{"id":36553,"date":"2016-03-19T22:00:11","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T05:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=36553"},"modified":"2021-01-12T18:49:15","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T01:49:15","slug":"dragnet-1954","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=36553","title":{"rendered":"Dragnet (1954)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Why does the law always work for the guilty?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Poster-196x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-36554\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Poster-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Poster-768x1174.jpg 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Poster-670x1024.jpg 670w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Poster.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nSergeant Joe Friday (Jack Webb), Officer Frank Smith (Ben Alexander), and undercover Officer Grace Downey (Ann Robinson) of the LAPD investigate the brutal murder of a bookie (Dub Taylor), committed by a known criminal (Stacy Harris) who others in his syndicate are trying to protect.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jack Webb Films<\/li>\n<li>Police<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThe primary reason to check out this earnest police procedural &#8212; notable as the first feature film to be based on a television series &#8212; is to get a sense of what <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dragnet_(1951_TV_series)\">the enormously popular show<\/a> (produced, directed by, and starring Jack Webb) is all about. Unfortunately, while competently filmed, <em>Dragnet<\/em> hasn&#8217;t held up well as entertainment: it&#8217;s overly didactic, relies far too heavily on fast-paced dialogue (its original roots as a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dragnet_(radio_series)\">radio series<\/a> are evident), and will seem simplistic to modern audiences who already have an insider&#8217;s view of police investigations from numerous other shows and movies. Since this is essentially a colorized, extended version of the T.V. show &#8212; interspersed with occasionally creative but mostly awkward scenes meant for 3-D that never materialized &#8212; I recommend checking out an episode of the show first (on YouTube) to see if this is your cup of tea. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Some creative direction<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Direction2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Direction2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-63077\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Direction2.png 512w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Direction2-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Direction2-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Direction2-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Direction.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Direction.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"384\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-36555\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Direction.png 512w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Direction-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Dragnet-Direction-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, unless you&#8217;re a &#8220;Dragnet&#8221; fan. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0046931\/\">IMDb entry<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1954\/08\/21\/archives\/article-1-no-title-dragnet-has-debut-at-victoria-theatre.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Why does the law always work for the guilty?&#8221; Synopsis: Sergeant Joe Friday (Jack Webb), Officer Frank Smith (Ben Alexander), and undercover Officer Grace Downey (Ann Robinson) of the LAPD investigate the brutal murder of a bookie (Dub Taylor), committed by a known criminal (Stacy Harris) who others in his syndicate are trying to protect. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Jack Webb Films Police Review: The primary reason to check out this earnest police procedural &#8212; notable as the first&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=36553\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36553"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63078,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36553\/revisions\/63078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}