The Interrogation

In the day and age of action police dramas, the Dragnet series seems an anachronism. For the most part, all that happens are the detectives Sgt Joe Friday (played with the straightest of straight faces by Jack Webb) and his partner Office Bill Gannon (a slightly more expressive character played by Harry Morgan) interviewing suspects or witnesses. There are lots of scenes where it is just the two of them talking about mundane matters of life. But what resonates with this series is that it seems what cops actually do in real life. It is rarely high speed chases or big shoot-outs, but rather the everyday discipline of routine investigation and plain old hard work. This particular episode, "The Big Interrogation," is even more shorter in the dramatic department than others in the series as it consists almost totally of Friday and Gannon interrogating a young undercover cop accused of holding up a liquor store. Almost everything happens in an incredibly small internal affairs interview room that is so sparse, there is not even a place for poor Officer Gannon to sit down. But for its limited action and scenery, it more than makes up for it in one section toward the end of the episode. Joe Friday goes into a five minute monologue on the difficulties of being a policeman, but ends with the reward of doing the job because it needs done. I found myself nearly in tears by the time he finished. It was flawlessly delivered and spoken with total conviction. The next time someone complains about their local police force,they would do well to play this clip and think about it for awhile. I want to go shake the hand of the next policeman I meet!

This episode is interesting in that it starts with a different introduction--without the usual "Dragnet" theme music and a kettle drum instead. You also will soon notice that the guest star for the episode is Kent McCord--who later became famous on Jack Webb's show "Adam-12". Webb tended to re-use actors and McCord plays a cop but not the same guy from "Adam-12"--confusing but typical for this show. In other words, Jack Webb often used a stock group of actors and they played multiple characters on the show--good guys, bad guys and regular citizens.

This episode finds McCord playing an officer who is being held on the suspicion that he might have committed an armed robbery while on a stakeout! While this seems like a remote possibility, the facts keep stacking up against the young officer and it looks bad for him. As the Internal Affairs process proceeds (with Gannon and Friday playing IAD officers), the officer being investigated begins to crack under the strain and feels sorry for himself. Ultimately, this leads to one of the single best moments of the series, as Friday delivers an amazing monologue about how tough it is to be a cop. Surprisingly, it showed Jack Webb was an amazing actor. Perhaps it wasn't done in one take (though it appeared to be) it was a fine piece of acting and must be seen by fans of the series.

Overall, an average episode despite the great speech. Worth seeing but not among the very best of the shows.

Kent McCord is a GOD. He shows what an incredible actor he is in this episode.

I'm knocking one star off because, by Dragnet standards, this sucks. Where's the colors? Where's the women? Where's the outside? Where's the cars? Where's the chases? Where's the bad guys?? This is no true Dragnet. At the very least they should have shown what happened pre-interrogation. Or spliced in flashbacks and made it a full hour. But darn if this episode doesn't suck after all. That performance by Kent McCord. Wow! Just when I thought he was just the pretty face in Adam-12... WOW! The guy could act! (Past tense, I don't think he still does.) But damn! What did he do besides 12? HE should have been a huge star! Did I say "wow!"?? I meant "WOW!!!!" Someone called him a "god" in a previous review. Come on, man! Let's not get carried away now: he is God's boss. The end.

Your typical Dragnet episode revolves around Friday and Gannon dealing with the unsavory denizens of Los Angeles, often supported in some small way by various members of the LAPD. But here, it's only Friday, Gannon and the suspect; a young undercover officer pegged for a robbery.

The bulk of the episode is standard Dragnet stuff, with Friday's dry, staccato questioning and the suspect twisting in the wind, with the audience unsure whether they are guilty or innocent. What sets this episode apart and helps it to rise above your typical Dragnet outing, is Friday's several minute long monologue on the less than glamorous life of being a cop. It's a powerful sermon, and a great showcase for Webb's underrated skill as an actor and his absolute stranglehold on his iconic character.