I turned to PBS in the hopes that the Lehrer Newshour or some other of the PBS newsshows would be on and save me from the bathos of network newscasters with a dearth of new information. Instead, I found a Dana Andrews movie just beginning, looked it up and decided I could skip an evening of news about the attack.
Boomerang! is a taut little semi-documentary about a real-life murder of a priest in Bridgeport, CT. The town is outraged, the pols must find a scapegoat to win re-election, they railroad a drifter, cops pressure him into a confession, state's attorney starts to see problems with the case ....well, I'm sure you know the rest.
But it's well done, with a great cast--not only Dana Andrews, but Lee J.Cobb, Ed Begley, Sam Levene, and Arthur Kennedy as the hapless drifter. It also happens to be a true story; the DA went on to serve as FDR's attorney general for two terms.
There are very few movies with Dana Andrews that aren't worth a look; if you aren't already stopping when you run into his face on the late show, give it a try.
