BOOMERANG! (1947)
Directed by Elia Kazan
20th Century Fox, 88 minutes
★★ ½
I thought I had nearly exhausted the film noir collection at the Forbes Library until I found a listing titled “More Notorious Film Noir.” Some of them stretch the definition of film noir but if a movie keeps my attention, the label becomes secondary.
Boomerang! is a film whose genre is debatable. It is a film noir or a crime drama? Some film historians call it a “docudrama,” a good compromise. This one dates from 1947 and is not the 1992 film of the same name starring Eddie Murphy. I remind you that it’s hard to copyright a movie title, so it’s not unusual for unrelated films to bear identical titles. The 1992 movie Boomerang was panned by critics and audiences alike, but the 1947 film starring Dana Andrews got three Oscar nominations. It was (and still is) an unusual production.
The “docu” part of the “drama” is that, with a few name changes, it parallels a real-life event. In 1924, Catholic priest Father Hubert Dahme was gunned down on the streets of Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was well-liked and the public pressured law enforcement to solve the case. A World I vet was fingered for the crime, but the States Attorney concluded that police coerced a confession based on weak circumstantial evidence. The attorney’s name was Homer Cummings, who went on to become the U.S. Attorney General (1933-39) under FDR and served three terms as mayor of Stamford, Connecticut, before going into private law practice.
Director Elia Kazan echoed that narrative and in partnership with cinematographer Norbert Brodine made a film that looked like a documentary. They shot gritty street locations in Stamford and courtrooms in White Plains, New York, used music sparingly, and sought to preserve realistic police and courtroom procedures. In the film, the priest’s name is Father George Lambert and the States Attorney is Henry Harvery (Andrews). Richard Murphy’s screenplay added political twists that enhanced the drama. The “Reform” party has just turned out a longtime corrupt regime. The title Boomerang! comes from unexpected turnabouts and the manner in which it forced viewers to weigh questions of “dirty politics.” A central consideration is morality of using comparable low tactics against corrupt powers in the name of reform and overlook those who hold party purse strings.
Harvey is, at first, anxious to prosecute veteran and drifter John Waldron (Arthur Kennedy) for Father Lambert’s murder, but the more he contemplates the evidence–lineup identification, a generic gun, a confession–the more the case smells like rotten fish. Methods that today that are patently illegal were not so in 1947. Now, the moment an accused person asks for a lawyer, all police questioning must cease. Waldron was interrogated for two full days, beaten, and deprived of sleep until he “confessed.” As in 1924, police and the new reform government faced strong public demands to catch the killer. At a preliminary hearing, Harvey advises that he has changed his mind and moves that the case against Waldron be dropped. A veritable lynch mob is turned back by the police chief (Lee J. Cobb) but personal pressure is applied by reform party boss, real estate mogul Paul Harris (Ed Begley). He’s even willing to (mis) use a donation for a public park made by Henry’s wife, Madge (Jane Wyatt) to threaten the Harveys with homelessness. Will Henry relent or do what is just? Which will prevail, truth or power? Popularity or real reform? That Kazan would raise such issues is ironic given his role as a “friendly witness” during the House Un-American Activities Committee* five years later.
The acting in Boomerang! is uniformly strong, but I must warn that the script has holes that sometimes makes it hard to follow. It is, again, a period piece in which many standards and values differed from those of today, though the power of money might ring distressingly true. Kazan’s film style is long on verisimilitude, but its lack of flash can be jarring for modern film viewers. It’s not my favorite docudrama, but Boomerang! is worth watching.
Rob Weir
* Kazan’s testimony during guilt-by-association HUAC hearings led numerous individuals to be blacklisted during the Second Red Scare. When Kazan received an honorary Oscar in 1999, many inside the auditorium turned their backs on him. It did not escape notice that, when pressured, Kazan opted to save his career instead of following the path of Harvey/Cummings.
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