Dragnet (1987)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Production Notes Biographies-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer-1.33:1, not 16x9, Dolby Digital 1.0 (1:29)
Rating
Year Of Production	1987
Running Time	101:35 (Case: 106)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Tom Mankiewicz
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Dan Aykroyd Tom Hanks Christopher Plummer Harry Morgan Alexandra Paul Dabney Coleman
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$24.95	Music	Ira Newborn

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Czech Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Polish Dolby Digital 1.0 (96Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 1.0 (96Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Dutch Swedish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This is certainly a film that I have been hanging out for for quite some time. Whilst never quite in the must-buy category as far as Region 1 purchases went, it was always one that I prevaricated over whenever contemplating Region 1 orders. After all, my trusty VHS tape has done sterling work but is in desperate need of retirement. Well, now it gets that retirement, for the wait is over - Dragnet is here on DVD.

    One of the better cop shows to emerge from early television, it was ripe for exploitation along the lines of a spoof. Thankfully, Dan Aykroyd was obviously a fan of the show, so when the spoof finally came to be made, it was done in the right sort of way. Whilst not an outright comedy-fest, it is one of those films that I can watch repeatedly and still enjoy. Mind you, I am not entirely unconvinced that the reason for that is the presence of Alexandra Paul as The Virgin Connie Swail. Excuse me whilst I go have a cold shower......

    The tale to be told here is straight out of the files of Police... sorry, wrong television show. Joe Friday (Dan Aykroyd) does the same job with the Los Angeles Police Department that his famed uncle, Joe Friday, did twenty years before. Joe is of course an old school cop, and everything is done by the book. So when he has to be partnered with a new partner, he is less than impressed, for Pep Streebek (Tom Hanks) is anything but a by-the-book cop. He is a slightly less repressed individual and the clash between the two is the basis for much of the film. After sorting out the clothing requirements of Pep, the pair are assigned to investigate a couple of robberies conducted by the latest scourge on La La land - P.A.G.A.N., who leave a little calling card at each job they do. Doing everything by the book, their investigations lead them to one person who reluctantly divulges information to them. They end up going undercover in order to attend a meeting of P.A.G.A.N., whereupon they discover some of the goods that were stolen. They also happen upon The Virgin Connie Swail (Alexandra Paul), who has been kidnapped for sacrifice at the meeting. Joe Friday being the repressed individual that he is has never experienced love, and it sure is love at first sight with Connie Swail. So they become an item of course. Meantime, it turns out that P.A.G.A.N. is the brainchild of the Reverend Jonathan Whirley (Christopher Plummer), who is determined to control both sides of the heaven and hell equation, in cahoots with the Police Commissioner. So the race is on for Joe and Pep to solve the whole riddle, and see if Joe can deflower the last virgin in La La land.

    Whilst plenty of the jokes are pretty obvious, such as virtually every time The Virgin Connie Swail is introduced to people, the sheer obviousness of them is what makes it all funny. Aside from joke about virgins, there are enough made of Joe Friday's name amongst plenty of others. Whilst I cannot help but feel that debutante director Tom Mankiewicz was a little out of his league here, and a more experienced director could perhaps have done more with some of the opportunities offered, the overall flow of the film is more than decent. Dan Aykroyd does another sterling comedic job here as the rather straight Joe Friday, and there is a dryish wit about the performance that is quite captivating. Tom Hanks made plenty of films that did absolutely nothing to indicate that he would be a two-time Best Actor Oscar winner, and this is one of them. Still, he is a very effective foil for the straighter Joe Friday character, and the mix is really quite good indeed. Alexandra Paul is really alluring as the virgin, and frankly the film lifts once she makes her appearance. I am not certain that her acting skills are that great, but she carries off this role as if she were born for it. A personal favourite here is old Colonel Potter, Harry Morgan, even though the role of captain does not give him that much chance to shine. Apart from revelling in some of the continuity goofs here, the overall effect of story, performance and direction is better than average and Dragnet will always remain a film that I enjoy returning to.

Video

    I have to confess that my initial reaction to the opening few minutes of the film were more than favourable. Despite having seen the film more times than I could hazard a guess at, all courtesy of Very Hazy System tapes I admit, this was sort of like a revelatory journey through the film for the first time. After a little while it became clear that this was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it is still rather good, and better than I was expecting for a film that in all honesty I was not expecting to see released for quite a while longer.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is (hallelujah!) 16x9 enhanced.

    Whilst being a generally quite sharp and well-detailed transfer, there are a few lapses here and there where the focus is a tad off. In addition, there is some issue at times with just a hint of consistent haziness to the sharpness that does tend to be a little obvious towards the middle part of the film. Detail is very good throughout, and only the odd instance of lack of absolute detail in the shadows really gives away the fact that the film is not exactly brand new. There is just the slightest touch of noticeable grain throughout the transfer, but I never really found it that much of an issue to deal with (but it might be on a larger screen than mine). There did not appear to be any problems with low level noise in the transfer.

