You can't say there wasn't much happening in this one. At the beginning, Dan receives an anonymous phone call saying that a crime boss under scrutiny, Johnny Barr, is about to have someone killed. He refused to say who and hung up.
As they did a few times in this series, they were able to trace the call even though the caller was off the line in well less than a minute. Most shows of this era, or decades later, make it clear they need much more than a minute to trace a call. I guess ol' Dan's boys were super-efficient. I loved it when the caller hung up on Dan and he immediately turned to the man who was writing down the information about where the call came from, I think, rushing him, "come on, come on, what have you got?" Then Dan groused when he learned it came from a pay phone because that wouldn't do him any good.
Shortly afterward, where that phone booth was DID do him some good, helping him to come to figure who made the call. He also was helped by some amazing guesswork, that because of a couple of words used by the caller, it couldn't have been a hoodlum, but some well-educated man. Dan almost immediately decided it must be the bookkeeper for Barr, a man named Powers, and Dan immediately puts Powers life in jeopardy by going to talk to him in person, in public.
He gets a reluctant man to admit he made the call, but he explained that he had no idea who was going to be killed. However, that night, his office was being used by Barr for a meeting and Powers figured he'd be able to learn for sure who the victim was.
Dan's man bugged the office with a fairly large microphone place in some bookshelves right behind the man's desk-in easy view for our camera and likely pretty easy to spot by the bad guys-but they didn't. So Dan & Co. And Powers all learned that the victim was a U. S. Senator whose anti-crime commission was about to hold hearings where Barr was one of the hoods they were going to try to take down.
Now we spent nearly half the episode just to learn what might have been suspected all the time. I could see Dragnet wanting the same second half but just beginning with Friday explaining that he and a team were assigned to protect the life of a senator en route to a big meeting where putting organized gangsters behind bars was the goal. It would be Joe's job to make sure nothing happened to the senator. This might have been a better Highway Patrol had they not spent so much time with figuring out who the intended victim was.
As they did one or two other times later in this series, they kept the viewers in the dark about the actual plan. All we know is that we heard that Dan and the senator were in the middle car, unmarked, with two patrol cars, one in front and one behind, escorting the senators. At one point, they did a cool switch with the plain car turning off and being replaced in the line by another car to draw the bad guys away from the real senator.
We saw many scenes of Dan on a special telephone in the back of the unmarked car, getting information and barking orders for how to proceed. At one point, the bad guys seemed to be winning when they used a truck to block the road at just the right moment, and were able to get off some shots. But Dan and his men fired back and took out the bad guys in that scene. Then we learned about the big trick at the end-which I have no need to reveal here, and saw how the forces of right and good triumphed once again.
The biggest problem I had was that this accountant who was never involved in any of the gang's crimes, would never be allowed to sit in on the big meeting where who is to be killed is discussed. If all he does is the crook's books, they wouldn't clue him in on other business. I really don't see them using his office, but if they did for some reason, they'd make sure he was far from the building while they were meeting. And however honest or not he was, he'd surely prefer it that way-the less he knows, the safer he is.
Frankly, if the senator leading this committee was killed right before investigating criminal X, it would seem whoever takes over for the senator would be even more determined than ever to bring X to justice. And the public, upset about the death of the senator, would be clamoring for the police to take action. Killing the senator seems like a dumb stunt for Barr. He should have tried to silence any witness that could damage him and not worried about the senator.
I have two side notes: One of the hoods was played by veteran Three Stooges semi-regular Emil Sitka. Also on a couple of occasions I thought Dan's great plan was going to backfire because one of the vehicles he was relying on was "Car 54." I would have rolled on the floor laughing had he not gotten a response from that police car on his radio and called out, "Car 54...where are you?"
So some parts were pretty good, others not so. I guess we're left with a 7.
As they did a few times in this series, they were able to trace the call even though the caller was off the line in well less than a minute. Most shows of this era, or decades later, make it clear they need much more than a minute to trace a call. I guess ol' Dan's boys were super-efficient. I loved it when the caller hung up on Dan and he immediately turned to the man who was writing down the information about where the call came from, I think, rushing him, "come on, come on, what have you got?" Then Dan groused when he learned it came from a pay phone because that wouldn't do him any good.
Shortly afterward, where that phone booth was DID do him some good, helping him to come to figure who made the call. He also was helped by some amazing guesswork, that because of a couple of words used by the caller, it couldn't have been a hoodlum, but some well-educated man. Dan almost immediately decided it must be the bookkeeper for Barr, a man named Powers, and Dan immediately puts Powers life in jeopardy by going to talk to him in person, in public.
He gets a reluctant man to admit he made the call, but he explained that he had no idea who was going to be killed. However, that night, his office was being used by Barr for a meeting and Powers figured he'd be able to learn for sure who the victim was.
Dan's man bugged the office with a fairly large microphone place in some bookshelves right behind the man's desk-in easy view for our camera and likely pretty easy to spot by the bad guys-but they didn't. So Dan & Co. And Powers all learned that the victim was a U. S. Senator whose anti-crime commission was about to hold hearings where Barr was one of the hoods they were going to try to take down.
Now we spent nearly half the episode just to learn what might have been suspected all the time. I could see Dragnet wanting the same second half but just beginning with Friday explaining that he and a team were assigned to protect the life of a senator en route to a big meeting where putting organized gangsters behind bars was the goal. It would be Joe's job to make sure nothing happened to the senator. This might have been a better Highway Patrol had they not spent so much time with figuring out who the intended victim was.
As they did one or two other times later in this series, they kept the viewers in the dark about the actual plan. All we know is that we heard that Dan and the senator were in the middle car, unmarked, with two patrol cars, one in front and one behind, escorting the senators. At one point, they did a cool switch with the plain car turning off and being replaced in the line by another car to draw the bad guys away from the real senator.
We saw many scenes of Dan on a special telephone in the back of the unmarked car, getting information and barking orders for how to proceed. At one point, the bad guys seemed to be winning when they used a truck to block the road at just the right moment, and were able to get off some shots. But Dan and his men fired back and took out the bad guys in that scene. Then we learned about the big trick at the end-which I have no need to reveal here, and saw how the forces of right and good triumphed once again.
The biggest problem I had was that this accountant who was never involved in any of the gang's crimes, would never be allowed to sit in on the big meeting where who is to be killed is discussed. If all he does is the crook's books, they wouldn't clue him in on other business. I really don't see them using his office, but if they did for some reason, they'd make sure he was far from the building while they were meeting. And however honest or not he was, he'd surely prefer it that way-the less he knows, the safer he is.
Frankly, if the senator leading this committee was killed right before investigating criminal X, it would seem whoever takes over for the senator would be even more determined than ever to bring X to justice. And the public, upset about the death of the senator, would be clamoring for the police to take action. Killing the senator seems like a dumb stunt for Barr. He should have tried to silence any witness that could damage him and not worried about the senator.
I have two side notes: One of the hoods was played by veteran Three Stooges semi-regular Emil Sitka. Also on a couple of occasions I thought Dan's great plan was going to backfire because one of the vehicles he was relying on was "Car 54." I would have rolled on the floor laughing had he not gotten a response from that police car on his radio and called out, "Car 54...where are you?"
So some parts were pretty good, others not so. I guess we're left with a 7.
