Boomerang!

Very good drama, employing documentary elements, about attorney Homer Cummings' pursuit of justice on behalf of a man wrongly accused of the murder of an episcopalian minister. Cummings went on to become Attorney General of the U.S.

Given the sloppy cases put on by prosecutors today with the only goal in mind being a win, given the intense political influences often in play in bringing cases to trial, Boomerang comes off like a fable about the way justice should work. Harvey, the prosecutor in this case (actually Cummings) refuses to bend to political pressure and rely on sloppy police work to win an indictment in the case of the accused man, beautifully portrayed by Arthur Kennedy.

The interrogation techniques shown in this film were pre-Miranda, but I believe interrogations like this still exist.

Elia Kazan did his usual great job of directing this stark drama and the cast is uniformly excellent: Dana Andrews, Jane Wyatt, Kennedy, Ed Begley, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, and Sam Levene.

Toward the end of the film, Dana Andrews opens a book and reads a quote stating in part that the role of the prosecutor is to see that justice is done. In my experience and observation, it appears that most prosecutors have never read this statement. Maybe that's why Homer Cummings became U.S. attorney general and they haven't.

The young ARTHUR KENNEDY was one of our best dramatic actors and proves it in BOOMERANG! by giving a realistic punch to his performance as an innocent man caught in a murder trap. The only man who can save him is attorney DANA ANDREWS, who does a fine job of pointing out weaknesses in the case and destroying the false witnesses.

One of the best of its kind, it's done in brisk, documentary style popular in the early forties. Well worth viewing, beautifully directed and acted by a fine cast.

Jane Wyatt does a nice job, as does Ed Begley and Sam Levene. Based on a true incident, the murder of a popular parish priest in Connecticut, the film is powerful in its demonstration of our justice system and how it sometimes works, but sometimes fails because of behind the scenes dishonesty related to political shenanigans.

This film is one of Elia Kazan's early efforts as a director. He presented this story in the semi documentary style pioneered by producer Louis DeRochemont in his "March of Time" short subjects and brought to full length status in Henry Hathaway's "The House on 92nd Street".

In filming this true story, Kazan took his cast and crew to a small Connecticut town similar to the one that the story occurred in. This concept was very effective.

Dana Andrews plays Henry L. Harvey, a Connecticut States Attorney who is prosecuting a particularly sensitive case in which a local revered priest was murdered and a homeless drifter was arrested for the crime after an exhaustive search in which the local police was criticized by both the media and local politicians. When Harvey begins to have some doubts, his case "Boomerangs".

The story is riveting from start to finish and the style Kazan uses adds even more credibility to it. (Kazan used on location filming a few years later in making "Panic in the Streets" and it was just as effective even though the story was fictional).

The acting is first rate. Supporting Andrews is Arthur Kennedy as the suspect, Lee J Cobb as the chief of police, Sam Levine as a reporter who knows all, and Robert Keith as a political leader (his son Brian, who later became a bigger star than his father, has a bit).

"Boomerang!" is a film made during the time when Hollywood was growing up. It's a provocative story about our judicial system that even when viewed today makes you think. And it's done to perfection

In a small town in Connecticut, Father Lambert is a pillar of the community and, when a man shoots him dead and runs off the shockwaves are felt far and deep. The political pressure is on when the "people" start appealing to the Mayor to catch the man responsible. As always, the sh*t rolls downhill and State's Attorney Henry Harvey finds himself with a few weeks to avoid taking the blame for the failure to bring someone in. When the police bring back John Waldron from Ohio they break him and he signs a confession. Harvey prepares a strong case despite Waldron maintaining his innocence, meanwhile the political games around the case build.

Based on a true story, this film opens with a narration that "this could happen anywhere" etc in the way that films used to often do. Regardless of where it happened the story is still good. On one level this film is about the murder and it follows the court case of the man charged with the murder. This is interesting for the majority without ever really catching fire but the final 20 minutes in court provide one good scene (maybe not the famous court scene from JFK but it is still engaging to watch Harvey ripping his own case down from the top. Intertwined with this is an enjoyable criticism of political manoeuvring within the idea of "justice"; it isn't as sharp as I would have liked but I was surprised that it was there at all considering the period.

The cast are mostly good but it is Andrews that runs things here. He is a slow starter but he convinces when in a moral mire and works well as he pulls out the stops to producing a zippy and engaging conclusion. Aside from him no other performance really stands out that well – Begley is particularly disappointing as the material deserved more than he delivered. The cast does feature some famous faces including Cobb, Malden and Levene but it is Andrews show as he leads it well.

Overall a good film from Kazan with a solid case at the core while also having enjoyable threads about political game playing (which in fairness was probably stronger than I thought, but I've been into The Wire recently so in this area everything pales by comparison).

Boomerang! (1947)

In some ways this is an intensely well made and satisfying film, and when you have Dana Andrews in the lead role combined with Elia Kazan directing, and throw in first rate character actor Lee J. Cobb, you have something worth watching.

It's nice early Kazan, but it stumbles at times, and never lifts off, never gels. Here's why.

First of all, it's based (very closely) on fact, and sometimes the facts are dramatic but not necessarily good drama. Hamlet, if it were straight documentary truth, would probably shock more and enchant less. And so here, we start with a horrifying crime which takes the viewer quite by surprise. Then, in a continuing voice-over documentary style, we are launched on a huge manhunt. Facts are gathered, suspects suspected, policework unleashed, all acted and congealed very intelligently. A large twist occurs (with something of a stutter, dramatically), and then we are in a different kind of drama, a courtroom battle, with Andrews playing the unlikely role of prosecutor looking for the actual truth in a case rather than a conviction.

And then the court battle ends, and the movie sort of drizzles to a stop. And you might well say (as I did), "How like life." Or something equally unexciting. It's not a like a neo-realist hyper real movie, using amateur actors and so on. No, it's just an adapted true life crime story that might have been something more. For two sides to this coin, I'd first mention Kazan's own "On the Waterfront" which uses a real life kind of scenario but turns it into a dramatic masterpiece. And then some harder hitting reality movie like "The Phenix City Story" (1955) shows what a dramatic version of the truth, unchanged, might look like.

Of course, Kazan and crew are experts, and this is no dud. Andrews, if he is your taste, is in great form, really, within his shifting role. And the supporting cast does wonders, as cops, and as regular people, which this movie is ultimately about. Recommended, yes, but with expectations in line with, uh, reality.