During the 1950s, Dragnet was one of the most famous and successful television series. The series starred Jack Webb as hard-nosed Sgt. Joe Friday. The show was popular enough to give it a full-length feature film in 1954 with Jack Webb in his usual role, and also handled the directing chores.

The story is simple Sgt. Joe Friday (Webb) is out to solve the murder of a gangster. With assistance from his trusty partner, Officer Frank Smith (Ben Alexander, Western Gold) and a policewoman (Ann Robinson, War of the Worlds) they investigate. All roads lead to the killer apparently being Max Troy (Stacy Harris, His Kind of Woman). Friday is obsessed with Troy and is trying to put the murder wrap on him by following him around everywhere he goes. But is he the killer?  

Dragnet is a great hard-hitting crime thriller which has lots of action with a wild, bloody fist-fight scene and top-notch acting by the cast which includes Richard Boone (I Bury the Living), Virginia Gregg (Two on a Guillotine) and Vic Perrin (The Bubble). Jack Webb did a fantastic job in the directing department to make this movie a real blast.

Given a brand 2K Master on a dual-layered BD-50-disc courtesy of Kino Lorber, Dragnet looks strong on Blu-ray. The movie looks polished, smooth, with rich colors, especially reds. There was a bit of blotchiness to the image, but it did not deter from the viewing experience. Interiors and exteriors show a great amount of depth. Flesh tones look accurate with no DNR or any artificial enhancements were detected.  

English DTS-HD master audio 2.0 track is also flawless with dialog, noises and musical scores by Walter Schumann coming in loud and clear without drop-offs or any hissing sounds. Nothing came in neither too subdued nor too aggressive.  Optional English subtitles are available for this offering.

Dragnet comes loaded with a few extras. There is a commentary track by Film Historian Toby Roan where he talks about the film, the television series, Jack Webb and his career.

Another cool feature for Dragnet is that this release offers both the 1.75:1 and 1.37:1 versions of the film. Outside of the aspect ratios, the film looked and sounded the same in terms of audio and video quality.

Theatrical Trailers for Dragnet and The Sleeping City is the remaining extra for this package.

For those who own the television series there is no reason not to own the feature film on Blu-ray. The package should satisfy fans of Dragnet and those who love a good crime-thriller! Recommended!  

Dragnet

Director- Jack Webb

Cast- Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, Richard Boone

Country of Origin- US

Distributor – Kino Lorber

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date-12/5/20