Dragnet (1987)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Tom Mankiewicz

Writers:

Dan Aykroyd (written by) and
Alan Zweibel (written by) ...

Release Date:

26 June 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Tagline:

They're so bad at being bad... but so much worse at being good!

Plot:

The equally-straight-laced and "by the book" nephew of Joe Friday must work with his more laid-back partner to solve a mystery.

Plot Keywords:

Zoo | Police | Police Commissioner | Detective | Strip Club

Cast

Dan Aykroyd	...	Sgt. Joe Friday
Tom Hanks	...	Pep Streebeck
Christopher Plummer	...	Reverend Jonathan Whirley
Harry Morgan	...	Captain Gannon
Alexandra Paul	...	Connie Swail
Jack O'Halloran	...	Emil Muzz
Elizabeth Ashley	...	Jane Kirkpatrick
Dabney Coleman	...	Jerry Caesar
Kathleen Freeman	...	Enid Borden
Bruce Gray	...	Mayor Parvin
Lenka Peterson	...	Granny Mundy
Julia Jennings	...	Sylvia Wiss
Lisa Aliff	...	April
Joe Altmark	...	Milkman
Nina Arvesen	...	Lady Motor Cop

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #28649) | Australia:M | Finland:K-12 | Norway:11 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Applied Action

Trivia:

When Joe Friday is doing his opening narrations as he sits down at his desk, he says "My partner is Frank Smith..." Frank Smith was Friday's original partner on the 1950's Dragnet series and the radio show.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: After the shoot-out at the Caesar mansion, as Pep and Friday drive away a marble statue can be seen with very neat bullet holes through it. Due to the structure of marble (or any stone), bullets would not simply punch a smooth-edged hole in it, they would break chunks off. That the hole is black shows that the statue is also hollow and obviously a prop.

Quotes:

P.A.G.A.N. Ceremony Leader: For the final touch to our brew tonight... a pristine virgin in a gown of white. Evil bringeth here our plea, she's as pure as she can be! White and clean as driven snow, from Orange County, here we go!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Shooting the Police: Cops on Film (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Dance or Die

Passable spoof of a serious '50s police series.

Those who actually remember, or were fans of, the '50s cop show Dragnet might be a little alarmed to find that this 1987 homage is played predominantly for laughs. Those who do not know the original show, whether that be because they are too young or simply because they never watched it, might enjoy this version on its own merits. Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks certainly strike an agreeable comic partnership, though the story is rather hackneyed even at spoof material level.

Sgt Joe Friday (nephew of the Jack Webb character from the original TV series, and played here as a by-the-book stickler by Dan Akroyd) is paired with a new partner, the loud and cocksure Pep Streebek (Tom Hanks). Together, they drive the streets of L.A in search of crime and criminals. The mismatched duo find themselves drawn into a case involving a sect of demented cultists who go by the acronym P.A.G.A.N (People Against Goodness And Normalcy!) The P.A.G.A.Ns are fronted by a powerful leader whose identity is kept from them as he wears a goat's head mask during cult gatherings and rituals. Friday and Streebek infiltrate one of the P.A.G.A.N ceremonies and rescue a virginal young beauty, Connie Swaile (Alexandra Paul), who is to be sacrificed by the cultists. In the ensuing fracas, Connie discovers that the goat-headed cult leader is actually Rev Jonathan Whirley (Christopher Plummer), and for the rest of the picture the trio of Friday, Streebek and Connie try to prove to the doubters that the greatly revered Reverend is actually a criminal mastermind of considerable repute and depravity.

At 106 minutes, the film is pretty brisk and never really taxes one's patience. As mentioned, the plot is hackneyed and in truth is never used as anything more than a backcloth against which to highlight some comic set pieces. The comedy itself is amusing though never more (I certainly can't think of a line or sequence which I would call "hilarious"). There was an opportunity here for some witty interplay between the two heroes, but generally-speaking the film tends to reject this opportunity in favour of a more physical and frantic brand of humour. Akroyd is good as the absurdly rule-abiding Friday, and Plummer gives an enjoyably villainous turn as the film's sinister, smirking bad guy. But the film mainly belongs to Hanks, still in the relatively early days of his film career, who brings energy and confidence to his role. There's nothing remarkable about Dragnet, but it passes the time painlessly enough.