Daily Archives: March 18, 2015

Boomerang
Directed by Elia Kazan
Written by Richard Murphy based on an article by Fulton Oursler
1947/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Films Corp.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] [Camera close-up on an open book]: The primary duty of a lawyer exercising the office of public prosecutor is not to convict, but to see that justice is done. -The Lawyers’ Code of Ethics.[/box]

This is a solid, if unexceptional, film noir in the semi-documentary style favored by Twentieth Century Fox.

The story is based on a true incident.  The setting is a smallish Connecticut town.  There is an upcoming election that the incumbent reform candidates desperately want to win. One night a beloved Episcopal priest is shot down on the street in front of a number of witnesses.  The killer quickly gets away. The media begins to have a field day criticizing the police force for failing to apprehend the murderer or even turn up any clues other than that the man was seen to be wearing a dark coat and light hat.  The reform candidates and police are under incredible pressure to deliver the culprit.  Prosecutor Henry Harvey (Dana Andrews), a friend of the reform party and potential candidate for governor, is as anxious as anyone to find a suspect.

Although a hot line turns up many false leads the police get nowhere until a drifter is picked up in a distant state.   The man, an ex-GI named John Waldron (Arthur Kennedy), left town shortly after the murder and was found in possession of a gun of the same caliber as that used in the crime.

Waldrop maintains his innocence during an unrelenting interrogation and in face of identification by numerous eye witnesses and a report indicating that the fatal bullet came from his gun.  He finally confesses in a state of total exhaustion.

Harvey comes to believe that Waldrop is innocent.  Can he resist the political imperative to convict at any cost?  With Lee J. Cobb as the Chief of Police, Karl Malden as a detective, Jane Wyatt as Harvey’s wife, Sam Levene as a crusading reporter and Ed Begley as one of the politicos.

There are no surprises here but a cast such as this is always worth seeing and Kazan does quite a competent job keeping the story moving.  Fans of courtroom dramas might particularly like this film.

Boomerang was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay.

Trailer? or Montage of Clips?

The Upturned Glass
Directed by Lawrence Huntington
Written by John Monaghan and Pamela Mason
1947/UK
Sydney Box Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

Michael Joyce: Up to this point in the present series of lectures, we’ve dealt exclusively with abnormal mentalities. I emphasise the fact that in civilised communities eighty percent of our murderers and violent criminals were those whose minds had been conditioned by exceptional nervous stress and unhealthy environment. Last Friday we dealt with the smaller group of strictly moronic criminals. And now we come to that much more interesting phenomenon – the sane criminal.

The rest of this film is just not up to James Mason’s awesomely brooding performance.

The film opens with prominent neurosurgeon Michael Joyce (Mason) lecturing an avid medical school class on criminology.  When he starts in on “sane” criminals his case study focuses on a doctor who killed and we segue into the voice-over narration that accompanies the long flashback that tells the tale.  Michael was an unhappily married man whose whole life had become his work.  Then he examines a young patient who is losing her eyesight and slowly becomes attracted to her mother, Emma.  The girl’s father is overseas on a work assignment.  The pair begin a friendship that quickly builds to love but Emma gets cold feet and it goes no further.

Then Emma dies when she falls out a window.  Michael blames the death on Emma’s sister-in-law and the rest of the story is devoted to his plans for revenge.

This had potential but just didn’t amount to much.  Despite Mason’s dulcet tones the lecture gimmick does not add to the drama of this oddly slight story.  I thought the ending was especially awkward and  anti-climactic.  Too bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA1iY4Mjv10

Clip