User reviews

This is a pretty good, taut, realistic, gritty film-noirish film from the camera lens of Elia Kazan. Kazan gives us the story of a Connetticut district attorney bumping the legal establishment in Hartford by NOT railroading a suspect who he knows to be innocent despite exhausting pressures to prosecute from local elected officials, businessmen, police, etc... The film, as previously noted, has a semi-documentary feel to it - all due to Kazan's expertise behind the camera. Whilst the story certainly is engaging, the acting is all high-level here with Dana Andrews doing a fine job as Henry L. Harvey the attorney faced with an ethical dilemma. Andrews acting range is not too wide but he delivers here and is more than ably assisted by men(and women) like Ed Begley as a businessman gone bad, Jane Wyatt as his lovely wife(Andrews's wife that is),Arthur Kennedy as the suspect with seemingly little to say, and a couple of Kazan would-be regulars - Lee J. Cobb doing a phenomenal job as a decent yet hard-headed police chief and Karl Malden as a police detective. Kazan shows us the story from many angles and has the benefit of having a real story as the basis of his film. We see the angles of different political opponents, a jealous/crazy girlfriend, local people who saw the crime of a priest being shot, and the journalists who try to scare up any angle they can. Some scenes are quite jarring like the confession scene. Arthur Miller, the great American playwright is seen briefly in a scene of suspects being lined-up. He was Kazan's close friend.

'Boomerang!' is one of those thrillers based on real events, presenting a corrupt view of small town America, where politicians seek votes over justice, and might doesn't always equal right.

With a cast including Dana Andrews, Lee J Cobb, and Arthur Kennedy, the story unfolds when the local priest is shot dead in the street and a wandering hobo is arrested and then grilled for hours until he confesses. Politically he is groomed for conviction, but the DA (Andrews) wants to know more. Meanwhile, political officials seek to let the alleged killer off on account of his being someone who'd served his country.

Corruption is rife both in the courtroom and without, and the viewer is drawn into this complex web not really knowing what the truth is. An interesting twist at the end almost ties things up but leaves some questions still unanswered.

Good performances, tense construction of character and storyline and some fine black and white photography mark this out as a minor classic of its type.

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

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 names are changed and updated, the story takes place post World War II instead of World War I. But Boomerang is the story of how the man who eventually became United States Attorney General, Homer Cummings, used his prosecutorial office to prove the INNOCENCE of an arrested murder suspect. How often do you see that happen?

In fact Boomerang is a primer for those people who wonder how the Supreme Court under Earl Warren could render such decisions as Escobedo and Miranda which set a few ground rules about interrogating a suspect. Today poor Arthur Kennedy who plays the veteran accused of murdering a priest in cold blood might have lawyered up and never given the confession in the first place.

Under a different name Cummings is played by Dana Andrews with Jane Wyatt as his wife. Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden play the investigating police detectives who do a thorough job and apparently have gotten their man. What the crime consisted of was person unknown in the evening hours on one of the town's main streets firing a pistol into the back of the head of a popular clergyman in the town. Several witnesses do see it, but none are close enough to really be sure.

One witness nearly sinks Kennedy, but when Andrews questions Kennedy before the trial and he tells her that waitress Cara Williams is mad because he dumped her, that sets Andrews thinking about his case. His examination of her on the stand is devastating.

The film was directed by Elia Kazan who got the New York Film Critic's Award for this and his work on Gentleman's Agreement. This was a banner year obviously for Mr. Kazan. Boomerang got one Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay for Richard Murphy.

After over 60 years Boomerang holds up very well and should be required viewing for those attorneys who wish to become prosecutors. It ain't all about another notch in the belt.

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.

Elia Kazan's 1947 docudrama Boomerang dramatizes the courage and independence of a Connecticut States Attorney who stood up to political pressure and fought for dismissal of charges against a defendant accused of murder because he wasn't convinced of his guilt. The film (which I first saw as a boy) is based on an actual killing that took place in 1924 in which a popular parish priest was shot on a main street in Bridgeport, Connecticut in full public view. In spite of the public nature of the killing, the murderer escaped and no suspects were immediately apprehended. Using an unseen narrator to provide background information, the film achieves a hard-hitting realism, conveying the feeling that you are watching events as they unfold.

