Dragnet (1954)

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.

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?

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.

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".