by Hal Erickson
synopsis
In this TV adaptation of a Dragnet radio episode originally heard on June 28, 1951, Friday (Jack Webb) and Jacobs (Barney Phillips) are summoned to a cheap hotel, where the wife of elderly Mr. Turner is found dead under unusual circumstances. Turner tearfully insists that he awoke to find his wife's body lying on the floor, but can't explain the bruises on the corpse, nor the lab report that Mrs. Turner died of suffocation. A last-minute call from Turner's sister-in-law clears up everything. The episode's title derives from the fact that Mr. Turner is played by character actor Ralph Moody--just as the radio version, in which Cliff Arquette portrayed Turner, was titled "The Big Cliff"!
