.99!) Predictably, it has dated badly. That 'fifties audiences accepted the actors' rigidly stylized, robotic impersonations of police officers as representing the way they actually spoke in real life says something about Americans' willingness to uncritically accept virtually anything they saw in movies, and especially on TV. (Remember actors posing as doctors extolling the pleasures of smoking during cigarette commercials?) Dragnet's cops' signature manner of speaking---a flat, semi-technical, bureaucratic argot, spoken in low, monotonal voices---Webb's cops rarely if ever snarled---was one of the most memorable things about the show. Now this is seen for what it always was: unintentional self-satire. (On the other hand, to Webb's great credit, virtually all modern-day cop shows stemmed from Dragnet, untold imitations of which have been launched on television over the past five decades)
For more evidence of the film's antiquated point of view, watch the scene at the jazz club where Friday and Smith, seeking information about a criminal they're pursuing, converse with a musician who's one of their informants. There's a humorous moment when Smith gets a `real hip' handshake from the trumpet player that is nothing more than a quick swipe and a handful of air, then stares at his hand as if to figure out what had just transpired. This is followed by a three-way conversation during which the script clumsily has the musician work his way through an A to Z litany of now-moldy, 'fifties hipster clichés (`How's that chick?' `Really flipped, huh?' `Oh man, that's a drag,' `He was really nowhere,' `I've been diggin' it in the papers,' `He was jumpin' pretty steady with that Troy mob,' `Dig ya.') by way of what the screenwriter apparently must have regarded as establishing a well-rounded character.
Not only was the film disappointing in how little attempt was made to `open it up' for the big screen, but in some ways its narrowly focused two-for-a-nickel script was decidedly less interesting than what was shown on the television show. For example, it missed interesting possibilities for character development, especially as this pertained to Webb's Joe Friday and Ben Alexander's Frank Smith. (Some time after the film's debut, Webb finally recognized that television viewers yearned to know more about Joe Friday in his off-duty hours and so gave them glimpses of this law enforcement automaton's meager social life, including intriguing little dabs of romance.)
The film version also completely wastes the participation of Ben Alexander, the warmest and most appealing of all Joe Friday's sidekicks, leaving him with nothing to do except dutifully tag along with his superior officer and occasionally asking suspects or witnesses the odd question or two. The inspired daffy non sequiturs that his character, Frank Smith, regularly voiced in conversations with Joe Friday on the television show, which viewers loved and looked forward to, were almost entirely absent from the film. The one exception, which occurs during a brief back-and-forth with Webb about their individual food preferences, is so brief and isolated that it comes off as a self-conscious sop to audiences whom the screenwriter knew would be looking for it and falls flat.
Webb also was the film's director, and he went about most of these duties with a notable lack of imagination. The result is a picture that is dreary and monotonous from start to finish. He elicited almost uniformly wooden-and even occasionally embarrassing-performances from the cast (leaving one to wonder how much of his own money was invested in the film or what his deal was with Warner's, and whether he might even have deliberately restricted himself to printing the first take, no matter much a second or even a third might have been desirable). The scene where as Joe Friday he interrogates the crippled woman whose small-time crook of a husband has just been killed is mawkish, and the actors playing police officers are directed to be so deadly serious that scenes like this were subsequently lampooned to great effect in the Dan Aykroyd satire made in 1987. At one point a very competent actor, Richard Boone, is reduced to miming a series of grotesque scowls while instructing his subordinates. It's a wonder Webb didn't direct him to gnaw on a table leg.
Dragnet was a film that was mired deeply in its time and seems to evidence a disturbing subtext that relates to the American mindset as it was during the bland, conformist, and frightened Eisenhower/McCarthyite fifties. The Cold War was at its height in 1954 and fears by Americans of falling victim to communist manipulations and even outright mind-control were rampant. It may be no coincidence that Dragnet and Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers appeared within two years of each other. The cops in Dragnet are not merely grim, intense, obsessed defenders of the law, they often border on being zombie-like. One of Dragnet's most explicit messages---brought home to audiences several times---was how, if only we didn't have so many laws and that darn Constitution, we could put a heck of a lot more criminals behind bars where they belong. I've replayed this film at least half a dozen times and each time I watched it, the scarier it seemed. It's interesting to contemplate what super-patriot Joe Friday, if given the power and left to his own devices, would have done to lawbreakers. Luckily for the bad guys in the film---and possibly for all the rest of us---he wasn't given access to nuclear weapons.
Moviegoers in 1954 got excited when they heard that one of their favorite TV shows, Dragnet, had been made into a feature film. (I remember because I was one of them.) One now stares in wonder at this icon of the strange and far-off 'fifties, an era that was Eisenhower-sunny on the surface and dark and menacing just beneath it.
