Friday and Gannon are working the day watch out of burglary division when a report comes in that a large quantity of high velocity gelatin dynamite has been stolen from a construction site. ... Read allFriday and Gannon are working the day watch out of burglary division when a report comes in that a large quantity of high velocity gelatin dynamite has been stolen from a construction site. When the detectives interview the night watchman who says he tried to stop the crime in pr... Read allFriday and Gannon are working the day watch out of burglary division when a report comes in that a large quantity of high velocity gelatin dynamite has been stolen from a construction site. When the detectives interview the night watchman who says he tried to stop the crime in progress, they ascertain the license plate number of the car involved. Further investigation... Read all
- Ray Murray
- (as Olan Soulé)
- Officer Martin
- (as Kent McWhirter)
- Mrs. Anna Logan, the landlady
- (uncredited)
- Main Title Announcer
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- Narrator
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Robert C. Dennis
- Jack Webb(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe first appearance of Kent McCord on Dragnet 1967 (1967) as "Officer Martin". He would appear later in the series as "Officer Jim Reed" and continue playing the same character in Adam-12 (1968)
- GoofsWhen Friday enters Chapman's apartment, he picks up a weapon with his bare hands and then puts it back down. A detective as experienced as Joe Friday should know better than to pick up evidence at a crime scene and contaminate it.
- Quotes
Donald Chapman: [after the cops found the dynamite] There's others who feel like me - it don't make much difference what happens to me...
Sgt. Joe Friday: Now you listen to me, you wide-mouthed punk, we've heard just about all we want from you.
Donald Chapman: I know my rights. I know the law, too. You'll want to know a LOT more - a motive, for one thing.
Sgt. Joe Friday: Hate'll do for a start, and you try to put that walnut-sized brain of yours to work on this: you keep harping about minorities.
Donald Chapman: That's right.
Sgt. Joe Friday: Well, mister, you're a psycho, and they're a minority too.
With a montage accompanying Jack Webb's opening voiceover narration that ends on a Nazi swastika, "The Big Explosion" suggests political fireworks to come as Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon, working out of the burglary division, investigate the theft of 400 pounds of dynamite from the Connelly Construction Company by two culprits who tossed a hand grenade at the night watchman (Ralph Moody) that, fortunately, failed to explode. Bomb-squad expert Ray Murray (Olan Soule) compounds the problem by noting that the blasting caps also stolen detonate electrically, and even "extraneous" electricity, such as radio or television signals, can trigger an explosion of that stolen dynamite that could level two city blocks.
Working from the license plate number the night watchman was able to provide, Friday and Gannon begin tracking down the car, initially put up for sale by a married couple through a used-car dealership to a bartender (Bobby Troup), who had lent it to a patron known only as "Siggy." A stakeout of his bar yields another patron (John Nolan) who knows Siggy as Donald Chapman (Don Dubbins), and Friday and Gannon's visit to his residence holds quite a surprise indeed.
Turns out Siggy AKA Chapman is a Nazi, his small apartment displaying Nazi memorabilia along with a cache of firearms--and, in the closet, the stolen dynamite and blasting caps. Murray again compounds the problem by noting that some of the dynamite is missing, inferring that Chapman and possibly his accomplice are out deploying it. Friday and Gannon await the return of the Nazi.
Appropriately, Chapman is clad in light brown shirt and trousers, suggesting the "Brownshirt" (Sturmabteilung, or Stormtroopers) uniform of the German Nazi Party, and throughout the all-night interrogation to elicit what he had done with the dynamite, Chapman regales Friday and Gannon with fascist propaganda. Rather, viewers are simply told this in Webb's voiceover as "Dragnet" plays it safe, merely suggesting hate speech without actually delivering any. Given the environment of 1960s television, this is not surprising, even if Nazi propaganda was hardly unknown during this time.
Although extremely small in number, an American Nazi Party did exist at the time, and it even continues, after a fashion, to this day. Founded in 1959 by George Lincoln Rockwell, the ANP was a fount for white supremacist views that have become more prevalent and more notorious in recent years, long outlasting its founder Rockwell, who would be assassinated by a disgruntled former ANP member seven months after "The Big Explosion" first aired. Rockwell had raised the profile of American Nazism in the years before his death, possibly influencing Webb to make an episode spotlighting right-wing extremism.
Later high-profile ANP members included William Pierce, whose infamous novel "The Turner Diaries," which advocated a white nationalist revolution, inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and David Duke, also a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, who served in the Louisiana state legislature, thus helping to mainstream right-wing extremism. And if the idea of American Nazis sounds far-fetched, the German-American Bund, a pro-Hitler group active until America entered World War Two, hosted 20,000 members at a February 1939 rally held in New York City's Madison Square Garden.
Of course, "The Big Explosion" does not explore this as even Chapman's personal prejudices and extreme political views are kept to a minimum. But since we view these episodes retrospectively, the context of the time is not only clearer to us now but also offers insight into the show's approach and development. Jack Webb was an avowed conservative, but he seemed concerned enough to caution against extremism of any stripe, and by avoiding obvious caricature, "The Big Explosion" maintains credibility that is accented by Lyn Murray's ominous, percussive incidental music. However, given the portentous opening with its potential for a climactic explosion, whether literal or figurative, what could have been a big bang becomes only a whimper instead.
REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?
- darryl-tahirali
- Mar 28, 2023
Details
- Release date
- Official site
- Language
- Filming locations
- Vermont Avenue southbound from Finley Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA(detectives driving scene leaving station to the construction yard)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime30 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1