Dragnet (TV Series) The Big Children (1954) User Reviews

Sick and sad...and with some exceptional performances.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 16 December 2013]

This is a noteworthy episode due to the guest stars in the show. Celia Lovsky, Mae Clark and Billy Chapin all do exceptionally well and the show works not just because of the story but because these three turn in great performances.

"The Big Children" begins with an odd report of hungry children begging for food. Why this is so unusual is that it comes from a very fashionable and affluent part of town--a place where you would never expect starving kids. However, when Sergeant Friday and Officer Smith investigate, they find a home with no parent and three starving kids. In fact, the youngest is so bad off from a combination of malnutrition and brutality that he soon dies. As for the other two, the oldest (Chapin) tried his best to hold down the fort, so to speak, but was only a little boy. Where are the parents? Well, Dad apparently is no longer in the picture and Mom disappeared days ago. So, the officers get the kids to safety and begin their search. Is Mom dead? Where could she be? And why were the kids left alone for so long? This story will most likely make you very mad. It should. The story is a pretty awful tale of child abuse, neglect and just plain evil. It makes for VERY compelling viewing and might just leave you feeling a bit angry.

Neglect, Abuse, Death of a Child

[biorngm · 9/10 · 3 May 2018]

Season 3 Episode 24 Review - The Big Children Aired 2-11-54 The episode subject matter is disheartening, saddened by the reality of the actual case and proof of what the police have to cope with throughout their careers. Neglectfully abandoning the children is intolerable, but the abuse, and ultimate death of a defenseless child, never trying to return to the unkempt home to check of the three kids, ages ten, six and twenty-two months. Friday, Smith work Juvenile Division, responding to a neighbor's concern the next-door kids were asking for food, looking unwashed, starved with no sign of the youngest.

Friday, Smith soon learned the mother was a drunk, the house smelled of neglect, like the kids, and most horrific, was the condition of the youngest, who later died of a basal skull fracture, suffering from malnutrition. Days went on searching for the mother with no clues to her whereabouts until they located the uncooperative boyfriend. His finding was due in thanks to his vanity, not wanting to take any blame for the mother's behavior, although he was near as much guilty as she. He gives the last location they were together; indeed, a hotel room, with her drunk, not having any idea what day it was.

The mother gets lead away, tried, convicted of manslaughter and put away for never long enough. As Joe Friday had narrated, this crime will remain in his memory for years and years.

Little Children Lost

[hellraiser7 · 10/10 · 4 December 2019]

Warning do not read unless seen episode.

This episode is an honorable mention. This is one of those hard-hitting episodes, I'll admit the issue of child abandonment, abuse, and manslaughter always makes me sick.

This gets into a case where we see three kids from a wealthy area. One big brother and little sister are both doing their best to survive on their own as well as taking care of their little brother whom is an infant.

Despite living in the wealthy section of California, we see their homestead and it's a crap hole just litter everywhere, hasn't been cleaned in weeks on end. It's sad and disturbing as we hear the boy mention how long the mom's been gone, but also a little on what kind of person she is, and it just makes my blood boil. She is completely irresponsible, selfish, alcoholic, and worst of all morally comatose as she doesn't give a crap about her kids. And of course, it gets even sadder when we suddenly hear the infant passes away, but it was from a head injury which occurred days ago.

Joe and Frank they of course track down the mom's so-called boyfriend and he's a guy you just as much despise because he's not just selfish and oblivious but toward the kids but is also somewhat morally comatose or a coward. It's disturbing because he was clearly in the house and could see in plain sight something was clearly wrong and even heard the mom might have hit or hurt the baby in a way to stop him from crying and did nothing. He threw his freedom in the trash at that moment as we see Joe and Frank detain him.

Same goes for the mom as they of course find the mom whom has had more than she can handle. She pretty much crying and talking a little about her troubles and seeing if she can garner any sympathy from Joe and Frank. But they give her none, she says one thing to them, "You understand?" I and both personally thought, "No, no I don't, nor do I even care." I always thought about the kids and thought "What about them, what about their troubles, did you ever think about them for one moment."

There is a really haunting image in the end when we see a cinematography show of a alcoholic glass and Joe picks it up and we see an image of her infant son. It's just heart sinking as it shows how she not just but alcoholism over her son but has drowned her own conscience, like so many other abusers.

Rating: 4 stars

A serious case of child abuse

[kapelusznik18 · 6/10 · 5 May 2014]

***SPOILERS*** Called to investigate a sorry story about two children going from house to house begging for food in one of L.A's richest and exclusive neighborhoods where the medium price of a house is $50,000.00 in 1954 dollars, that's about $400,000.00 now in 2014, Sgt. Joe Friday and his partner Officer Frank Smith, Jack Webb & Ben Alexander, find the two child beggars 10 year old Richie Kessler and his sister 6 year old Judy living in squalor and unattended in their house with their mom Jean Kessler nowhere to be found. What's even worse the children's 22 month old brother Johnny is in a coma from a major head wound and in danger of losing his life.

Putting the two, Richie & Judy, in a homeless children shelter and little Jonny to the hospital emergency ward both Friday and Smith check out the whereabouts of their mom Mrs. Kessler who's later found dead drunk in a sleaze-ball hotel in South L.A. Not at all caring what the condition of her kids, whom she abandoned, Mrs. Kessler is only concerned where her lover, who had since checked out on her, Larry Bates is. Putting Mrs. Kessler in the police station drunk tank to dry out Sgt. Friday and Officer Smith do track down "Handsom Larry" only to find out that he doesn't give a crap about his former lover Mrs. Kessler and her kids. All "Handsome" Larry" is interested in is to get back in a game of poker that the two, Sgt. Friday & Officer Smith ,had interrupted.

***SPOILERS*** The sad ending has little Johnny pass away from blunt force injury to the skull and the still drunk Mrs. Kessler ending up 4 to six years behind bars for 2nd degree homicide. Tragic as the story is child abuse by the victims parents, in this case mother, is just if not even more prevalent today then it was in the 1950's when this episode of "Dragnet" was made. And with the explosion of out of wedlock births and one parent families today it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Which is the sad and hard truth about this very disturbing subject.