Dragnet the movie (eventually there was a second, on TV), now largely forgotten, was nothing more than an extended television episode made in color, while home sets were still black and white. Judging from the picture's low-rent set-ups, it must have been one of Warner Brothers' most cheaply made films for that year. A couple of scenes take place in empty fields, and---with the single exception when filming was done at the African wing of the Los Angeles County Museum---the indoor sets were not much more imposing. Many of the actors were frequently unemployed second-string players whose work did not make a deep impression.
In the intervening time since it was made the film has largely gone unseen and although it made it to video, it is little viewed in this form. (I found a dusty copy at a Half-Price book store, selling for a desperate-to-get-this-turkey-off-the-shelf $3.99!) Predictably, it has dated badly. That 'fifties audiences accepted the actors' rigidly stylized, robotic impersonations of police officers as representing the way they actually spoke in real life says something about Americans' willingness to uncritically accept virtually anything they saw in movies, and especially on TV. (Remember actors posing as doctors extolling the pleasures of smoking during cigarette commercials?) Dragnet's cops' signature manner of speaking---a flat, semi-technical, bureaucratic argot, spoken in low, monotonal voices---Webb's cops rarely if ever snarled---was one of the most memorable things about the show. Now this is seen for what it always was: unintentional self-satire. (On the other hand, to Webb's great credit, virtually all modern-day cop shows stemmed from Dragnet, untold imitations of which have been launched on television over the past five decades)
For more evidence of the film's antiquated point of view, watch the scene at the jazz club where Friday and Smith, seeking information about a criminal they're pursuing, converse with a musician who's one of their informants. There's a humorous moment when Smith gets a `real hip' handshake from the trumpet player that is nothing more than a quick swipe and a handful of air, then stares at his hand as if to figure out what had just transpired. This is followed by a three-way conversation during which the script clumsily has the musician work his way through an A to Z litany of now-moldy, 'fifties hipster clichés (`How's that chick?' `Really flipped, huh?' `Oh man, that's a drag,' `He was really nowhere,' `I've been diggin' it in the papers,' `He was jumpin' pretty steady with that Troy mob,' `Dig ya.') by way of what the screenwriter apparently must have regarded as establishing a well-rounded character.
Not only was the film disappointing in how little attempt was made to `open it up' for the big screen, but in some ways its narrowly focused two-for-a-nickel script was decidedly less interesting than what was shown on the television show. For example, it missed interesting possibilities for character development, especially as this pertained to Webb's Joe Friday and Ben Alexander's Frank Smith. (Some time after the film's debut, Webb finally recognized that television viewers yearned to know more about Joe Friday in his off-duty hours and so gave them glimpses of this law enforcement automaton's meager social life, including intriguing little dabs of romance.)
The film version also completely wastes the participation of Ben Alexander, the warmest and most appealing of all Joe Friday's sidekicks, leaving him with nothing to do except dutifully tag along with his superior officer and occasionally asking suspects or witnesses the odd question or two. The inspired daffy non sequiturs that his character, Frank Smith, regularly voiced in conversations with Joe Friday on the television show, which viewers loved and looked forward to, were almost entirely absent from the film. The one exception, which occurs during a brief back-and-forth with Webb about their individual food preferences, is so brief and isolated that it comes off as a self-conscious sop to audiences whom the screenwriter knew would be looking for it and falls flat.
Webb also was the film's director, and he went about most of these duties with a notable lack of imagination. The result is a picture that is dreary and monotonous from start to finish. He elicited almost uniformly wooden-and even occasionally embarrassing-performances from the cast (leaving one to wonder how much of his own money was invested in the film or what his deal was with Warner's, and whether he might even have deliberately restricted himself to printing the first take, no matter much a second or even a third might have been desirable). The scene where as Joe Friday he interrogates the crippled woman whose small-time crook of a husband has just been killed is mawkish, and the actors playing police officers are directed to be so deadly serious that scenes like this were subsequently lampooned to great effect in the Dan Aykroyd satire made in 1987. At one point a very competent actor, Richard Boone, is reduced to miming a series of grotesque scowls while instructing his subordinates. It's a wonder Webb didn't direct him to gnaw on a table leg.
