Dragnet (1987): A Review (Review #2005)

DRAGNET

This review is part of the Summer Under the Stars Blogathon. Today's star is Christopher Plummer.

As both an homage and a spoof of the television show the film is based on, Dragnet knows enough to play the situations straight while also being a bit camp. Funny and self-aware, Dragnet balances the conflicting manners to full effect.

Los Angeles Police Department Sergeant Joe Friday (Dan Aykroyd) is a throwback to his uncle and namesake's era of police detective. Square-jawed, by-the-book, in full suit and fedora, Sergeant Friday loves the law and sticks to following every LAPD rule and procedure which he can quote down to the decimal. His newest case involves a series of thefts where the main clue is a literal calling card. A shadowy organization calling itself PAGAN leaves them at the scene of their crimes. Their most recent caper involves burning every copy of Bait Magazine, an adult publication run by publisher Jerry Caesar (Dabney Colman). 

Sgt. Friday is openly disdainful of Bait and everything connected to it. Not so is his newest partner, Pep Streebek (Tom Hanks). Low-key, sexually promiscuous and openly sarcastic, Streebek is everything Friday finds appalling about current police officers. Streebek, unlike Friday, is thrilled to go to the Caesar palace. Despite the targeting of Caesar's empire, this is supposed to be an auspicious moment for Caesar and his company. Bait Magazine is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with a lavish party and a reunion of all former Baitmates (the women featured in Bait Magazine) at Caesar's pleasure palace.

One person who would not like to see a Bait Magazine 26th Anniversary is Reverend Jonathan Whirley (Christopher Plummer). Whirley is the head of MAMA: The Moral Advance Movement of America, who is leading a crusade against the depravity in the City of Angels. Ostensibly on his side is Police Commissioner Jane Kirkpatrick (Elizabeth Ashley), who has her eyes on the Mayor's Office. She also wants a stop to the PAGAN crime wave. That crime wave reaches a climax when, thanks to the information obtained through PAGAN member and Caesar's driver Emil Muzz (Jack O'Halloran), Friday and Streebek come upon a PAGAN festival. This festival of People Against Goodness And Normalcy (P.A.G.A.N.) will culminate in the sacrifice of a young woman referred to as "the Virgin Connie Swail" (Alexandra Paul).

To the irritation of Kirkpatrick and exasperation of LAPD Captain Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan), Friday and Streebek appear to be both incompetent and insane in their PAGAN investigation. Eventually, when the Virgin Connie Swail identifies Whirley as the PAGAN High Priest who threw her into a pit containing a venomous snake, Kirkpatrick orders Gannon to suspend Friday. However, could Whirley actually be in cahoots with Caesar in a scheme to force out current LA Mayor Parvin (Bruce Gray) and get Kirkpatrick in? Are there double crosses and attempted gas poisonings about to happen? Will the Virgin Connie Swail remain so by the film's end?

Dragnet works because while it has fun with its plot, it still shows that it has a fondness for the original television show and its lead character. Joe Friday in Dragnet is not so much a buffoon as he is an anachronism, a cop from a bygone era in the mold of his late uncle. Friday may be almost psychotic in his devotion to law enforcement and a stickler for strict procedure. He is also at heart a decent, caring and honest man, effective at his job and thoroughly unflappable. Joe Friday is not a fool or an idiot. He has an understanding that not everyone will have the same views and methods that he holds even if he does not approve of said views and methods. In certain ways, Joe Friday is almost insanely tolerant of people no matter how awful or oddball they may be. 

Streebek is the most extreme example of someone who would find Friday maddening and vice versa. Friday to his credit is not cruel to Streebek or responds to Streebek's openly contemptuous manner in the same way. Instead, from Friday's perspective, he is trying to get Streebek to be a good police officer. The interplay between Aykroyd's Friday and Hanks' Streebek works well, making Dragnet into a solid buddy/cop comedy. 

Of particular note is when they go to Caesar's estate to get a report from the publisher. Pep is thrilled to meet Sylvia Wiss (Julia Jennings), the very first Baitmate. She clearly has designs on Sgt. Friday and has no problem disrobing in front of him, asking him if he thought her breasts were in any way inferior for a 43-year-old woman. Streebek is startled and aroused. Friday is equally startled, but he also maintains his composure at this bit of sexual harassment. In Aykroyd's staccato delivery (another throwback to the television show), he informs Wiss that he thinks that she has breasts bordering on the spectacular. It is in Aykroyd's perfectly rat-a-tat delivery and facial expression that makes this scene even funnier than it already is. 

Dragnet takes elements of the television show and elevates them to exaggerated but well-meaning levels. Friday's detailed narration, down to pointing out the exact time and his at times florid turns of phrases, are funny. One cannot help but laugh whenever Friday refers to his main witness as "the virgin Connie Swail". It is technically correct, but Friday not realizing how bizarre it sounds makes it all the funnier. At the PAGAN festival, the High Priest calls forth the virgin. "I don't like the sound of that," Friday says. "Let's just hope that they aren't referring to you," is Streebek's deadpan response. 

