Boomerang, l'arma che uccide

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.

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.

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.

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")

'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.