User Reviews

In the 1950s, television was apprehensive to talk about child molestation and this is why "The Big Crime" is such an unusual episode of "Dragnet". The show begins with the police being alerted that 4 year-old twins had disappeared. A while later, the kids are found--but they'd been molested. Unfortunately, the kids weren't very reliable witnesses and Sergeant Friday and Officer Smith have little to go on to catch the perpetrator. Eventually they have a strong lead and it leads them to a mustached man who might fit the kids' description. And, ultimately, it leads to an amazingly violent finale.

This gritty show is among the better ones of the series. It is a pretty honest sort of portrayal of pedophiles and it's very chilling in many ways. If you do watch it, look for Virginia Christine (Mrs. Olson from the Folger's commercials) and Irene Tedrow (from "Dennis the Menace" and many other shows). Well worth seeing and creepy.

Friday and Smith take on the touchy subject of child-molestation, a pretty daring move for 50's TV. It's well handled in the customary low-key manner, implying the nature of the crime without detailing it. Notable for the presence of "coffee lady" Virginia Christine as the mother, and Paul Richards who specialized in emotionally troubled roles before an untimely death. (In the right role he could be quite scary.) The palm, however, goes to Jack Kruschen who runs a gamut of emotions in a brief period in convincing style. However, sending the offender to prison, as this episode does, raises the difficult problem of how to treat molesters since their behavior appears beyond conscious control. The episode doesn't take up the problem, but it remains one to this day. My one complaint-- the very last shot, which is held much too long, as though director Webb's camera is shouting, "Do you get it? Do you get it?" Yeah, Jack, we do.

"It was Saturday, August 8th, we were working the day watch out of juvenile division. My partner is Frank Smith. The boss is captain Powers. My name's Friday."

So begins the typical start of the famous Dragnet program. In this episode, Joe and Frank (Ben Alexander) are at the home of a mother of four-year-old twins who are missing. (The mother was played by Virginia Christine, who became famous for doing Folger's Coffee commercials!) Nowadays, these missing kids would be a big story but, oddly, Joe and Frank seem to pass it off as no big deal.

Shortly thereafter, they get a tip that an ice cream truck driver saw two little girls with a man. Our two cops talk to the vendor who describes where he saw the kids and a general description of the guy. More evidence pops up when a piece of torn clothing is found. Homicide joins the investigation. The girls are found, bruised a bit and molested and it's up to Joe and Frank and the police to find the abductor.

This was my first viewing, believe it or not, of Dragnet since I watched it as a kid in the '50s and later in the '60s when Henry Morgan was "Joe's" (Jack Webb) partner.

What was interesting here was that one of the suspects, a guy who had been arrested for child molestation in the past, looked and sounded exactly like a young Hal Linden of "Barney Miller" fame, but it wasn't him.

They did something they don't do anymore on crime shows - wasted about a minute showing the two cops just standing there listening to a real estate woman talk on the phone. It had nothing to do with the story, just killing time in this episode.

Overall, it was a "fair" episode, not as humorous as I remembered this show. I think there was more comedy later with Morgan. Then again, child molestation is hardly a humorous topic. I was shocked they even handled it on TV back in '54.