Saturday, February 22, 2014

Homicide - DR-22 or Heroin Junkies With Rope

Dragnet breaks from the chatty pattern of the last few episodes with a genuine whodunit featuring Burt Mustin! Last time, he played an old time cat burglar. This time, he leads Friday and Gannon through solving the crime, but not without some measure of grief!

This episode also shows the body. In previous episodes, we have usually not seen the murder victim.
This time we find a body on Ralph Harmon's sister's rug. The actress looks nice, not unlike the time that real estate agent went missing.

Let's get to it - the second episode of Dragnet aired in 1969.


"This is the city -- Los Angeles, California. I work here. I carry a badge."


Oh, irony! A pan of the backlot facades and Jack's voice telling us that Joe Friday is looking out for the city…

Wait, What? Hold the phone? What is at the bottom of the frame?
Colonial Mansion? Yes! Look - it's another, perhaps the house built for the film Harvey?

Well, blink and you miss it; Joe's monologue is short this week!


Click to enlarge, or by accident. Whatever works. We're off; we've got a James Doherty murder to solve.

Well, a little new footage; a little old. - recycled establishing shot of the trendy, modern apartment house:


And a blink-and-you-miss-it Mustang! Because it's Dragnet!
In all seriousness, that must have been a fun day of shooting.

This time, it's standing in for 12206 Yeoman Avenue in central L.A. - 
They have to tell you it's central Los Angeles because it is yet another bunk address.

Gold carpet, gold walls, gold mirror, a sneaky plant, and a reflected Gannon:


Great new corridor set.

Holy crap - Way to get lurid in 1969 - - 


See?! It's Ralph's sister's rug!




Wool? Gosh, that's shaggy! Maybe it's not an actual flokati rug. I suppose it's just a regular shag rug.


Still! Now we have that rug problem solved.

Let's get on with the murder.




Lurid.








Hey! You can't be the latent prints guy! You're not Don Ross!


OK - Here is the actress we have to identify:


"Just like downtown."






Two sets of keys for a 1965 GTO.


"Whitsett's a bachelor."


Across the hall at Burt Mustin's place:


Burt Mustin gives printing advice to Len Wayland.


Murder in Malibu Cove!




Another trip down our handsome new corridor, sans plant:




Back to Burt Mustin's apartment so he can mess with Bill and Joe some more!

Great character. Once you know his secret, watching the episode again makes you smile…


"What's this? Martini time already?"





Great shot of Art Balinger.

Vincent Dee gave Burt a really cool outfit for his trip to Parker Center.


Jill Banner is back again - this time she's a heroin addict with a fall:


JILL YOUR FAKE HAIR LOOKS WEIRD



 


Trial was held on 20 January &c.


The suspect was found guilty of murder in the first degree and was sentenced to death.


Cletus Carl Martin

Now awaiting execution in the State Penitentiary, San Quentin, California.


The suspect was found guilty of second-degree murder.


Beverly Francis Long

Now serving a term of five years to life in the California Institution for Women, Corona, California.


The suspect was found guilty of robbery and assault.


Eve Stewart Wesson

Sentenced to a term of one to five years, is now confined to the California Institution for Women, Corona, California.

I suppose she would have gone through the unique horror of terminating her heroin habit in prison.
Her sentence does seem a bit tough considering that they had virtually no leads earlier in the episode, but I don't know the law; especially in California in the sixties!

Well, I guess if you're out and about, beware of heroin junkies with rope. 

S3e14

Starred
Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday
Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon
Burt Mustin as Calvin Lampe
Art Balinger as Captain Hugh Brown
Len Wayland as Officer Dave Dorman
Jill Banner as Eve Wesson
Alfred Shelly as Jack Swan
Don Ross as Glen

Additional Cast
______ as Dead Lady / Mary Jenkins
Lew Brown (?) as Blue Jumpsuit Man
______ as Don Ross' Helper (Man in suit.)
______ as Beverly Long
______ as Clete Martin

Art Direction - John E. Chilberg, II
Set Decor - John McCarthy & John Sturtevant
Costumes - Vincent Dee

Written by James Doherty

Aired 9 January 1969

I'm a hype and a prostitute, Sergeant, but I want no part of murder,
Suzy Dragnet

21 comments:

  1. Burt Mustin is just the best! And you are so right about his outfit. That plaid coat is to die for. And the felt hat. I would dress like that everyday if I had such cool, classic threads!

