Elia Kazan declined to discuss his Fox films when I interviewed him. He felt they were not his. They were not Gadge Kazan movies but the result of a team effort by such superb studio craftsmen as photographer Norbert Brodine and film editor Harmon Jones. True, Kazan directed the cast, but this movie's visual style, pacing and atmosphere was supervised by de Rochemont who had the ear of studio head, Darryl F. Zanuck.
However, despite Kazan's initial reluctance to talk about Boomerang!, we actually spent well over thirty minutes on it. While he agreed that the picture was realistic at a time when Hollywood was mainly into glamour and escapism, Kazan argued the movie "was no way as good as Paisa."
Kazan was also contemptuous of the over-simplification of civic corruption in Fulton Oursler's Reader's Digest article on which the film was based. And he was not happy with his leading man, Dana Andrews, whom he described as difficult to direct. He didn't like the way Brodine lit the film either and found him extremely unreceptive to suggestions that he employ a more gritty style such as that used by Martelli in Paisa.
However, despite Kazan's initial reluctance to talk about Boomerang!, we actually spent well over thirty minutes on it. While he agreed that the picture was realistic at a time when Hollywood was mainly into glamour and escapism, Kazan argued the movie "was no way as good as Paisa."
Kazan was also contemptuous of the over-simplification of civic corruption in Fulton Oursler's Reader's Digest article on which the film was based. And he was not happy with his leading man, Dana Andrews, whom he described as difficult to direct. He didn't like the way Brodine lit the film either and found him extremely unreceptive to suggestions that he employ a more gritty style such as that used by Martelli in Paisa.