John Waldron from BOOMERANG! (1947)

Film noir and its losers...

Image from Vienna’s Classic Hollywood blog

If film genres have a peak year, 1947 is surely film noir’s. So much was happening in the noir world that year, that one could be forgiven for forgetting one of the lesser noir-y though equally thrilling ones. Boomerang!’s police procedural style might make some question its inclusion in the noir canon, and wonder if it belongs solely in the courtroom drama universe, but Arthur Kennedy’s character’s plight should remove any doubt as to why it deserves a place here, and there.

Written by Richard Murphy and based on a Reader’s Digest article by Anthony Abbot, Boomerang! (dir. Elia Kazan) was based a true 1924 crime, and follows prosecutor Henry Harvey (Dana Andrews) as he tries to prove the innocence of John Waldron (Arthur Kennedy), a veteran accused of murdering Father Lambert (Wyrley Birch) late one evening, in the middle of the street.

‘But his everyday work was with the people of his parish, and especially with those who sought his advice and counsel.’ Narrator

The murder of Father Lambert in quiet, respectable Bridgeport, Connecticut, soon becomes a cause celebre. The people become restless; they want the murderer caught, and when Chief Robinson (Lee J. Cobb) is pressured into putting someone behind bars as soon as possible, along comes John Waldron. All the key eyewitnesses from that evening name him as the culprit and everyone in town turns on him. He is interrogated for hours on end, he becomes exhausted, he is coerced into signing as a confession… and he is put on trial for a crime he may not have committed.

‘What? You’re crazy, I never murdered anybody!’ John Waldron

It’s a tale as old as time. Man gets wrongly accused of something he didn’t do, the police is corrupt, man gets thrown in jail. Only in this case, the man is a veteran. That, in the noir world, is also a tale as old as time. Veteran is disenchanted with his life after returning home, he tries to make a better life for himself, but fate plays a dirty trick on him. John Waldron is not an out-and-out loser. By any means. If anything, he’s honest, hard-working, and he gave the best years of his life for his country. He is, essentially, a scapegoat. He’s a victim of the noir curse itself. Police corruption is rampant in this town, dirty politicians will stop at nothing to get what they want, and they’re all at war with each other… Poor John Waldron just got caught in the middle of it all.

And you really feel for him. Not least because five-time Oscar nominee Arthur Kennedy had one of the most honest faces on the silver screen. His expression upon hearing that he got arrested on suspicion of murder is one for the ages. As much as I love Cobb, Karl Malden, Sam Levene, Ed Begley and especially Dana Andrews, the film belongs to the heart-breaking face of Arthur Kennedy. Always a welcomed face in every noir. In every movie.

We bid farewell to John Waldron and Boomerang!. Our next loser is a down-on-her-luck housewife and mother who gets involved with the mob. The actress is Joan Crawford, the film is The Damned Don’t Cry (1950) and the loser… is Ethel Whitehead.

See you on the sunny side of the street.