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Dragnet: "The Big Little Jesus"
http://www.greatdetectives.net/detectives/ ^ | 1953 | Dragnet

Posted on 12/18/2014 7:41:59 AM PST by lefty-lie-spy

FRiends, it is Christmas season, and this is worth sharing. Enjoy this television version of the original radio version of Dragnet: The Big Little Jesu.


TOPICS: Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: classics; dragnet; jackwebb
I just love the ending to this story.
1 posted on 12/18/2014 7:41:59 AM PST by lefty-lie-spy
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To: lefty-lie-spy

There were so many great Christmas season stories on radio in the golden days. It points up so dramatically how far we have descended from the Christian nation we once were. A price will be paid.


2 posted on 12/18/2014 7:48:20 AM PST by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: lefty-lie-spy

Apologies for the truncated “Jesus” in my introductiin comment.


3 posted on 12/18/2014 7:57:18 AM PST by lefty-lie-spy (Stay metal. For the Horde \m/("_")\m/ - via iPhone from Tokyo.)
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To: lefty-lie-spy

Memories bump


4 posted on 12/18/2014 8:06:27 AM PST by Wilum (Never loaded a nuke I didn't like)
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To: Don Corleone

It is sad.
I would also like to remind our friends here that the 1950s series, “I Was a Communist for the FBI”, is amazingly prescient. You can find all of these classics for free at http://Archive.org. Please enjoy and share.


5 posted on 12/18/2014 8:09:01 AM PST by lefty-lie-spy (Stay metal. For the Horde \m/("_")\m/ - via iPhone from Tokyo.)
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To: Don Corleone

“A price will be paid”

I’d say it has begun. I’m sure you probably don’t disagree.


6 posted on 12/18/2014 8:18:02 AM PST by SaveFerris (Be a blessing to a stranger today for some have entertained angels unaware)
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To: lefty-lie-spy; Salvation; NYer; zot; Interesting Times

Thank you for posting the link to this old Dragnet Christass story.


7 posted on 12/18/2014 8:24:19 AM PST by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: lefty-lie-spy

Amazing how much our culture has changes in 61 years!


8 posted on 12/18/2014 8:33:50 AM PST by BwanaNdege (I wonder which side they choose whe)
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To: lefty-lie-spy

This is what “normal” used to be.


9 posted on 12/18/2014 8:40:08 AM PST by Excellence (Marine mom since April 11, 2014)
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To: lefty-lie-spy

bump for later


10 posted on 12/18/2014 8:48:32 AM PST by Skooz (Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
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ph


11 posted on 12/18/2014 11:13:28 AM PST by xone
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To: lefty-lie-spy
This is the review I plan to publish on my old-time radio blog later today:

If The Big .22 Rifle for Christmas proves Dragnet wholly (and perhaps uncharacteristically) capable of a tragic tear-jerker, then tonight's episode—aired a year later—proves the customarily no-nonsense crime drama could deliver a tear-jerker that may well leave you with gentle admiration for a holiday thief.

This, too, would be taken to the show's original television version and to its mid-to-late 1960s television remake. And, neither will feel quite as embracing as the radio original that lets your mind's and your heart's eyes operate.

TUNE IN TONIGHT:
Dragnet: The Big Little Jesus (NBC, 1953)

Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are rather baffled on Christmas Eve day when the oldest church in Los Angeles reports a theft—an old, slightly battered, but still valuable statue of the infant Jesus Christ from its equally old Christmas nativity scene.

They come to concentrate on an unlikely, down-and-out suspect (James Griffith), and to face their possible forced return to another investigation, before they can recover the missing statue in time for Christmas morning's first mass, when the statue returns to the church under a very surprising escort who tells an equally surprising—and touching—story of its disappearance.

If you can think of any other classic radio crime drama in which you stand an excellent chance of wanting to give the culprit a hug instead of the hoosegow, you're better than I am.

Father Rojas: Harry Bartell. Capt. Bernard: Walter Sande. Shopkeeper: Ralph Moody. Hotel clerk: Herbert Vigran. Paco: Joe Carioca, Jr. Announcers: George Fenneman, Hal Gibney. Music: Walter Schumann. Director: Jack Webb. Writer: Jim Moser.

(Fair disclosure: I have a collection of over 13,000 old-time radio shows, including every known surviving episode of Dragnet. My personal favourites among the old-time radio crime dramas are Broadway is My Beat and The Whistler, but Dragnet is one of the radio jewels, too.)

12 posted on 12/22/2014 12:29:56 PM PST by BluesDuke (I think that I shall never see/a tree so lovely as a classic Gibson guitar . . .)
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