Produced by Louis de Rochemont, well known for films dramatizing real events such as "House on 92nd Street" and "13 Rue Madeline", performances are uniformly excellent, particularly those of Dana Andrews as Henry Harvey, the idealistic States Attorney, Lee J. Cobb as Police Chief Robbie Robinson, Arthur Kennedy as John Waldron, the ex-GI murder suspect, and Ed Begley as the corrupt Commissioner Paul Harris. The film stays fairly close to actual events with the exception that the States Attorney is shown as an unknown lawyer looking to make a name for himself not the nationally known former Mayor and candidate for US Senate.

Boomerang begins with a description of the crime and then in a flashback shows the priest asking his assistant to get help for his unstated problems and threatening to have him confined in a hospital. This thread is left hanging but Kazan tantalizes the viewer, suggesting without offering any evidence that the troubled assistant had a motive to kill the priest. When the investigation stalls, pressure is put on the police to come up with a suspect and Dave Woods (Sam Levene), a local newspaper reporter, runs a series of stories criticizing the City government for its inaction in hopes of achieving political power for the paper's owner.

After innocent people are arrested simply because they wore clothing that resembled what the killer is alleged to have worn the night of the murder, a disheveled veteran, John Waldron (Arthur Kennedy), is arrested in Ohio in possession of a handgun and returned to Connecticut. Several eyewitnesses pick out Waldron as the killer and the bullet is identified as coming from Waldron's gun. When Police Chief Robinson (Lee J. Cobb), finally extracts a confession after grilling Waldron for many hours, the case seems open and shut.

At the preliminary hearing, however, Harvey is guided by the legal code of ethics that the prosecutor's job is not to gain convictions but to see that justice is done and has doubts about the evidence, arguing against a conviction. Most of the film's dramatic moments take place in the courtroom but there is a back story involving municipal corruption, a theme that Kazan would visit again ten years later in "A Face in the Crowd".

The shocking turnaround by the States Attorney does not sit well with party official Paul Harris (Ed Begley) who invested his savings in a corrupt land deal and needs the present government to remain in power to buy that land from him. Fearing economic ruin, he threatens Harvey and insists the prosecutor try to convict Waldron whether or not he is innocent. The prosecutor remains steadfast, however, and the intense courtroom drama keeps us riveted until the surprising outcome is revealed.

In Connecticut, a well-known priest is murdered by a man on the street and flees. The politicians and the police are pressed by the society to find the killer, but the Chief of Police Harold F. "Robbie" Robinson (Lee J. Cobb) has no clue despite the witnesses. When the former soldier John Waldron (Arthur Kennedy) that has fought in the World War II is captured in another town, the witnesses identify him as the killer and he is forced by Robbie and his men to sign the confession of murder. The he claims innocence, but everybody believes he is the killer. However the righteous State's Attorney Henry L. Harvey (Dana Andrews) finds inconsistent evidences and decides to investigate against the opposition of the politics and the society.

"Boomerang !" is a film based on a true story about the morality and honesty of a State Attorny that risks his career to prove that a man is innocent and scape goat of a political situation. The plot is engaging and holds the attention of the viewer. It is beautiful to see the story of men like the lead character that faces the Powers That Be to keep his ethic and principles. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Justiceiro" ("The Righteous Man")

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.

***SPOILERS*** Based on a Richard Oursler article in Readers Digest about the real life murder of popular Catholic priest Father George A. Lambert, Wyrley Brich, Eli Kazan's "Boomerang!" doesn't go into who murdered Father Lambert, the killer was ever apprehended, but in the story of the Innocent man accused of killing him ex-GI and town drifter John Waldron, Arthur Kennedy. With the murder investigation of Father Lambert going nowhere the local Stamford political machine, run by power-broker T.M Wade( Taylor Holmes), goes full-blast in attacking the city administration of reform Mayor Swayze, Walter Greaza,in hopes of getting it's man elected mayor.