Earlier, they investigated a group of thefts at the Los Angeles Zoo. Among the thefts was a lion's mane, leaving the poor animal with a Mohawk. When Friday sadly but firmly tells Streebek who is going to tell the disappointed kids about how the lion looks, Streebek looks directly at the kids and tells them, "It'll grow back!". To Friday's surprise and chagrin, the kids cheer the news. At heart, Friday and Streebek work well together and even compliment the other. Friday, for example, acknowledges that the strip club that Streebek took him to does indeed have good coffee. 

Over and over again, Aykroyd's manner in how he can be so straightforward no matter how whacked-out the situations Friday finds himself in sells the comedy. Today, it may be hard to remember when Tom Hanks was not seen as this great dramatic actor but as a good comic one. Long before he was hailed for his consecutive Best Actor Oscar wins, Hanks was known mostly for a slew of overtly silly comedies like Bachelor Party and The Money Pit. In Dragnet, his Pep Streebek is in the early Hanks manner: the offbeat, goofy man who is taking little if anything seriously.  He has a great sarcastic manner that makes Pep likeable. He also has a nice bit of physical comedy when he is frenetically explaining how they had dived into a massive pit to stop a snake from eating both them and the virgin. 

Dragnet has some very respectable actors playing things for farce. Dabney Colman was a true thespian underappreciated in his lifetime. His Jerry Caesar, with some kind of vaguely Southern drawl, is hilarious in his manner. Blunt, goofy and easily taken in, Jerry Caesar is a fun and funny character. His final scene where he escapes the attempted assassination with a couple of beauties shows Colman knew to be exaggerated without looking idiotic. Elizabeth Ashley is appropriately exaggerated as Commissioner Kirkpatrick, plotting with Whirley to take power. With her husky voice and at times grandiose mannerisms (as well as some wild millinery choices), Ashley also shows she knows Dragnet is meant as a lark.

The big surprise is Christopher Plummer as the Reverend Jonathan Whirley. Like Hanks, Plummer will be a future Oscar winner. Here, his Whirley is openly insincere and exaggerated. Whether railing at the moral depravity that he secretly approves of to maintain his coffers full through donations to combat said depravity or playing others for fools, Plummer is having a ball being delightfully wicked. When presenting the human sacrifice to his PAGAN fools, Plummer recites a chant. "Evil bringeth hear our plea. She's as pure as she can be. White and clean as driven snow, from Orange County, here we go!" No one can recite such crazy lines with a mix of menace and mirth unless they knew that this was meant to be over-the-top.

Plummer does so well because he knows Whirley is a cartoon. When he is about to flee the country with the Virgin Connie Swail as his prisoner, Friday tells him that Whirley's mad scheme is doomed to fail. "Ah, sure, but just like every foaming rabid psycho in this city will a foolproof plan, you've forgotten you're facing the single finest fighting force ever assembled". With a comically puzzled face, Whirley responds in a slightly confused manner, "The Israelis?".  

In a nice touch, Harry Morgan reprises his role from the television series. This ties Dragnet the show to Dragnet the film. It also allows for some nice character building. Morgan and Aykroyd have some nice moments where Gannon attempts to guide his late partner's nephew into not letting his zeal get the best of him. Sometimes his irritation at Friday's manner is evident, such as when he rolls his eyes at Friday bemoaning how the citizens of Los Angeles will be disappointed that his partner retired suddenly.

The script by Aykroyd, Alan Zweibel and director Tom Mankiewicz is funny and also affectionate to the source material. It also has some wild and perhaps unrecognized elements. In what initially appears as a throwaway line and a joke, the opening narration states that the story is real, but the names were changed to protect the innocent. "For example, George Baker is now Sylvia Wiss". This sets the tone for the comedy that Dragnet is. 

However, the film actually features a character named "Sylvia Wiss". That character is the very first Baitmate who made the moves on Sergeant Friday. IF we go by what we were told in the narration, we could conclude that the woman with the spectacular breasts that disrobed in front of Friday and Streebek is really George Baker. It lends Dragnet a wild scenario that people watching might not think of. 

Dragnet does drag by the end, and it has a very illogical conclusion even for something this frothy. The Reverend and the Virgin are apprehended in the air by an LAPD fighter jet. While the Los Angeles Police Department having a fighter jet is part of the film's goofiness, wouldn't Whirley and Swail have long been in Mexico if they fled in the middle of the night? How far is the flight from Los Angeles into Mexican territory? 

I have a certain affection for Dragnet separate from my enjoyment of the film whenever I see it. Dragnet was one of my Mom's favorite films. I do not think that she ever saw the television show. However, she always found the line, "Thank God it's Friday!" hilarious. Funny and affectionate, Dragnet is fully aware without trying to ridicule the source material. Dragnet is a good enjoyable romp, and those are just the facts. 

DECISION: B-