Saturday, February 16, 2013

"The Bank Examiner Swindle" or "Fake badge, real trouble."

This is the city.


Just the absolute top of municipal modernity in the mid-to-late sixties.




That is a pretty neat shading device, not uncommon on newer structures these days, such as this mixed use retail + parking deck which serves the Mecklenburg County courthouse in downtown Charlotte, NC (2004). 



Nice, clear establishing shots of Central Receiving Hospital. 
Looking much nicer than when we were there with Blue Boy, but the same sequence.





We were working the day watch out of Fraud Division.



My partner has decided to raise squab.


HEYO IT'S THE BOSS
TIME TO TALK TO SOME OLD TIMERS



Classic Dragnet interiors - wooden doors, wall sconces, book hutches with tchotchkes. books, plants...



Wooden doors, sconces, and a bust of someone to show that the guy at the desk is more important than the average bear:


Top view driving into the PAB sequence, complete:





Ok, here is a big sound stage where this aging has-been actress lives.



She is my favorite. Colorful and strange. Possibly delusional!




I like the sofa in the lobby, too.




Friday: "I didn't know you collected autographs."
Gannon: "I don't."



Those lamps are sure to make it into my "Table lamps of season one" retro-retrospective!


You fake bank examiner, you!



Heading out to MacArthur Park.



Douglas MacArthur was known for going a little mad with power toward the conclusion of the Korean War. It was originally known as Westlake Park, after the Westlake neighborhood, where it's situated. 


Old timer on a bench, same setup that we have seen before in the intro to the nazi episode.








Setting up for a sting!




The Dragnet production team put a lot of effort into this set, doubtlessly a soundstage.


Wallpaper is everywhere! And matchy-matchy drapery, to boot.


Hi, I'm a fake bank examiner, but I ran a liquor store in another episode.





Hi, I'm the other fake bank examiner.






PWN3D



Frank Albert Thomas
and
James Fremont
Now in County Jail awaiting probation report and sentencing.




Starred

Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday
Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon
Nydia Westman as Mrs. Mary Burnside
Harriet MacGibbon as Flobelle Mirada
Lillian Powell as Mrs. Gray
Robert Knapp as Captain Lambert
Donald Barry as James Fremont
Howard Culver as Frank Albert Thomas
Burt Mustin as Fred Gregory
Clark Howat as Lieutenant John Bigham
Bert Holland as Harry Croft
Don Ross as Flobelle's photographer


Art Direction - Russell Kimball
Set Decor - John McCarthy & Ralph Sylos

Aired 23 March 1967

Well, "Happy Together" by The Turtles was number one, and John Bobbitt's mother was giving birth to him. He became famous for being one half of an intensely disrespectful marriage in the early 1990s.

(...oh, what a sad and lonely asparagus am I...most of my hollandaise are behind me...)

4 comments:

  1. Mrs. Drysdale (Harriet E. MacGibbon) in this episode? Awesome! Still she has the attitude of aristocracy since "The Beverly Hillbillies"

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  2. 1.) Never mind the shading! Look at that GORGEOUS white 1961-1963 model year convertible Ford Thunderbird!
    2.) I had no idea what "squab" was until I saw this episode and looked it up.
    3.) That bust appears to be of Julius Caesar.
    4.) Gen. MacArthur is also known as "Dugout Doug" and not fondly recalled by WWII era Marines.

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  3. “Not when it was going to be yard money!”

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  4. Nice tip of the hat to "Sunset Boulevard" in the "Flobelle Mirada" scene. Jack Webb, gettin' all "post-modernist" and what not.

    Awww, Bill Gannon, asking Flobelle for her autograph. You're sweeter than warm peach crumble with ice cream.

    Joe: "The latest victim was Fred Gregory, he was 82 years old. He reported losing $800. It was the smallest loss so far. His landlord said we could find him on a bench by the lake in MacArthur Park. He'd be the one wearing a green cap and a large sign saying 'I'm old, please rob me'." -ANMouse

    ReplyDelete