User Reviews

I imagine the title and premise of this episode of Dragnet 1967 will induce chuckles but turns out to be really solid thanks in part to the twist and how officers Sgt Joe Friday and partner Bill Gannon (Jack Webb and Harry Morgan) are under more and more pressure to catch the "candy store bandit", efficiently robbing candy stores (but never taking candy!), remaining elusive despite the Robbery Department's best efforts to catch him. Tall and gaunt, dressed unimpressively, you would think this bandit could be caught with relative ease since he robs a specific chain of candy stores, using a certain type of gun, not wearing a mask, but yet Friday and Morgan find themselves unable to catch him in the act. It's only a matter of time, however, before you figure this robber will slip up. Particularly interesting about this episode is how the useful tool of the eye witness (and the line-up) is put under scrutiny, because a store employee (an unflappable, talkative sort), the one in a Rochelle's Candies location robbed twice, isn't sure she can successfully identify the man responsible. Also addressed are Gannon's concern for his partner's lonely bachelor life and the possibility for love in Friday's future. In a memorable scene, the chief of the Robbery Division wants answers as to why the robber has committed seven robberies and hasn't been caught with the discomfort of having to explain written on the faces of Webb and Morgan—the payoff is how the two explain in detail what they have and do not have, acknowledging the difficulties of apprehending their robber but confident the criminal will be arrested (the chief holding them accountable and how our officers react is priceless). The dead pan nature of the performances of the show really works amusingly when Friday and Gannon must endure a chatty witness who threatens to leave the job out of concern for her welfare with the officers assuring her (wrongly!) that the MO of the robber showed that he wouldn't hit her store again. The revelation at the end as to why the robber remained so elusive is a real treat you might not see coming.