Barton Yarborough Movies

The television saga of Jack Webb's Dragnet (the original, black and white version, that is) began on December 16, 1951, with a film adaptation of a radio episode first heard on July 21, 1949. Sgt. Joe Friday (Webb) and his partner Ben Romero (Barton Yarborough) are summoned to Los Angeles City Hall, where Vernon Carney (Stacy Harris) is threatening to destroy the building with a homemade bomb unless his brother Ellwood (Sam Edwards) is immediately released from jail. There's an especially thrilling climax as Friday races downstairs with the ticking bomb in his hands--and Romero's closing line is a gem! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"The story you are about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent." Thus began each and every episode of Dragnet, arguably the most famous police series in TV history. Originating in 1949 as a radio series, Dragnet was the brainchild of actor/producer/director Jack Webb, who wanted to give the public a tense, unglamorized, and realistic crime series as a contrast -- and an antidote -- to the myriad of fanciful and streamlined private eye shows then festering the airwaves. In the radio version, Webb established the series' documentary-style format, its meticulous attention to detail (extending to the use of authentic police jargon and acronyms, à la "A.P.B.," "M.O.," "R&I," etc.), and the flat, monotonic narration of the series' protagonist, Sergeant Joe Friday of the LAPD. ("My name's Friday. I'm a cop.") Also introduced in the radio Dragnet was the series' now-legendary theme music ("Dum-de-DUM-dum"), written by Walter Schumann. On December 16, 1951, with the radio version still flourishing, the filmed, half-hour TV version of Dragnet premiered on NBC, initially alternating weekly with Gang Busters. Jack Webb continued to play the leading role of Sgt. Joe Friday (under protest -- he'd wanted Lloyd Nolan to star in the TV adaptation), with Barton Yarborough repeating his radio characterization of Friday's partner, Sgt. Ben Romero. After Yarborough's death, several other actors were tried out as Friday's partner until Ben Alexander joined the cast as Officer Frank Smith, a role he'd hold down for the duration of the series.

Dragnet proved so successful that NBC decided to offer it on a weekly basis beginning in the fall of 1952. Before long, virtually everyone in the country was humming the series' theme song and repeating its catchphrases ("This is the city," "Just the facts, ma'am," et al.); and in a curious accolade, the series was satirized in Stan Freberg's unforgettable record "St. George and the Dragonet."Throughout Dragnet's eight-season TV run, Jack Webb upheld the series' lofty standards and high level of verisimilitude, even though he grew weary of doing triple duty as producer, director, and star early on, and sought escape in a variety of outside ventures, including such theatrical features as Pete Kelly's Blues and The D.I., and such non-Dragnet TV series as Noah's Ark and The D.A.'s Man. Nevertheless, Dragnet proved to be Webb's signature project, even more so when the property was converted into a high-grossing theatrical film in 1954. By the time the series entered its final season in 1958, Sgt. Joe Friday had been promoted to lieutenant, a ratings-boosting move that Webb wasn't overly fond of; also, the series switched from black-and-white to color (though current prints of the final season are in monochrome only).