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    1. Hi Ron! I thought you forgot about me! ;)

      There is a podcast & web series called Put This On with Jesse Thorn that you may enjoy. It's men's fashion tips, but entertaining. Might get you started on the road to Burt Mustin's look.

      Thanks for dropping in,
      Suzy Dragnet

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  2. Suzy: You see the little bronze container behind the water glass? We have one just like that. It's Indian and we got it at an army navy store in Provincetown, Cape Cod, MA, on vacation one time. How 'bout them apples? KennyP

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    1. How about that! I love to travel.

      Thanks for sticking around,
      Suzy Dragnet

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  3. Burt Mustin really lights this one up... a great episode and one of my favorites!

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  4. Any chance that Cletus Carl Martin was a 20 year old Tom Berenger?

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    1. I don’t think that was Tom Berenger but I think it may be actor Bill Couch. In the scene at the end of Logan’s Run, The is a Sandman who is holding onto Jessica as the city’s computer interrogates Logan that looks a lot like Clevis.

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  5. Great episode. Friday and Gannon being played by a Yoda of detectives who already solved the case within minutes, was embarrassing, but amusing.

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  6. For a heroin junkie, she was pretty hot!

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  7. Can you imagine Webb telling the actress who played the victim what she was signing up for? We're going to gag you, hogtie you rather uncomfortably and you have to play dead. In 1967. And it's not porn. Wonder how many turned it down before they found this hottie? She actually plays dead very well, fetchingly even, but I have to wonder if this was actually Webb indulging his inner freak.

    All in all, a real treat of an episode thanks to Mr. Mustin.

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    1. Ummm, I kinda wondered that very thing! How do you tell an actress her only screen time will be playing dead and tied up in such lurid fashion (Suzy Dragnet nailed exactly the right word for this one: "lurid") How long did she have to lay there while lighting was being set up? Imagine trying to not breathe while the other actors are crouched around you delivering their lines... Wow.

      "Inner freak" that's a good one!

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    2. I'd have to think the dialog had very much to do with Jack Webb's unique style. At times, characters would repeat a phrase over and over. Here, Jill Banner's character keeps repeating the phrase, "I just felt sorry for her". She says it quite a number of times. I've noticed that little quirk in more than a few Dragnet episodes of having someone stuck on a phrase, as if it were their personal catch phrase.

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    3. I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking these things , for Such a stunning figure , I wonder why she doesn’t get a credit , I know in Hollywood BS rules only actors with speaking parts get credits , everyone else is a extra and zero credit. In this case that’s nonsense . Jack Webb is some kind of freak 10 years before this episode he married a young lady he casts as the main nurse in Emergemcy! 1970 , and quickly knocks her up 5 times, gets divorced and starts producing shows with sexy women . Hmmmm ( prime or Netflix has a doc about 15-20 women actresses we all know from major shows from the l90s-2000s they dish out the truth about directors and producers , they expect to receive “oral dictation” now imagine what freek jack Webb expected in the free love era 20 years before the 90s hint (just watch Mad Men ) lol poor girl didn’t get a credit ,

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    4. The Aug. 10, 2021 comment by someone above is inflammatory and inaccurate, and should be deleted by the moderator. Jack Webb and Julie London (the future Nurse Dixie) were married in 1947 -- 20 years before this Dragnet episode was produced, not 10. In their five years of marriage, they had two children, not five. She went on to marry Bobby Troupe, with whom she had three more children, as if that was even germane to this discussion. The general insinuations made about Webb being "some kind of freak" are groundless and offensive. I hope the moderator will delete the comment.

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  8. Also, Junkies and Rope sounds like the name of some alt-rock band or album.

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  9. Burt Mustin as Calvin Lampe makes this one of the top episodes for me. A wonderful character actor and will never be another like him.
    Thank you for your blog Suzy Dragnet

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  10. Burt Was the "Man" in this episode with that raspy voice and Wiley intelec 👍🐉

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  11. The trendy modern apartment house is still there! I drive by it every day on the way to work. It's at 4107 Los Feliz Blvd in Los Angeles. Just west of this one at 4455 Los Feliz is another apartment building used in Dragnet. I don't recall which episode, but I'm sure you'll recognize it.

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  12. They said in the episode that it was a 12-unit apartment building. Both the one shown above for the establishing shot and the one with the long Corridor are much bigger than 12 units.

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  13. Beverly Francis Long. “Francis” is traditionally male spelling, “Frances” is traditional female spelling.

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