The murder of Father Lambert turns out to be a political football between the two warring political parties instead of a police affair and investigation. After Waldron is arrested in Ohio and sent back to Conn. to stand trial State Prosecutor Henry Harvey, Dana Andrews, is put on the case. Waldron mentally pounded for three straight days by the police not allowing him to sleep breaks down and confesses to the Lambart murder making his conviction a forgone conclusion.

As prosecutor Harvey looks closely at the evidence against Waldon he realizes that the man may very well be innocent. If convicted he'll, Harvey, have to live for the rest of his with the thought that he sent a innocent man to his death. Harvey later finds out that a lot is riding on Waldon's conviction and it has nothing to do with the murder of Father Lambart. A non-conviction will effect the re-election chances of Mayor Swayze. Harvey is also running the risk of destroying a promising political career in state politics, he's already being groomed to be the states governor, by getting Waldon off even if he's innocent.

Well paced and honest film about big city politics with a stellar performance by Dana Andrews who didn't let his career ambitions get in the way of his sense of justice. Also in "Boomerang!" is Jane Wyatt as Prosecutor Harvey's wife Madge. Madge was tricked into an under-the-table deal by the city's Commissioner of Public Works Mac McCreery, Ed Begley, McCreery was terrified that if Mayor Swayze didn't get re-elected and agree, as he promised him, to have the city of Stamford buy his real-estate property it would in the and financially ruin McCreery and possibly land Madge behind bars.

Powerful ending sequence in a Stamford courtroom that has all the drama and tension of that of a very good fictitious movie screenplay but in this case all that happened in the movie also happened in real life.

Cards on the table, I have a measure of personal distaste for celebrated theatre and movie director Elia Kazan, down to his personal conduct during the infamous Hollywood Blacklist hearings of the late 40s and early 50s but I can't deny his film-making ability in this fine courtroom drama feature.

On trial for his life is a down-on-his-luck Army veteran Arthur Kennedy for the alleged brutal murder in public of a popular parish priest in Connecticut. When, however, the local police, led by the bullish Lee J Cobb, can't solve the case, politics unsurprisingly gets involved as pressure from self-interested local politicians is brought to bear on Cobb and his team to produce the perpetrator, it being an election year and all.

Deep in the mix is State Prosecuting Attorney Dana Andrews, who at first joins the clamour to get almost any conviction it seems in what has become not only the major local news item but has also put law and order as the main issue in the upcoming election. Cobb initially resists the pressure from above, but finally after two weeks of nothing picks up Kennedy, who matches the vague description of the gunman, left town coincidentally after the killing and whose gun apparently shot the bullets. He sweats Kennedy for two days, employing now-familiar rendition-type methods, just about stopping short of water-boarding his man to extract the damning confession which will surely seal his fate and make everyone else happy. But good, clean public servant that he is, Andrews, after interviewing Kennedy himself and reviewing the evidence, has his doubts...

Based on a real-life case in the same state twenty years before, it's filmed very much in docu-drama style with a booming voiceover periodically setting the scene, using, where allowed, actual locations for some of the scenes and is altogether directed and acted in a naturalistic black and white shooting-style. Some of the depicted background situations however do weaken the attempts at veracity, particularly the contrived evidence of the main female witness, a vindictive floozy-type local cafe owner who turns out to have been spurned by the suspect during his stay in town and as a result is seemingly quite prepared to have him executed, the introduction of a crooked politician fearing exposure who tries to blackmail Andrews through a business connection with his innocent wife into securing a conviction and last but not least, the handy insertion of a shifty looking individual in the public gallery with a guilty look so palpable, he might as well be wearing convict stripes. There's also the rather cliched use of investigative reporters, one of whom conveniently helps set up the big reveal in court and unintentional comedy when we see the police ridiculously rounding up in Keystone Cops fashion anyone walking the street wearing a dark coat and light hat similar to the alleged killer.

