Jim,
All best for your mother's surgery. Quick question: What do
you think of the "new" Dragnet series coming to TV? Will it
measure up to the original Webb?
Ed Lynskey
--- JIM DOHERTY <
jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com> wrote:
> As I mentioned last month, the trend to presenting
law
> enforcement as accurately as possible starts to
pick
> up in the '40s with novels like Treat's V AS
IN
> VICTIM, movies like THE NAKED CITY, stage plays
like
> DETECTIVE STORY, and radio shows like
DRAGNET.
>
> In the '50s, with DRAGNET simultaneously the
most
> popular drama on both radio and TV, and one of
the
> top-grossing films of all time, the trend starts
to
> build into a wave, and there begins to be a
widespread
> perception that this "semi-documentary"
approach
> represents a new "school" or sub-genre of
mystery
> fiction.
>
> Writers like Ed McBain and John Creasey (as
J.J.
> Marric), frankly admitting to being influenced
by
> DRAGNET, start long-running series about
cop
> characters, basing the "police routine on
established
> investigatory technique," to use McBain's
phrase.
>
> Writers who have been known for completely
different
> kinds of mysteries, like Frederic Brown in THE
LENIENT
> BEAST, Herbert Brean in A MATTER OF FACT, and
Doris
> Miles Disney in BLACK MAIL, try their hand at the
new
> form.
>
> In his 1956 "end of the year" column for the N.Y.
TIME
> BOOK REVIEW, mystery critic Anthony Boucher
talks
> about this approach at length, citing DRAGNET as
both
> the exemplar and the root source of the trend,
and
> coins the term "police procedural" to describe
it.
>
> The police procedural has arrived.
>
> JIM DOHERTY
>
> P.S.
>
> Mom's twice-postponed surgery is, hopefully,
finally
> taking place tomorrow, 30 Jan. Good thoughts
and
> prayers during this day in particular would
be
> especially appreciated.
>
> Thanks again for all the support.
>
> JIM D.
=====
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