User Reviews

DRAGNET – "The Big Dance" – 1953 - Detectives Jack Webb and Ben Alexander are working out of the Robbery Division this time. They get a call about a rather vicious hold-up. They pay a visit to the victims as they are being hauled off to the hospital.

The hold up seems to be the work of a couple of young thugs that have been at it for a week or so. They enter a store, pistol whip the staff and take off with the till contents.

The Detectives sift through the clues and come up with several possible suspects. These lead nowhere except to a man already in custody. Some "friendly" questioning soon develops some further suspects.

The suspect's photos are shown to the store-owners, and two of them are soon identified. Webb and Alexander stake out the rooms of one of the thugs and wait. After 6-7 hours they call in about some food. They are then told that the two suspects, Vic Rodman and Russ Saunders, have just been grabbed trying to hit a small store.

Webb and Alexander return to the Station to question the two gunmen.

Good little episode on the everyday life of a Police Detective in the big city.

(b/w) The episode was directed by Webb, and the d of p was Ed Colmann.

Review - The Big Dance Airing 6-25-53 Last of Season For the first five minutes Smith is attempting to prepare Sunday breakfast for both he and Friday while discussing the brutal assaults perpetrated by the two hoodlums; this was not filler, simply a twist to the usual precinct openings.

An exceptional episode for a non-homicide, this time Robbery Division, filled with enough intrigue to make it watchable. Friday, Smith spend a lot of time pounding the pavement searching for the two thugs assaulting people and robbing them. Some tips proved to be dead ends, mistaken identity, usually, but all leads had to be checked.

The initial victims are brutally attacked robbing a newsstand, pop stand. The man identifies the assailant later on, helping Friday, Smith to establish half of who they are looking for around town. A matchbook with names written inside, lead to a man jailed, who in turn helps identify one of the suspects. The other suspect is nabbed in an holdup, the man at large is identified by a former girlfriend. Friday, Smith stake out her employer for the suspect at large. Hours after pulling another job, the remaining suspect visits his old girlfriend. Friday, Smith catch him escaping, including gunfire, out the back way with Friday shooting him to slow down his exit. The episode focused on the leg work necessary by police to apprehend criminals. Tips are created by informing the public, which result in apprehending the bad guys, sometimes. Gene Reynolds makes his only Dragnet appearance acting. Gene is known for the directing-producing work he did later in his Hollywood career. The episode was well acted throughout and a worthwhile watch.

San Quentin is a perfect place for these guys; assaulting people then robbing them gets time in the big house; justice served.

The case in "The Big Dance" involves some nasty armed robbers. At first, their only clue is a matchbook but eventually they learn the baddies might be Gunther and Reimers--two very tough characters.

In most episodes of "Dragnet" and other police shows, the focus is always on solving a particular crime. However, in "The Big Dance" you see other sides to an investigation---such as the officers making breakfast, taking a dinner break and finding out that OTHER officers caught one of their suspects! But, it also is full of the usual excitement and in an unusual twist, Friday himself shoots the other suspect. Because it shows such a wide range of activities, I think it's a bit better than average for the series. Well worth your time.