Dragnet "The Big Cast" (1952) - Part 3

[EnglishGarden11]

Love lee marvin!!

[marcxopoco]

Why would they take a killer who had just admitted he was a killer to eat in a restaurant?

[mcdago62]

great stuff, love the show, back then though............... we think you killed 10 to 14 men you want to go get some dinner, bring a pencil, i'll draw you a map, wow nothing like now days

[slowdream101]

I hope they left a good tip

[OrodesIII]

Lee Marvin stole the show here. He is one of the very few actors who knows how to eat as if he was enjoying his food.

[WSenator1]

The 50s "Dragnet" shows were so engrossing and dramatic, like the movies. Irony = Lee Marvin played a hard-as-nails cop (like Joe Friday) on a later TV show, "M Squad." (The music for that show was composed by Count Basie!)

[XWoodchuckleX]

Lee Marvin was hot!

[curlybobz]

Cool to see Lee Marvin. Always plays a great pyscho.

[macemcguire]

Great to see stars in early roles. Marvin is sensational here. Shame it took Hollywood so long to discover what a major talent he was.

[MrJackDamon]

This thing stops at 5:37.  What gives?

[jmarcguy]

Loved Barney Phillips as his partner! Wish he'd stuck around. Great compliment to Friday.

[MrChristian326]

Great episode. Lee Marvin was excellent. I loved the way he talked. So cool.

[JubalCalif]

The classic mid 50's film comedy "The Seven Year Itch" has a very funny scene set in a health food restaurant. Thanks for posting this fascinating episode. Lee Marvin wasn't a handsome fella...but what a gifted actor! I recall Barney Phillips playing a nogoodnik in some 60's TV shows, such as "The Andy Griffith Show".

[XWoodchuckleX]

@JubalCalif I think Lee was hot. I liked his voice and acting too.

[JubalCalif]

@XWoodchuckleX

You have good taste! Not only was the late great Mr Marvin a handsome gent (especially as his career entered the 60's) but was a talented performer. And I agree his voice was GREAT too! :-)

[gooshala]

Jack Webb and Lee Marvin on Dragnet in 1952 playing a script about a serial killer.Very creepy.

[johnnynoirman]

Yes Marvin is chilling..his description of his dream and the faces of his victims before the kill and give you the willies.....the only way to quiet the voices ... faces in his head...is to kill again...demonic....dont pick up hitckhikers!

[fromthesidelines]

Officer Bill Gannon [Harry Morgan] did not appear until the second color version of the series in January 1967. In the '50s, "Officer Frank Smith" (Ben Alexander, after Barney Phillips and Herb Ellis "tried out" for the role) was Joe Friday's partner, on TV and the radio show.

[fromthesidelines]

Quite possibly Kurtzman & Elder got the idea for their "confession in the restaurant" sequence (in their first "Dragnet" parody) from watching the one seen here, as this aired in early 1952, before their version was published. But they based their first satire more on the radio show, as their parody of "Friday" and "Smith" looked nothing like Jack Webb or Barney Phillips/Herb Ellis/Ben Alexander.

[silverbird58]

helgas health shopp looks like the the bus stop episode on twilite zone. with fridays partner..

[ScarletRaider513]

brilliant villain played by Lee Marvin, the role which got him notoriety as one of the bad guys in pictures, until his later roles, chilling but great performance...

[bugsmoran100]

Lee Marvin PROVED it by just Being there!

[norristerse]

when "Mad" was still an EC comic, they parodied "dragnet" a couple of times. in one, they take a suspect to a restaurant while interrogating him and he displays a gargantuan appetite, eating cats, dogs etc.

i wonder if the writers had this episode in mind?

[davidhilton]

great stuff - i love dragnet. i didnt realize how they're staged like a play. i also love the music hits - theme song is great.

where's gannon though?

[ScarletRaider513]

@davidhilton gannon began his term in the Dragnet remake of the 60's

[mac195000]

Great stuff. Marvin was totally convincing as the killer. And it was odd how he made Webb look somewhat effeminate by conparison. Not many people could do that.

[melollylolly]

good show-better than the 60's version

[celshader]

I love how this cold blooded killer is being potrayed as a disturbingly normal guy.

[KC5E]

Fantastic. I missed the local ten-o'clock news watching these three videos. Strange, I don't remember Ed Jacobs. I hope you have/will post more of these old favorites of mine.

[LightningChimp]

Awesome, tight stuff. People calling Joe Friday corny need to check out David Caruso if they can stand it. This seemed so much more convincing without the overblown histrionics of the allegedly more "realistic" crime shows of today.

[Deutschlieber]

Note the very subtle, slight wince that Lee Marvin makes btween 5:12 and 5:15 as he says, "When I came to..." -- indeed, fine acting.

[maxpowz]

I was a kid enthralled by the 1967-70 Dragnet, but I've never seen the original till now...excellent episode!

[seka1986]

Isn't that a weird meal for 1952?

[zsand83]

I was thinking the same thing. I wonder if Helda's Health Shop is real (or at least based on some real 1950s health food place)...

[seka1986]

Salad, yogurt, molasses bread and a veggie burger. I didn't know they had that kind of food in 1952.

What's Lee Marvin doing eating that hippie grub? LOL

[rkeppler3633]

LA has always been way ahead.

[westcoastshady]

Joe Friday... King of Cheese...

[bashir1980]

Uh, shouldn't the 'Mark VII Production Logo' be after the closing credits rather than before it? Also, was this TV-Series a reenactment of various incidents as opposed to an ordinary crime TV show (such as Starsky and Hutch, etc.)? Good one!

[Teflon65]

In the color version (c. 1966-1970), they moved the Mark VII Production Logo to after the closing credits.

[konajake54cm]

It is truly refreshing that there are no incredibly unintelligible and stupid comments on this video. The people who write those comments probably have never heard of Dragnet. It's all about audience.  Pretty good episode, I suppose.

[tidq]

What a weird episode. Didn't take much to make him go from being in denial to wanting to spill his life's story.

[sat233238]

Sociopaths look at their accomplishments as you would shooting under 80 in golf...there is a need to have others appreciate their ablility.

[sat233238]

You can see Lee Marvin's skills ....the body language as he lies...his totally natural speech patterns. Thanks for the outstanding episode.

[okuradani]

"can't take those beets too well, they repeat on me"?!

[AmbientWarrior]

sounds good at least.

[Deutschlieber]

I've just consulted my mother, who was about 20 when this was made. According to her, "repeat on me" meant that the food item in question caused burping, so that you tasted it again involuntarily. Not the runs, as one might reasonably assume.

[fromthesidelines]

Five years later, Marvin would star in his own "hard-nosed" cop series, "M SQUAD" (1957-'60). The announcer was Hal Gibney.

[mayormc]

This is really classic stuff. Lee Marvin was an excellent actor in his young days.

[GenericGene]

Great actor - Jack Nicholson would play this part well in a movie.

[yellowwing]

Jack as Henry Elsworth Ross, wow, that would be great!