All this enables Kazan to conveniently tie up with a bang all the loose ends in an over-dramatic courtroom conclusion which belies the fact that the original case was never actually solved. That said, while he does over-egg the pudding with the above named contrivances and seems to sacrifice truth for melodrama in the last third, it's still for the most part a taut and entertaining watch with fine acting by Andrews and Cobb, well supported by Kennedy and Jane Wyatt as Andrews' supportive wife. Commendably exposing some of the dubious methods police arguably still use to get a crime off their books, it's a notable early entry in the long career of a director who might have learned something about bravery, honour and doing the right thing from his lead character here.

The more than solid rating and very favourable reviews here for 'Boomerang!' made me interested into watching. Elia Kazan was and still is considered a very influential director, some of his best work including 'A Streetcar Named Desire', 'East of Eden' and 'On the Waterfront' being masterpieces and even lesser efforts such as 'The Sea of Grass' not being that bad. An actor with the talent Lee J Cobb had is reason enough to see any film, the cast on the whole was an interesting one.

'Boomerang!' may not be one of Kazan's all time best, do prefer the cited above films. It is though among the best and most fascinating of his early work, and it is a very engrossing and exceptionally well made and written script with a fine cast. It is a case of the second half being better than the first, but not by much as 'Boomerang!' is great all the way through (not a tale of two mismatched halves like some films with one half being better than the other are).

Production values are very stylish and with a nice atmosphere, the locations are well used and evocative and the semi-documentary-like style of the photography suited the story really well and never looks cheap or overblown. The film is also superbly directed by Kazan, then again that was no surprise that it would be considering how great he was as a director. Especially in the climactic moments and the increasingly intense drama of the second half, the character interaction blistering. The characters are actually interesting and come over like real human beings with flaws and strengths, not exaggerated cartoons or archetypes.

David Buttolph's score has presence without being over-powering, one of the best uses of it being at the start. The script is always taut and intelligent, especially in the second half where the writing really grips the viewer and keeps them guessing. The story, based on real events, is always engrossing, apart from some slow patches in the early portions of the film, its social awareness is intriguing with a point still relevant and important today and the tension mounts up to unsettling effect in the climactic moments. The courtroom scenes are beautifully shot and lit and superbly written. The second half is powerful hard-hitting stuff, but promise is evident right from the beginning with the startling opening that really sets the tone. The ending left me floored, wasn't expecting it at all.

Acting is excellent, though Ed Begley definitely gave better performances in more fleshed out roles. Dana Andrews carries the film with authority that never comes over as clinical and Cobb, always great value in authority and villain roles, is terrific as usual as a character far more layered than one would think. Jane Wyatt is alluring. Arthur Kennedy has another one of the most interesting characters, an ambiguous one that you are not sure whether to believe him or not, and never makes him one-dimensional or stock, understated but displays a wide range of emotions with no signs of being taxed.

Overall, extremely good and most highly recommended. 9/10

A priest is shot point blank in the head in the middle of a dark street. The killer gets away, despite the presence of several witnesses. A public outcry ensues when the police department can't make any headway in the case, while a rival administration that wants control of city hall milks the situation for all it's worth to make the current administration look bad. To appease the public, the police latch on to a suspect who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and force a confession from him. But the district attorney has twinges of conscience and can't bring himself to prosecute a man he doesn't believe is guilty.

Such is "Boomerang!", Elia Kazan's quick and dirty docu-drama from the late 1940s, a period rife with films like this. The interest in "Boomerang!" lies not so much in the drama swirling around the accused man (played by a young-looking Arthur Kennedy) or the sleazy politics or even the personal crisis faced by the D.A. (played by a stoic Dana Andrews), but rather in the procedural details surrounding Andrews' attempts to persuade a courtroom that the evidence massed against Kennedy is flimsy. In this way, the film is a premonition of a bigger and more famous movie, "Anatomy of a Murder," in which the outcome of the case doesn't matter but the gritty details of poring over grisly evidence does.

The film's weakest link is a superfluous storyline featuring Ed Begley that ends in an implausible dramatic twist that has not much of anything to do with the movie. The film would be dramatic enough without it.

Also with Lee J. Cobb, for once tolerable as the good-guy chief of police, and Jane Wyatt, window dressing as Andrews' wife.

Grade: B+