Patrick L. Sullivan

I recently picked up a four-disc DVD set from the bargain bin at the Super Duper Stop & Shop in Canaan, Conn. - the same unlikely setting has provided me with the original King Kong (remastered) and Barbarella, Queen of the Galaxy.

This set, Best of TV Detectives, has a couple of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and some other moderately interesting stuff - a couple of Glen Howard Fu Manchus, half a dozen Dick Tracys.

And 13 episodes of Dragnet from 1953-54. Dragnet was really the original cop show, and it’s astonishing how contemporary they are. The crimes include murder, grand theft in the form of swindling families of recently deceased servicemen, and child molestation. Sounds like a typical night of Law & Order reruns to me.

But the biggest revelation to me was Jack Webb’s Joe Friday, Sartorial Stud.

Sgt. Friday invariably wears a shirt with a buttondown collar that has a serious roll to it. And with his slim cut sports jackets (often featuring a ticket pocket) and snap-brim fedora, he looks like (gasp) a jazz musician or something.

In one episode, he bends over to scoop up a dog that’s in the way, revealing what appear to be black loafers and argyle socks. Argyle socks!? From the “Just the facts, ma’am” guy?

And Friday is always showing just a bit of shirt cuff, in elegant and sharp contradistinction to his fat partner, whose jacket buttons always appear to be on the verge of flying off, with the swallows, to Capistrano.

Postscript: Here is a Time magazine cover story about Webb. The author’s son, who provided the link, informs me that Mr. Webb wasn’t too pleased with some aspects of the piece.

Ken Stott as D.I. John Rebus

The British TV adaptations of Ian Rankin’s novels featuring Detective Inspector John Rebus are, as usual, miles above anything American TV puts out.

While the direction employs some of the dumber US tactics - the dollying and tracking camera that moves through the crowded squadroom as minor characters pop into view with just the vital bit of info to move the plot along and vanish just as suddenly, for example - the writing is tight and doesn’t spend hours on getting in and out of cars, etc.

Ken Stott as the depressed, alcoholic, chain-smoking, self-hating, lecherous, impulsive and (natch) brilliant detective doesn’t look like my idea of Rankin’s man. For one thing, if this guy was ever in the SAS, either he went downhill very fast or they relaxed their standards.

But that’s a minor quibble. Rebus bullies, blunders and barrels around Edinburgh, with sidekick DS Clark in tow, and eventually gets to the bottom of whatever it is.

The episodes are quick at about 69 minutes per, and waste absolutely no time. They don’t get mired in a lot of subplots, either - a frequent failing of American cop shows.

This is Ed McBain with a Scots burr, Law & Order without the ponderous “ripped from the headlines” shtick. Hard, fast whodunits, with a couple of laughs, a smattering of gore and a bit of violence, all nicely contained in a tidy package.

The series gets a hearty three and a half stars (of four).