Having practiced law in my misspent youth, I often roll my eyes (or change the channel) when I see something in a courtroom movie that could NEVER happen in real life. Watching Elia Kazan’s 1957 Boomerang!, I saw the same District Attorney convict a guy of murder, change his mind and then successfully prove the guy’s innocence. Although scornful of the plot, I kept watching and was shocked to see that the ending credits claimed that this was a true story. In disbelief, I looked it up and found that, indeed, while state’s attorney for Bridgeport, Connecticut, Homer Stille Cummings convicted – and then cleared – Harold Israel of the same murder! Cummings then went on to become the Attorney General of the United States.
Once I got over my disbelief, I realized that Boomerang! is a pretty good movie. It’s one of Elia Kazan’s very first features, just before Gentleman’s Agreement, Panic in the Streets, A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, East of Eden, Baby Doll and A Face in the Crowd.
Boomerang! opens with a shocking scene – a man executes a priest with a pointblank gunshot on a busy downtown street and then melts away. Dana Andrews plays the prosecutor and Arthur Kennedy is the hapless convicted guy. The fine cast also features Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley (in the first of his 103 screen credits) and (one of my favorites) Sam Levene. Look for Karl Malden and Brian Keith in bit roles.
Turner Classic Movies is airing Boomerang! on March 22.