Dragnet was a film that was mired deeply in its time and seems to evidence a disturbing subtext that relates to the American mindset as it was during the bland, conformist, and frightened Eisenhower/McCarthyite fifties. The Cold War was at its height in 1954 and fears by Americans of falling victim to communist manipulations and even outright mind-control were rampant. It may be no coincidence that Dragnet and Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers appeared within two years of each other. The cops in Dragnet are not merely grim, intense, obsessed defenders of the law, they often border on being zombie-like. One of Dragnet's most explicit messages---brought home to audiences several times---was how, if only we didn't have so many laws and that darn Constitution, we could put a heck of a lot more criminals behind bars where they belong. I've replayed this film at least half a dozen times and each time I watched it, the scarier it seemed. It's interesting to contemplate what super-patriot Joe Friday, if given the power and left to his own devices, would have done to lawbreakers. Luckily for the bad guys in the film---and possibly for all the rest of us---he wasn't given access to nuclear weapons.
Good but could have been Great!
trw333200015 January 2003
The early radio and TV episodes of Dragnet were brilliantly written and dramatized. It was only natural to bring it to the big screen. Unfortunately, the screenplay did not compliment Jack Webb's track record.
The viewer really can't sympathize with anyone in the story. Criminals brutally kill another criminal. I originally saw this movie as a child in 1954 and still remember how scared I was watching the opening scene before the main credits. Instead of the fascinating narration and lively characters of the radio and TV show, we have mostly downright depressing and tragic characters in this story, lots of frustration for the police, and not an overall satisfying story. I wish it could have been better---thankfully we have all the radio and early TV Dragnets extant!
Cast-wise, Jack brought virtually all of his radio and tv cast members to the big screen here, and am I imagining things, or was that early Our Gang member Mickey Daniels in a 10-second role as an outraged attendent in the card club right after the fistfight?
The viewer really can't sympathize with anyone in the story. Criminals brutally kill another criminal. I originally saw this movie as a child in 1954 and still remember how scared I was watching the opening scene before the main credits. Instead of the fascinating narration and lively characters of the radio and TV show, we have mostly downright depressing and tragic characters in this story, lots of frustration for the police, and not an overall satisfying story. I wish it could have been better---thankfully we have all the radio and early TV Dragnets extant!
Cast-wise, Jack brought virtually all of his radio and tv cast members to the big screen here, and am I imagining things, or was that early Our Gang member Mickey Daniels in a 10-second role as an outraged attendent in the card club right after the fistfight?
50's Artifact
dougdoepke30 January 2007
This colorized 90 minutes of "Just the facts M'am", can't disguise that it's really an over-long 30 minute episode. Unlike the series, the movie starts off with a bloody bang, but in the process drains the plot of much needed suspense. Instead, we're left with 85 minutes of erratic police interviews, gleeful harassment of a known felon, and one very unnecessary, but carefully choreographed brawl that does add action but also points up the street-fighter inadequacies of the rail-thin Webb and the paunchy Ben Alexander. (Some of the frames appear set up for 3-D, so be prepared to duck.) The film's climax comes across as ironic but unfortunately Webb can't resist rubbing our nose in it.
Don't get me wrong-- I was and still am a fan of the series, which occasionally produced some pretty powerful melodramas involving ordinary people and their day-to-day travails. During those Mc Carthyite years, even a glimpse of social realism was hard to come by in series TV, (it might aid commie propaganda). Webb's tersely delivered lines and tight close-ups often worked brilliantly in the half-hour format to bring out otherwise submerged dramatic values. However, stretched over 90 minutes, Webb's exaggerated style becomes pretty tiresome, as does his endless parade of smart-alecky toppers.
That same year, 1954, Lucy and Desi spun off from their own wildly successful series to make a movie, The Long, Long Trailer. By most accounts, it is clearly superior to their series. I'm afraid the opposite is true here. Except for nostalgia buffs and curiosity seekers, there's only one reason I can think of to catch up with this 50's artifact. The gorgeous Ann Robinson as the policewoman should be enough to induce even the most hardened cop-hater into joining the force. I should be getting my badge any day now.
Don't get me wrong-- I was and still am a fan of the series, which occasionally produced some pretty powerful melodramas involving ordinary people and their day-to-day travails. During those Mc Carthyite years, even a glimpse of social realism was hard to come by in series TV, (it might aid commie propaganda). Webb's tersely delivered lines and tight close-ups often worked brilliantly in the half-hour format to bring out otherwise submerged dramatic values. However, stretched over 90 minutes, Webb's exaggerated style becomes pretty tiresome, as does his endless parade of smart-alecky toppers.
That same year, 1954, Lucy and Desi spun off from their own wildly successful series to make a movie, The Long, Long Trailer. By most accounts, it is clearly superior to their series. I'm afraid the opposite is true here. Except for nostalgia buffs and curiosity seekers, there's only one reason I can think of to catch up with this 50's artifact. The gorgeous Ann Robinson as the policewoman should be enough to induce even the most hardened cop-hater into joining the force. I should be getting my badge any day now.
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