    The colours on offer here were generally far better than I was expecting and have a rather nice vibrancy to them at times. Whilst not in the league of more recent films, it is still a very decent and really quite natural-looking transfer in every respect. Colours are quite solidly rendered throughout, and there is no indication of any saturation issues, either over or under, at all. Even the red opening credits have been quite well-handled considering the age of the transfer. Colour bleed did not seem to be any serious issue here, although once or twice there just seemed to be a hint that it might be coming. I could perhaps have asked for a bit more solidity to the blacks, but have no objections about the way the colours have been handled here at all.

    There does not appear to be any issue with MPEG artefacts in the transfer, other than a slight inherent loss of resolution in some pan shots that would be attributable to source material issues. I was pleasantly surprised at how film-to-video artefacts were kept under control in the transfer, with only the odd instance of aliasing being noted. The main issue here would have to be the moiré artefacting in the television screen between 20:00 and 21:00 however: nothing really distracting, but obvious nonetheless. There are plenty of film artefacts in the transfer, mainly the obligatory black dirt marks. There is one rather large and noticeable blip in the transfer at 25:27 that is a bit distracting.

    The subtitle options on the DVD are a little restricted, but since I don't speak either Dutch or Swedish, it did not bother me much. On the evidence of the fifteen minute sample of the English subtitles however, these are not the best you are ever likely to see or read. I would rate them as only 65% accurate at best, with plenty of lopping being done in some of the dialogue by Dan Aykroyd, and the spelling errors noted really are inexcusable - I do not recall ever having seen the word motor spelt motre before!

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are five soundtracks on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded soundtrack, a German Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, a Czech Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, a Polish Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack and a Hungarian Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack. Obviously Dragnet was/is quite popular in Eastern Europe! Not wishing to have revealed to me the atrocities inflicted upon the dry wit of Dan Aykroyd by the vagaries of dubbing, I avoided all soundtracks apart from the English one.

    The dialogue comes up well in the transfer, and whilst it is not as sparklingly clear as a more recent film, there is no complaint about being able to hear things in the transfer. There did not appear to be any indication of audio sync issues in the transfer.

    The original music score comes from our old friend from The Naked Gun series, Ira Newborn. The king of spoof movie soundtracks it seems attacks another film with reasonable aplomb and adds the right touches of comedy in support of the film. Sure it is never going to be confused with an Oscar winner, but it does the job it needs to with ease and keeps the film moving along nicely.

    Whilst I would have course much preferred a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack or better here, there was no chance that desire was ever going to be met. More is the pity of course, but at least we can say that the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack we have got is more than serviceable. Whilst it does have some surround encoding in the mix, it is not really that noticeable and really just takes a little off the obviousness of the frontal sounding soundscape at times. The bass channel is of course out of action for this film. Really and truly there is little here to draw any attention to, so perhaps the best description is serviceable. It is free from any obvious distortions or other imperfections.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Not exactly an awe-inspiring collection here, but then again I guess expecting a two DVD special edition for this film was expecting way too much! Note that the reference to web links on the cover is incorrect, as these are not present on the DVD (and the screen capture of the menu is the Region 1 release anyway).

Menu

    Nothing especially brilliant when you eventually get to it, just a typically nice, clean, functional effort that we tend to expect from Universal releases. They are not 16x9 enhanced.

Production Notes

    These are a little abbreviated in view of some of the extensive efforts I have seen from Universal, but at least they remain better than the lacklustre efforts you tend to see from other distributors (although come to think of it, it has been a fair while since I have really seen any production notes to speak of on a Region 4 DVD).

Biographies - Cast and Crew

    These appear to be a little out-of-date, suggesting that they have probably been copied carte blanche from the Region 1 release - which was issued about the same sort of time that the most recent film listed here was released. Quite detailed nonetheless, but would have been a lot better being more up-to-date.

Theatrical Trailer (1:29)

    Of fairly ropey quality from a technical point of view, this is not an especially great demonstration of the art of film promotion either. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, is not 16x9 enhanced and is accompanied by straight out Dolby Digital 1.0 sound. Really exciting stuff, even before you consider the rather ropey colour, the slightly poor definition, the veritable feast of film artefacts and the prevalence of grain.

    Judging by the comments at Widescreen Review, the Region 1 release is very similar to our own with just the addition of web links in the extras department. That is hardly a huge incentive in favour of the Region 1 release in my view, and judging from their comments on the audio and video transfers, there is little quality-wise between the two releases. Call this one even.

    Dragnet is a film that I have been awaiting for some time here in Region 4, and now that the wait is finally over I cannot say I am disappointed. Whilst I would have loved a full 5.1 soundtrack, logic says this was never going to happen and whilst I would have loved something more stunning in the extras department, I guess pragmatism says that was an unlikely event too. What we do get is the film in about as good a condition as I have seen it for quite a while, with only some fairly obvious film artefacts to indicate that it is fourteen years old. Nothing special in the audio department, but nothing to complain about either, so if you are a fan of the film there is no reason why you should not be heading out to add this DVD to your burgeoning collection.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall