In this ep of "Dragnet 1968", Joe and Bill have to deal with an abused infant at a hospital and go looking for the mother. They managed to find her residence after initially being given the wrong address. She tells them her baby was just falling down the stairs and doesn't need any more treatment at the hospital but the two cops saw worse on the months-old kid and realize that's not so. When the hubby enters, he seems quite menacing and things just fall apart by that point...This was quite a shocking ep of this Jack Webb-created series even though we never see the baby's face. I have to admit that the woman's acting does seem shrill here but it's still pretty effective with what she was given. Oh, and what a nice surprise that the husband was played by future "Hill Street Blues" star Kiel Martin! So that's a recommendation of "The Little Victim".
7 Reviews
This one will rip out your heart...have LOTS of Kleenex nearby.
planktonrules21 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
I have never said this about any other episode of "Dragnet", but this is one you might want to skip. No, it isn't because it's a bad episode--on the contrary, it's one of the very best. The problem is that if you experienced abuse as a child, it might be very tough going to watch this show--even though the director (Jack Webb) did NOT show any blood or gore. Believe me, I was crying towards the end.
The show begins with Friday delivering a speech about child abuse to a women's club. However, it's cut short when they receive a call of a severe case of abuse at the local hospital. There, the doctors explain that the baby was severely beaten and shaken and the child is in terrible shape. They do not show the baby--nor do I think they really needed to. The mother is not there at the time the detectives show and when they go looking for her, they find the address given is a warehouse! Eventually, the mother does return and her portrait is a fascinating one. She is one of the most clearly defined and stereotypical cases of a Dependent Personality, as she MUST protect her husband at all costs--even if it means lying about the baby's injuries. She tells the cops the child fell down the stairs, but many of the injuries are inconsistent with this story. Later, when Friday and Gannon go to the home to interview the father it's really quite strange and shocking to see the mother's reaction. She is terrified that he will become angry or blame her for the police involvement--even though it is becoming obvious that the father is a sadist who uses the baby as a punching bag. Her sense of panic about possibly losing her husband is significantly more that her worries about the baby. This is NOT a case of a woman who is afraid because of her husband's brutality--it's more a pathetic and sick need to keep him at any cost--including the life of the child.
After a brief interview, eventually the truth comes out and the father is arrested. He is sentenced to a year in jail and it seems the story has a happy ending. Well, it doesn't. The epilogue is just plain sick...and proves that in abuse cases it often "takes two to tango"--in other words, the abuser AND the enabling parent who does not physically abuse the child are a team--a team that works together and are both at fault for the abuse. The worst part about it is then, and now, the Dependent partner often gets away with little or no punishment.
See this wonderfully written episode. It will rip your heart out, but it hits a bullseye.
The show begins with Friday delivering a speech about child abuse to a women's club. However, it's cut short when they receive a call of a severe case of abuse at the local hospital. There, the doctors explain that the baby was severely beaten and shaken and the child is in terrible shape. They do not show the baby--nor do I think they really needed to. The mother is not there at the time the detectives show and when they go looking for her, they find the address given is a warehouse! Eventually, the mother does return and her portrait is a fascinating one. She is one of the most clearly defined and stereotypical cases of a Dependent Personality, as she MUST protect her husband at all costs--even if it means lying about the baby's injuries. She tells the cops the child fell down the stairs, but many of the injuries are inconsistent with this story. Later, when Friday and Gannon go to the home to interview the father it's really quite strange and shocking to see the mother's reaction. She is terrified that he will become angry or blame her for the police involvement--even though it is becoming obvious that the father is a sadist who uses the baby as a punching bag. Her sense of panic about possibly losing her husband is significantly more that her worries about the baby. This is NOT a case of a woman who is afraid because of her husband's brutality--it's more a pathetic and sick need to keep him at any cost--including the life of the child.
After a brief interview, eventually the truth comes out and the father is arrested. He is sentenced to a year in jail and it seems the story has a happy ending. Well, it doesn't. The epilogue is just plain sick...and proves that in abuse cases it often "takes two to tango"--in other words, the abuser AND the enabling parent who does not physically abuse the child are a team--a team that works together and are both at fault for the abuse. The worst part about it is then, and now, the Dependent partner often gets away with little or no punishment.
See this wonderfully written episode. It will rip your heart out, but it hits a bullseye.
