Dragnet

Dragnet, Mulholland Falls and L.A. Confidential

I've done some reading over the years about Dragnet. Jack Webb was making a movie called "He Walked by Night" in 1948 when the technical advisor, LAPD detective Marty Wynn, expressed exasperation that Hollywood never depicted police work as it actually was. the cops were always hard boiled tough guys, crooked or buffoons. Webb, after thinking about it, asked to accompany Wynn and his partner, Vance Brasher on their nightly rounds and became fascinated by police procedure and the way the real policemen talked. He suggested the radio series that became "Dragnet". The LAPD was enthusiastic because they found the way they were constantly being depicted as distasteful. Webb's police went by the book, spoke "like doctors would to patients". He also eschewed violence except in rare instances, usually showing it after it had taken place and depicting it as the human tragedy it actually was. Webb closely co-operated with the LAPD, using their files for stories and filling his shows with praise for Chief William Parker, who had been hired in 1950 to clean up and give a new image to the department.

The Watts riots were the first chink in this image. Many analysts blamed them on Parker and his department, which was said to enforce racist unofficial rules about which part of town blacks could be in. In recent years, two films have been released which seem to further undercut the image of the LAPD that Webb created, Mulholland Falls, (1996) and L.A. Confidential, (1997). Mulholland Falls introduces us to the "Hat Squad", which is said to be non-fictional. Nick Nolte and his gang report directly to Chief Parker, (who is played briefly but perfectly by Bruce Dern, judging from newsreel clips I saw on his biography). He hired them to rid the city of mobsters and other criminals and to stay above politics. Nobody, but nobody is allowed to operate in L.A., not even the FBI, without going through Parker. The Hat Squad makes their own rules to do their job, including throwing a would-be mobster, (played by CSI"s William Peterson), off a cliff on Mulholland Drive they have given the title name.

In L.A. Confidential, the Hat Squad and Chief Parker do not make an appearance, although I wonder if James Cromwell's Capt. Smith is somehow supposed to represent him. We are introduced here to Jack Vincennes, who is a technical advisor on a show obviously intended to represent Dragnet, the star of which is a total phony. Russell Crowe's Bud White would look good in a hat and Guy Pearce's Ed Exley seems to have watched too many episodes of Dragnet.

These two films suggest that Dragnet was a phony, too, a public relations gimmick to make the seedy LAPD look good. Recent events have also not helped the image of the department, suggesting that planting evidence to help along prosecution and prejudice against African Americans is a long-standing condition. Maybe those melodramas of the 40's had it right about the LAPD.

But books about Jack Webb tell about him doing such extensive research into not only the methods of the department but also the details of a cop's life. I suspect that even Chief Parker could not have protected the Hat Squad once they attacked and brutally beat up an FBI agent, as Nick Nolte does. And are we to believe that Mickey Cohen was brought to justice so the LAPD could take over his rackets? Was there ever an Alamo-like shoot out between good cops and bad cops? Was it that bad? Or is Hollywood simply reclaiming the territory won by Jack Webb in Dragnet?

There are people who know. But I am not one of them.

I've been watching some older episodes recently, courtesy of a couple of bargain four-episodes DVD I got in a Brighton 99p shop, and my attitude towards the series has changed somewhat from when I first saw Dragnet some decades ago. I now realise that the very tight, plodding format with the story told mostly through voice-over - much satirised, most memorably in Police Squad! and in a classic parody in an early Mad magazine - can somewhat blind the viewer to some of the show's more subtle strengths. The show does seem to make an effort to show the often tedious and legwork-heavy aspects of police work, and avoids violence and gratuitous gunplay as much as possible. But there's often a very sympathetic tone in Dragnet episodes towards the culprit, understanding that crime is often tragedy - such as in an episode called Big Porn, where in the final minutes a pornographer is revealed as a sad, tired old man, reliving his old days as a movie director. I particularly like an episode called Big Shoplift where the criminal turns out to be a lonely woman suffering from kleptomania, for whom even Joe Friday recognises that jail is not the right place. This compassion was a step forward from the efficient but rather cold film that inspired Dragnet, He Walked by Night, in which Webb had a bit part.

When I first saw Dragnet, I think in particular I underestimated the performance of Jack Webb, who seems to approach his suspects with a very human demeanour which is entirely realistic and such an antidote to the overplayed performances of many later TV cops. Webb produced and often wrote and directed the shows, and he displays a sure, experienced touch. Incidentally, the series didn't always take itself that seriously: look out for a wildly campy episode which alters the opening titles to read "Badge 417".