After Dragnet's cancellation on September 6, 1959, Jack Webb all but retired from acting to focus on producing and directing, hoping to leave Joe Friday far behind him, even though the character had won him the undying devotion of hundreds of thousands of real-life police officers. However, after several fallow years, Webb was persuaded by NBC and Universal Pictures to revive his most famous character in a made-for-TV movie version of Dragnet, filmed in 1966. So impressed were the network and studio executive by the results that they commissioned Webb to revive Dragnet as a weekly series, which debuted January 12, 1967, as an emergency replacement for the failing NBC sitcom The Hero (the movie-length Dragnet was subsequently shelved, and not broadcast until 1969). Except for the fact that it was filmed entirely in color, the new series closely adhered to the format of the original, with Joe Friday (inexplicably demoted back to sergeant) working out of various LAPD divisions -- homicide, robbery, missing persons -- and working on cases culled from actual police files. Also, each episode began with the "true story" disclaimer, and ended with a wrap-up of the convictions visited upon the perpetrators, book-ended by the classic Walter Schumann theme music and the closing shot of a muscular pair of hands chiseling out the Mark VII logo signifying Webb's production company. With Ben Alexander busy with another cop series, The Felony Squad, Friday took on a new partner, Sgt. Bill Gannon, played by Harry Morgan. Although many of the supporting actors were culled from Jack Webb's familiar radio and TV stock company -- Virginia Gregg, Vic Perrin, Peggy Webber, and Harry Bartell to name but a few -- with rare exceptions, the revived Dragnet dealt with brand-new stories focusing on such contemporary issues as racial prejudice, the generation gap, and (especially) drug abuse. With each successive season re-titled to signify the year of its telecast (Dragnet: 1967, Dragnet: 1968, etc.), the new Dragnet remained on NBC until September 10, 1970, its 98 episodes enjoying even more success in syndicated and cable TV reruns than the rebroadcasts of the original series (which had been in syndication since 1953 under the title Badge 714). Since Jack Webb's death in 1982, Dragnet has been revived twice with different actors, first as a syndicated series in 1989, then as an ABC weekly (starring Ed O'Neill as Joe Friday) in 2003. In addition, the series was lampooned in the 1987 theatrical release Dragnet, starring Dan Aykroyd as Joe Friday's soundalike nephew, and with Harry Morgan recreating his role as Bill Gannon! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The popular wartime catchphrase "Kilroy Was Here" was affixed to this minor campus comedy. Jackie Cooper plays peripatetic ex-sailor John J. Kilroy, who is assumed to be the Kilroy. Once John finds himself in college on the GI bill, he finds that his fame is also a curse: none of the "right" people want anything to do with him because of his WW2 notoriety. Even worse, John insists upon retaining his friendship with navy buddy Pappy Collins (Jackie Coogan), a "lowly" cabdriver. By film's end, of course, Kilroy and Collins have washed their hands of the campus snobs, but not before several slapsticky complications. At the time of its release, Kilroy Was Here was exploited on the basis of its teaming of former child stars Cooper and Coogan, who work together quite well consider the material they're given. Not unlike 1946's Snafu, Kilroy Was Here ran into some censorship trouble because of the sexual connotations of its inspiration (a line drawing of a face, with a phallic nose resting between two ball-shaped cheeks!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Idea Girl in this Universal mini-musical is songplugger Pat O'Rourke (played by Julie Bishop, formerly Jacqueline Wells). Hoping to hit the big time, Pat pitches the notion of an amateur song-writing contest. Her zany publicity-seeking efforts cause nothing but grief for a group of Manhattan-based song publishers, foremost among them handsome but harried Larry Brewster (Jess Barker). As a means of enlivening the proceedings, director Will Jason utilizes a more mobile camera than was usual in quickies of this nature. Featured in the cast as a curvaceous secretary is Joan Fulton, later to metamorphose into the delightful character actress Joan Shawlee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this typical Vera Vague 2-reel comedy, the scatterbrained Vera mistakes a stage magician, Bluebeard the Great (Barton Yarborough), for a murderer.The "victim," as it turns out, was merely a dummy and part of the act. Not one of the Columbia short subject department's better efforts, Hiss and Yell was nevertheless nominated for an Academy Award in the short subject category, the second Vera Vague farce so honored. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) heads south of the border in this so-so series entry. With the help of Mexican police official Luis (Fortunio Bonanova), Chan looks high and low for a stolen atomic-bomb formula. The oriental detective is also "aided" by his son Tommy (Benson Fong) and his chauffeur Chattanooga (Willie Best, subbing for Mantan Moreland) two of the most inept assistants in the history of the movies. The gimmick in this film is a mysterious murder weapon which seemingly disappears from the face of the earth the moment it has been used. Though more expensive looking than most of Monogram's Charlie Chan films, The Red Dragon isn't one of the series' more exciting efforts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This tale of two tugboats focuses upon the rivalries between two operators competing to win a major shipping contract. Meanwhile a tugboat office secretary and an ex-con who wants to go straight, fall in love. Tugboat Annie is put in charge of a child violinist. When a waterfront fire breaks out, the two warring captains join forces to put it out. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Universal's "Frankenstein" series descended from the "A" to the "B" category with The Ghost of Frankenstein, though production values were still well above average and the cast is first-rate. The story picks up where Son of Frankenstein (1939) left off, with both the Monster (Lon Chaney Jr.) and his crazed companion Igor the shepherd (Bela Lugosi) being chased out of the village of Frankenstein by the irate citizens (actually both Monster and Igor had been killed at the end of Son of Frankenstein, but that's neither here nor there). The gruesome twosome head to the tiny Balkan community where dwells the son (Sir Cedric Hardwycke) of the original Dr. F. At the urgings of both Igor and the disgraced Doctor Bohmer (Lionel Atwill), Frankenstein Jr. is coerced into repeating his father's experiment of placing a fresh brain in the head of the monster. Seeking vengeance against his enemies, Igor wants to have his own brain grafted into the Monster's skull, but the big lug himself has other ideas: having befriended cute little Cloestine (Janet Ann Gallow), the only person in the village who doesn't fear him, the Monster insists upon receiving Cloestine's brain. In the end, however, Dr. Frankenstein goes with Igor's graymatter-and the result is disaster for practically everyone in the cast. Highlights of this 68-minute scarefest include Lionel Atwill's outraged reaction when he is reminded of the "slight miscalculation" that ruined his medical career, and the uncredited appearances of several "Frankenstein" movie veterans, including Dwight Frye, Holmes Herbert and Lionel Belmore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This last entry in the Dr. Christian series tells about a country doctor who pieces together a defense to get a bank teller-- who has been wrongly convicted of embezzlement--out of jail. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide