Masters Of Cinema Blu-ray Review - Boomerang! (1947)

Genre:
Crime, Film-noir, Drama
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
Rating: PG
BD Release Date:
26th May 2014 (UK)
Aspect Ratio:
4:3 - 1.33:1
Running Time:
88 Minutes
Director:
Elia Kazan
Cast:
Dana Andrews, Jane Wyatt, Lee J. Cobb
Buy:Boomerang! (Masters of Cinema) (Dual Format Edition) [Blu-ray + DVD] [1947]

I'll kick things off by saying that Boomerang! is the only film I have seen by Elia Kazan, the Method Actor's director lauded by Martin Scorsese and others for a string of highly acclaimed films on which his reputation rests: On the Waterfront, East of Eden, Baby Doll, A Face in the Crowd, Wild River, and Splendor in the Grass. "Surely this is an oversight," I hear you say. But no, it is no oversight. For Kazan is also the man loathed for the testimony he gave before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952, at the height of the abhorrent Hollywood blacklist. And for that reason alone I have remained uninterested in seeking out any of the director's films. But, to paraphrase Kenneth Turan, the only criterion should be the work. And with that in mind I will now share my thoughts on Kazan's third film.

Boomerang! is a noir thriller of the police procedural type that delves, as so many noirs do, into a world of corruption. Our hero is district attorney Henry Harvey (Dana Andrews), we follow his attempts to prove the innocence of a drifting WWII veteran wrongly accused of murdering a beloved town pastor in the small town of Stamford, Connecticut. The film is based on a true story, it being adapted from a Reader's Digest account of the then still-unsolved murder case. As one would expect, some liberties were taken, the main one being the time frame which was shifted from 1924 to the then present day. I found it interesting to read that Kazan was urged to make the film by his wife Molly who saw something in a story he had dismissed as a "routine little drama," as I, having sat through it, found it to be a run-of-the-mill noir. The most interesting aspect of the film is it's documentary-like treatment of the material, choosing to shoot the film entirely on location, using real locales. A decision that led Kazan to the conclusion that he'd found his way of making films. The biggest let down when watching Boomerang! is the dubious implication that the real murderer is a disturbed, sinful man we are shown speaking to the pastor in a flashback sequence near the beginning of the film, with the film cutting to his nervous wreck of a face on numerous occasions throughout the court proceedings. Afterall, this is a film that is purportedly about an unsolved murder case so I could have done without the unnecessary insinuations. The best I can say for this film is that it has intrigued me enough to now want to seek out more of Kazan's oeuvre.

★★1/2☆☆

Shane James