Dragnet

1969 100 min Crime, TV Movie

Also known as "Dragnet 1966," this TV movie was originally the pilot for the 1967 relaunch of the original 1950s "Dragnet" radio show and TV show (which also had its own movie in 1954, from the same creative team). However, the pilot wasn't actually aired until 1969. In this feature-length entry, Sgt. Joe Friday is called back from vacation to work with his partner, Officer Bill Gannon, on a missing persons case. Two amateur female models and a young war widow have vanished, having been last seen with one J. Johnson. In the course of tracking down Johnson and the young ladies, the detectives wind up with two different descriptions of the suspect, one of which closely resembles a dead body found in a vacant lot. But the dead man, later identified as Charles LeBorg of France, proves not to be J. Johnson, when a third young model disappears.

director Jack Webb

writer Richard L. Breen