"Dragnet" is the best police show ever. "Dragnet" was directly responsible for the maturation and realness of police television shows, but it didn't dive into soggy drama stories surrounding the police officers the way soap opera police shows like "Hill Street Blues" did. "Dragnet" instead focused on the actual police stories and the apprehension of the crooks. On radio, the death of actor Barton Yarborough (no relation to me) who played Friday's first partner, Sgt. Ben Romero, was brought into the story, and in a 1953 TV episode Friday shows regret after killing a man for the first time, but that was as far as the drama went. For the most part, "Dragnet" was engaging nuts-and-bolts police work that was directed plausibly by Webb (who was a film-noir veteran by 1950, having appeared in 1948's "He Walked By Night," on which the show was based, and other film-noir classics like "Sunset Boulevard" and "The Men," both filmed in 1949). Many episodes of "Dragnet" have a film noir-like quality to them, often making for nail-bitting, high quality television.

In correction of Mr. Richmond's comment, in the fall of 1952 Herb Ellis took over as Friday's partner after the departure of Barney Phillips. Ellis was the first Frank Smith, and he served as a temporary replacement until someone who matched Yarborough's wholesome humor could be found. And Ben Alexander was chosen. But Alexander's humor was more outwardly silly, whereas Yarborough brought out more unexpected humor. In the first episode, for instance, when Friday and Romero are told about a man carrying a bomb, Romero voluntarily decides to help Friday stop the man because, as he says "Can't go home. My wife wants me to paint the bathroom today." As stiff as Friday's partners often were, they all had their own unique traits: Romero was the unintentionally silly Southerner; Jacobs was the stone cold, ice-eyed quiet one; Herb Ellis's Frank Smith was quiet but easy going; Ben Alexander's Frank Smith was simply goofy.

Jack Webb voluntarily pulled "Dragnet" off the air in 1959, but it returned to the air in new episodes in 1967, going for three and a half years (again in correction of Mr. Richmond's comment). These color episodes were rather different than the original black-and-white ones, but were still of very high quality.

Jack Webb set the standard for law and order police with the creation of Dragnet a show which impacted for better or worse every television police show down to this day. Webb who was a respected character player in the day vaulted to stardom first with the Dragnet radio series and then when it moved to television.

The show started in radio in 1949 and moved to television in 1951 where it ran for 8 seasons. Every story followed a rigid pattern where Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday and Ben Alexander as Detective Frank Smith start the day out working in one aspect of police work. They could be at a specific precinct or at a special command, narcotics, juveniles,homicide, etc. An incident would happen and for the next half hour these two followed the leads and made the arrest.

Webb's interrogation technique became legendary. One can still hear his staccato questioning and when someone got off point, he'd respond with the familiar catchphrase, 'just the facts'.

About the middle point of the show Webb and Alexander would be in their police car and this was where these two got humanized. Alexander and later Harry Morgan would talk about home and family. Webb would listen and smile and occasionally mentioned he had a date coming up. No relationsips though. The phrase 'married to the job' applied to Joe Friday like no other. What a spartan existence he led.

Dragnet was beautifully satirized in an 80s movie that starred Dan Aykroyd as Joe Friday and Tom Hanks as a young and hip partner. It was brought back by Webb for another run from 1968-1971 this time in color.

Webb did the same thing for uniform police with a show he produced Adam-12 which had a respectable run. And the show Emergency. his also, had some solid stories about EMS technicians done in Dragnet style.

Few shows for better or worse had the impact Dragnet has.

During my childhood the staccato musical "sting" could be heard anytime and any place that there was a parody of a detective programme or even between kids if there was a minor mystery, someone would hum the theme.

Actually watching it for the first time many decades later in very bleary prints shown on the most obscure satellite channel to fill the gaps between adverts early in the morning, its brilliance still shines through. "Everything you see is true". But how true and how was it actually made? There doesn't seem to be any authoritative account of how the scripts were written so I can only guess. Two things however strike me: firstly there is a precision and sometimes quirky individuality about the portrayal of the suspect, small but striking details of their manner and behaviour. Secondly, the calm reasonable and utterly professional cops who at all times remain dedicated, fully human and humane, sympathetic yet not presented as superheroes.

My feeling at least is that the source of the materials was not just the files but the actual cops involved who related things they'd remembered but which would not have seemed significant enough for them to include in a written report.

The most impressive was Lee Marvin playing a violent killer who combined calm petty self-absorption with lying, and unconcerned matter-of-factness about his murders. He's just violently attacked a cop, is now handcuffed and about to be taken down to the station yet calmly says he wants to clean his teeth and expects the cop, who's still got a bloody face, to hand him the toothpaste and turn on the tap. He's not trying to wind the cop up, he just wants what he wants. During questioning he says that he's hungry, is taken to a cafe and carefully chooses a meal with a special salad. Once finished he is confronted with compelling evidence, and casually confesses to a string of brutal and almost motive-less murders, then calmly turns to a discussion of how a little salt is vital to fully enjoying lettuce. It's his last meal outside jail and probably not far from his last meal on earth yet he remains calm and self-absorbed. It is the perfect outline sketch of a psychopath.