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Rob Edelman: Boomerang!

These days, director Elia Kazan is best-remembered for his classic, highly influential 1950s features, including A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, ON THE WATERFRONT, and EAST OF EDEN. However, one of his earliest screen credits is too-often overlooked, but is well worth discovering. It is titled BOOMERANG!, it dates from 1947, and Kino Lorber recently released it to home entertainment.

BOOMERANG! deals with issues that are as relevant today as when the film first came to movie theaters. It is the fact-based account of the murder of a beloved priest who for years had been ministering to his flock in a small Connecticut town. Shock and outrage accompany the crime. A suspect is not immediately arrested and citizens’ committees, politicians, businesspeople, and the media are clamoring for an arrest. So apprehending the real culprit is not the issue. Getting at the truth is not the issue. The officeholders and business folk in particular are more concerned with winning elections and making money than with nabbing the real killer. And there is nothing subtle about their agendas. One of the characters notes: “I don’t care if he’s guilty or not. I’ve got to win an election.”

Now does this sound familiar, or what?

Additionally, given all the behind-the-scenes maneuvering, the local police department is under great scrutiny. So eventually, and ever-so-conveniently, a drifter is arrested. Now sure, he may have spent five years in the military and fought for his country in the just-concluded war. He is, after all, an outsider-- and so the assumption that he is the killer is oh so convenient and the police put undue pressure on him to coax a confession.

Coming to his rescue is the story’s hero: a state’s attorney who senses that something is amiss. To him, the facts-- and the facts alone-- are what count. He knows all-too-well that his job is to convict the guilty and protect the innocent. So he will not placate those in power as he searches for the truth. 

Cinematically-speaking, BOOMERANG! features a sense of realism that remains as eye-opening today as it was in 1947. Back then, this filmmaking style was becoming increasingly prevalent in the American cinema. BOOMERANG! was shot not on a Hollywood soundstage but on location. The street scenes were filmed in Stamford, Connecticut, and the courthouse scenes were shot in White Plains, New York. 

Now granted, plenty of familiar names and faces appear onscreen, including Dana Andrews, Jane Wyatt, Lee J. Cobb, Arthur Kennedy, Sam Levene, and Ed Begley. You can add an unbilled Karl Malden, who is seen as a cop. If you look closely, you will spot a very young Brian Keith in a crowd of men who, if allowed, easily might lynch the suspect. And playwright Arthur Miller, who then was close friends with Elia Kazan, appears as a line-up suspect.

But what really uplifts BOOMERANG! is that non-professionals are mixed in with the actors. Some have speaking parts while others, even though they are on the film’s fringes, add a genuine sense of atmosphere that could not be recreated on a Hollywood soundstage. And so, cinematically-speaking, BOOMERANG! has a post-war semi-documentary feel that, back in 1947, was groundbreaking and refreshing.

Rob Edelman has authored or edited several dozen books on film, television, and baseball. He has taught film history courses at several universities and his writing has appeared in many newspapers, magazines, and journals. His frequent collaborator is his wife, fellow WAMC film commentator Audrey Kupferberg.

 
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.

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