User Reviews

Lee Marvin stars in "The Big Cast" as a psycho--a cold and dangerous psycho. The show begins with Sergeants Friday and Jacobs knocking on Henry Ross' door. Ross (Marvin) responds by belting the officers--Joe Friday returns the favor and then some. In the original "Dragnet" series, such altercations and blood were not that unusual--such a scene never would have appeared in the more sanitized late 60s version.

The reason the police are looking for Ross is that he seems like the man likely to have killed a missing man. While they cannot yet find a body, Ross clearly is implicated. But, through most of the episode, the police interview goes no where and Ross just seems to like the attention. Eventually, Ross spills his guts...and the one murder is just the tip of the iceberg! Lee Marvin is a great guest villain. He's likable at times yet also very cold and disturbing--as he should be. This show is an excellent portrait of evil--and you can't help but feel a bit uncomfortable looking at a guy who kills just for nickels and dimes--petty stuff. Well worth seeing.

DRAGNET "The Big Cast" 1952

This is the 5th episode of the 283 episode run of the Police Detective series, DRAGNET. This series ran from 1951 to 59.

Sgt Joe Friday (Jack Webb) and Detective Ed Jacobs (Barney Philips) are working the night watch out of Homicide Division. They are checking out the possible murder of a man who had gone missing 6 months earlier. Through tracking the missing man's movements they had come up with a suspect. Said suspect, Lee Marvin, is found at a fleabag hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

When the detectives move in to question the man, they are met by a less than friendly round of flying fists. Once Marvin is subdued, he is hauled off to the station for a few rounds of third degree.

This is only two years into Marvin's Hollywood career and he gives an outstanding performance. The back and forth between Webb and Marvin is truly excellent. It was writing like this that made DRAGNET the best Police procedural of early television. Marvin's own series, M-SQUAD was another top flight Police drama.

This is an episode well worth hunting up just to see Marvin.

This is a pretty intense episode. A 28 years old (or so) Lee Marvin plays a very cool character in this episode as an accused murderer. Friday and crew play a slow cat-and-mouse game with this wily creep,and try to get him to confess to a few murders. Marvin's character meanwhile denies everything in a convincing manner. What will happen? Watch and see! Crazy-creepy-funny!!

Lee Marvin gives an incredible performance as a psychotic killer. In the previous three years about 12 men who were driving north from LA disappeared. Sgt. Friday and his partner want to find out what happened to them.

They are specifically investigating the disappearance of the last one, who left LA for the small farming town of Oakdale. Six months of investigation reveal that the last person to see him was a longshoreman played by Lee Marvin. Sgt. Friday and his partner track him down to a small boarding house in LA.

When they knock on the door Marvin slams in in their faces and they break in and a fight erupts. Virtually the entire show is a cat and mouse conversation between the cops and the killer. Finally the killer asks to go to Helga's Health Store where they have healthy sandwiches. The killer confesses and they show ends with the announcement that the killer was executed by lethal gas in San Quentin.

This episode of Dragnet is one of the first performances by Lee Marvin and he is mesmerizing and the psychotic kill who has killed twelve men and has no real concern of what he does in his live. Marvin's killer is incredibly low key and denies all to the detectives who are sure that he is the killer but do not have enough evidence to pin the crime on him.

If you want to see why Dragnet is a memorable show and why Lee Marvin became a big star watch this episode. My only question is what the title "The Big Cast" is referring too.

Review - The Big Cast Aired 2-14-52 This was a mediocre episode at best, boring with few locations, i.e. hotel room, interrogation room, diner and no action after the hotel room fight. It is always good to see Lee Marvin, but I would prefer him in M Squad.

The premise is Friday, Jacobs have chased down their number one suspect to a four-month-old homicide, they take him into custody, after a skirmish it his flea-bag hotel room. Continued grilling, a polygraph proving what they already know, the suspect lies, and letting the suspect ramble on about other homicides he purports he has read magazines concerning these killings. They buy the man lunch, get nothing. After the lie-detector test, he wants to eat that evening, saying he will tell the officers of the murder at dinner. He admits to several killings, mainly the murder they are currently investigating. He offers no excuse for the recent killing; just cold blooded murder.

Watching the big cast is cumbersome. Three guys sitting in a room or worse watch Lee Marvin eat is not entertaining. Some might enjoy, I found it tedious at best.