Bella Dragnet is an interesting Crime Drama film released that was released in 1954. It is about 2 detectives, Sargeant Joe Friday played by Jack Webb and Officer Frank Smith played by Ben Alexander, assigned to investigate a shotgun murder. The acting, the cinematography, and the dialogue are the best parts of the film.Ben Alexander and Jack Webb play their parts incredibly well. In the beginning of the film, they are given a briefing on their case and after-ward they proceed to begin bringing witnesses for questioning. The dialogue is entertaining and the actors executed their lines well.

sol ***SPOILERS*** It's when mobster Miller Starkie, Dub Taylor, is blown to pieces in an open field in L.A proper that the Homicide as well as Intelligence divisions of the LAPD is brought in to not only find out who murdered Starkie but why.The murder investigation headed by the tough talking and take no BS Sgt. Joe Friday, Jack Webb, and his partner and faithful Tonto-like companion Officer Frank Smith,Ben Alexander, soon find an eyeball, or eye, whiteness to the murder Jesse Quinn, James Griffith. Quinn when learning that the mob was behind Starkie's murder, in him holding back on in shake down money in collected for it, suddenly loses his memory and refuses to point out his killer: The imported from Cleveland via San Diego hit-man Chester Davitt, Willard Sage. This makes it almost impossible to have a grand jury indite Davitt as well as the person who hired him big time L.A mob boss Max Troy, Stacy Harris, who's reportedly dying of stomach cancer.Sgt.Friday together with Officer Smith in trying to break down Troy hound the dying man unmercifully day and night like a bulldog chewing on a bone until he almost cracks under the pressure. The two law enforcers go so far as interrupt a card game that Troy is participating in where they end up getting black and blue, you should see what the other guys looked like, all over in a knock down drag out fist fight with some of Troy's card playing buddies! With the cops and especially Sgt.Friday and Officer Smith breathing down his neck Troy finally orders a hit on hit-man Davitt who get's it as he leaves his flight at the Cleveland Municipal airport.***SPOILERS*** With Sgt.Friday and Officer Smith finally getting enough evidence on Troy, by wiretapping his phone,in the Davitt hit-job to put him behind bars he suddenly checks out for good as he dies at L.A General Hospital while being operated for his cancer condition! Your left wondering if it was the cancer or Sgt. Frday and Officer Smith's constant hounding and harassing the guy, sometimes for 24 straight hours in two 12 hour shifts, that finished Troy off! "Dragnet" the movie has the distinction of being be the very first TV serial to make it to the big screen. Something that many many other TV serials like "The Flintstones" "Mission Impossible" and the "Fugitive" were to follow in its footsteps.

Panamint Check out the Chrome on the shiny 1950's automobiles. Look carefully and you will see the clear plastic air-conditioning tubes inside the rear window of the Cadillac. Wood furniture (not fiberboard), non-filter cigarettes by the ton, neon signs, 8-miles per gallon autos. This is authentic 1950's retro (and wastefulness) at its best.Expensive color film and fine film editing. First-class musical scoring is seamlessly blended into the movie."Dragnet" is a meticulously planned movie project. Looks like every scene was thought out well in advance of the actual production. Webb must have been a very hard-working movie craftsman. Stylistically, Webb's brisk handling of actors and clipped, monotonous dialog is not appealing to my tastes, but directing style is in the eye of the beholder I suppose. His style is OK for television shows but less so in a full-length movie. However, this is a good crime movie and Webb at least gives it a kind of watchable uniqueness. Modern TV's "Law and Order" breaks no new ground. This "Dragnet" movie has the cops and detectives, then the District Attorney, then some sort of judicial hearing, etc. And of course "Law and Order" doesn't have those big chrome dinosaurs.

Evan J. Chase 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?