Herb Ellis Movies
- 1955
A teenage girl named Edna (played by a young Carolyn Jones) tells Sgt. Friday (Jack Webb) that her best friend Kathryn (Allene Roberts) is hooked on heroin. Kathryn's father (Malcolm Atterbury) is outraged by this accusation, insisting that the hypodermic marks on the girl's arms were administed by the family doctor to cure her allergies. Inevitably, however, the painful truth is revealed. Featured as one of Kathryn's "suppliers" is a pre-Adam 12 Martin Milner. This episode is based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of April 13, 1954. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Pete Kelly's Blues is arguably the most stylish of director/star Jack Webb's theatrical features. Beginning with a brilliantly evocative pre-credits prologue, wherein we see how WWI vet Pete Kelly (Webb) came into possession of his precious trumpet, the film traces Kelly to his 1927 gig at a Kansas City speakeasy. Most of the film concerns Kelly's efforts to keep his "Big Seven" aggregation together, his off-and-on romance with socialite Ivy Conrad (Janet Leigh), and his frequent confrontations with mob boss Fran McCarg (Edmond O'Brien). The Richard L. Breen screenplay is full of the deliciously hyperbolic allusions, similes, and metaphors that characterized Webb's radio version of Pete Kelly's Blues, while the musical score is graced by the jazz artistry of such greats as Ella Fitzgerald and Teddy Buckner. Peggy Lee, cast as a mob mistress who is rendered an imbecile after falling down a flight of stars, deservedly earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Likewise superb is Andy Devine, cast against type as a corrupt, brutal Kansas City detective, and Lee Marvin as Kelly's best pal. Disney art director Harper Goff, who'd been performing miracles on Webb's TV series Dragnet, brilliantly sustains the smoky zeitgeist of the Prohibition era. Pete Kelly's Blues was later spun off into a TV series starring William Reynolds as Kelly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Webb, Janet Leigh, (more)
- 1954
- NR
MGM romantic Robert Taylor turns nasty in this low-budget crime melodrama. Taylor plays a cop who subsidizes his income with bribes and payoffs from various criminals and politicians. Taylor's brother (Steve Forrest), a rookie on the police force, is as honest as his brother is crooked. The younger brother witnesses a gangland murder; the killer goes to Taylor, demanding that he buy his brother off. When he realizes that his brother can't be corrupted, Taylor tells the Mob to lay off. An out-of-town torpedo is brought in to rub out both brothers, but he succeeds only in killing the honest sibling. His conscience aroused, Taylor goes after the mob leaders himself; though seriously wounded, he clears his family name. Rogue Cop set something of a schedule record at MGM, with only four months elapsing from the time the story was optioned to the time the film was released. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Taylor, Janet Leigh, (more)
- 1954
At the height of the popularity of his Dragnet TV series, producer/director/star Jack Webb struck a deal with Warner Bros. to direct several feature films--the first of which, but of course, was 1954's Dragnet. This time around, the "true story" in which "only the names are changed to protect the innocent" involves the murder of former syndicate member Dub Taylor. LAPD sergeants Joe Friday (Webb) and Frank Smith (Ben Alexander) follow the trail of evidence to shifty gangster boss Stacy Harris, who during most of the film is able to avoid arrest through legal loopholes. Richard Boone plays Captain Hamilton, while Ann Robinson, best known for her screaming and scurrying about in War of the Worlds, plays policewoman Grace Downey. Most of the rest of the cast is drawn from Webb's TV and radio stock company, including Virginia Gregg, who is quite good as the amputee wife of the victim, and Vic Perrin, who would later portray the voyeuristic serial killer in the 1967 TV movie version of Dragnet. Some sources list Cliff Arquette as being in the cast of Dragnet, playing his familiar Charley Weaver character, but we can't find him. Dragnet has often been derided because of Joe Friday's reluctance to honor the civil liberties of his suspects, but remember that this was 1954, long before the "You have a right to remain silent" era. Webb's terse, tightly edited, close-up-dominated TV technique translates surprisingly well to the big screen. At its worst, Dragnet falls victim to the corny overkill of the TV version: the subtle-as-an-earthquake musical cues, Friday and Smith's ubiquitous nods and exchanged glances, etc. Still, Dragnet was a satisfying and profitable feature film directorial debut for Jack Webb, whose subsequent efforts included Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), The DI (1957), 30 (1959) and The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, (more)
- 1953
Friday (Joe Friday) and Smith (Ben Alexander) investigate when the body of 21-year-old Helen Corday, who has been bludgeoned to death with a tire iron, is found in a vacant lot. Unfortunately, the only clue is the footprint of a very popular brand of tennis shoe. After several dead-end interrogations and dozens of false leads, the detectives arrest Frank Larson (Stacy Harris), who has been caught in the act of attack a young babysitter. Even so, there isn't quite enough proof to put the noose around Larson's neck---obliging Joe and Frank to indulge in a neat bit of psychological warfare. This episode is based on one of the earliest Dragnet radio broadcasts, originally heard on July 7, 1949. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1952