The Big Abuse
LA-Lawyer22 November 2013
Warning: Spoilers
This episode has haunted me since I first saw it...and I was an adult when I first viewed it. I am very grateful my parents chose to view this episode without five year old me in attendance. It may be the battle fatigue speaking, but, this episode is both real and surreal...Hitchcock-like and totally awry. Baby Andy, mother Louise and father Wally Marshall may stay with you. The nine year old boy and OCD mother with British accent (from another Dragnet episode on child abuse) may not have had the power, but this fractured family did. Brooke Bundy never achieved superstar status, but she gave Dragnet the acting performance of her career, albeit a bit shrilly. It could have been a merely superficial acting job. But to this viewer, she conveyed the horrifying truth: there can be no "innocence" when it comes to abuse. Louise presents a pretty picture, both visually and verbally; she put a chillingly realistic face on the abuser. One has the fervent desire to believe Wally is the guilty one...just as Friday, Gannon and the courts ultimately believe. Neighbors want to turn a blind eye to the good-looking white collar couple with infant, who drink martinis to the rhythm of light jazz, and polish their color TV, electric can opener and ice shaver. The health, safety and welfare of children brings out the tiger in Joe Friday and who could blame him? Unfortunately, there have been too many more victims of abuse since the comparably idyllic era depicted in this episode. No longer can dependency be viewed as a one-way thoroughfare. Child battering, like co-dependency, can hide, lurking within generations of pretty little packages...ready to strike at any time.
Ordinary People.
rmax30482325 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Jack Webb is giving a speech to a parents group concerning child abuse and is interrupted by H. H. Morgan with the news that they are wanted stat at a hospital. A baby has been admitted after a beating.
The culprits are a young middle-class couple. The wife is hysterical. She minimizes the baby's injuries, which she claims are the result of a fall down a flight of stairs, but she's terribly frightened of her husband. Walter like the record player on and his martinis ready when he gets home from work. Now here she is, stuck in this hospital. What's going to happen?
Well, what happens is that in front of his terrified wife Walter has been beating hell out of the unwanted baby, breaking its long bones, handing it a subdural hematoma, and everything else. Walter gets a year in jail and his wife gets probation. But it's not enough. A year and a half later Walter gets one to five in San Quentin for second degree murder.
It's an interesting entry with no comic exchanges. And it's always a treat to watch Gannon and Friday glance at each other and roll their eyes while listening to some fake excuse or flagrant lie.
The culprits are a young middle-class couple. The wife is hysterical. She minimizes the baby's injuries, which she claims are the result of a fall down a flight of stairs, but she's terribly frightened of her husband. Walter like the record player on and his martinis ready when he gets home from work. Now here she is, stuck in this hospital. What's going to happen?
Well, what happens is that in front of his terrified wife Walter has been beating hell out of the unwanted baby, breaking its long bones, handing it a subdural hematoma, and everything else. Walter gets a year in jail and his wife gets probation. But it's not enough. A year and a half later Walter gets one to five in San Quentin for second degree murder.
It's an interesting entry with no comic exchanges. And it's always a treat to watch Gannon and Friday glance at each other and roll their eyes while listening to some fake excuse or flagrant lie.
Forthright dramatization of a serious problem
PWNYCNY3 April 2020
This episode dramatizes a serious problem: child abuse. Child abuse is a crime. Although there are numerous psychosocial factors associated with child abuse, the bottom line is that it is ultimately a matter for the police and courts. Today, the case in this story would have been investigated not by the police but by a caseworker, who is not a specialist on law enforcement or collecting evidence. The episode also shows how difficult it is to prove child abuse. Unless someone witnesses the offender in the act or the offender confesses, most allegations of child abuse cannot be substantiated. And to treat it purely as a social problem denies justice to the victim of the abuse - the child.
I'd give 10 stars for the story, but the acting was SO poor
VetteRanger17 January 2023
Child beating and murder has always been a problem, and among the most heart-breaking of crimes. It's the more heart-breaking because the victims are beaten and killed by those they love and look to for protection, and they have no defense.
Brenda Bundy, as the mother of a beaten baby, is WAY over the top, especially in her last two scenes. It's probably not her fault, but the director of the episode.
This episode highlights what abusive parents and adults will do to cover up their criminal abuse of children, and what family, neighbors, and the community can do to recognize what's going on and help put a stop to it.
Brenda Bundy, as the mother of a beaten baby, is WAY over the top, especially in her last two scenes. It's probably not her fault, but the director of the episode.
This episode highlights what abusive parents and adults will do to cover up their criminal abuse of children, and what family, neighbors, and the community can do to recognize what's going on and help put a stop to it.
Mrs. Marshall Ruins It
matthewtessnear12 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Brooke Bundy's over-the-top acting mars what would be an important and resonant episode of Dragnet. Her character of Mrs. Marshall comes across as a crazed and submissive weakling that wields her stupidity to kill her baby and ruin her own life. In the closing seconds, she admits to officers she and her husband didn't want the baby her husband was abusing. She then hits her husband fusses at him, only to immediately apologize and say she didn't mean her words to him. She's not even charged or held in the end. In Jack Webb's defense, people really act like that, so he is reaching his goal of portraying real life. However, Mrs. Marshall is so unlikeable that this episode is frustrating to watch.
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