Sgt. Friday (Jack Webb) is invited to deliver a speech before a high school assembly, detailing the pitfalls of drug addiction. Ironically, once the speech is over, Friday must exercise his authority and arrest a baby-faced young dope addict (played by a decidedly pre-Adam 12 Martin Milner. Based on a radio episode first heard on April 19, 1951, this version marks the only TV appearance of Joe Friday's mother, enacted by Helen Kleeb (who was all of thirteen years older than Jack Webb!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1952
In the most controversial Dragnet episode to date, Sgt. Friday (Jack Webb) must put off his Christmas vacation to investigate the disappearance of a boy named Stevie Martin. The missing youngster's best friend Stanley Johnstone (Sammy Ogg) tearfully comes forward, confessing that he has killed his playmate. Tragically, it turns out that Stanley is telling the truth--and the cause of it all is a .22. rifle which Stanley's father had bought him for a Christmas present. It is impossible not to be moved by the final scene in which Stevie's dad (Bill Johnstone) comes to grips with his son's death. Although the original radio version of ".22. Rifle for Christmas" (first heard on December 22, 1949) incurred the wrath of the National Rifle Association, Jack Webb received so much positive response for the episode that he insisted upon filming a TV adaptation for telecast just before Christmas Week of 1952--whereupon he was again subject to criticism, this time for depicting a dead child on screen! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1952
It's a tough shift for Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Herb Ellis) as they work the Accident Detail on the eve of the July 4th weekend. Out of dozens of traffic accidents, the two detectives focus on three "standouts". The first involves a bunch of teenagers (ages 12 through 16), all of whom are seriously injured or worse after plowing into a car driven by an elderly couple--no thanks to the irresponsible father of the boy who'd been driving. The second case concerns an elderly drunk (played by Cliff Arquette of "Charley Weaver" fame) who has a habit of faking injuries so he can hitch an ambulance ride. Finally, motorcycle officer Mike O'Brien is stuck and killed while chasing a drunk driver--and it falls to Mike's old friend Friday to break the news to the dead officer's fiancee (Virginia Gregg). This episode is based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of July 3, 1952. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1952
Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Herb Ellis) investigate the trashing of a movie theater by a gang of teenagers. In typical Dragnet fashion, it turns out that the kids were all high on marijuana. Harold Everson Sr. (Willis Bouchey), the father of youthful drug pusher Hal Everson (Edwin Bruce), refuses to believe that his son is guilty of anything other than high spirits--but the boy ends up proving his Dad wrong in a spectaculary violent fashion. This episode is based on the Dragnet radio program first heard on September 6, 1951. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1952
Joe Friday (Jack Webb) and Frank Smith (here played by Herb Ellis) arrive at a hospital to investigate the discovery of a dead body in an elevator. The decedent is an unidentified woman in a wheelchair--and at the moment, there is no known cause for her death, nor any suspects. The detectives get their first tangible clue when someone calls the hospital asking about the health of a patient named "Mrs. Cheswick"--for whom there is no record of admission. In the original radio version of this episode (first heard on April 24, 1952), Friday's partner was played by Martin Milner, some two decades before Milner was cast in the Jack Webb-produced cop series Adam-12. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1952
This episode is based on the Dragnet radio broadcast of December 27, 1951, which was originally written to acknowledge the death of Jack Webb's costar Barton Yarborough. The TV version opens as Joe Friday (Webb) mourns the loss of his longtime partner Ben Romero (the role played by Yarbrough), who has succumbed to a sudden heart attack. But Friday recovers sufficiently to team with a new partner, Frank Smith, and search for a pair of holdup men who have escaped to a desolate patch of farmland on the L.A. County border. The role of Frank Smith is played in this and several other episodes by Herb Ellis; the "real" Smith, Ben Alexander, would not join the series for several weeks to come. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1952
Season Two of the original TV version of Dragnet begins with an episode adapted from a Dragnet radio program first heard on January 11, 1951. Sgt. Joe Friday (Jack Webb) is dispatched to a high-rise LA office building, where psychiatric patient Walter Harrison (Paul Richards) is threatening to jump off a ledge. All efforts to coax Harrison back into the building have failed--indeed, it appears as though the man is willing to kill anyone who tries to stop him. Can Friday defuse the situation with some improvised "reverse psychology." Herb Ellis appears as Sgt. Eugene J. Bechtel, the actual name of a detective who worked on the case which inspired this episode. Also appearing is Milburn Stone, Gunsmoke's future "Doc", as Captain Lohrman (a role ironically played by Stone's future Gunsmoke costar Dennis Weaver in the 1954 theatrical-movie version of Dragnet). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
