Comme un boomerang (1976) - film review

Whilst under the influence of drugs at a party, the son of a wealthy industrialist accidentally shoots a passing policeman.  This provokes a public outrage and, under arrest, he faces the prospect of a long prison sentence or even the death penalty.  His father, Jacques Batkin, is prepared to do anything to save his son and recruits his best lawyer.  Then Jacques Batkin’s criminal past is suddenly unearthed and events take a dramatic turn…

This is a typically hard-edged Delon-esque detective thriller which, not surprisingly, places the apparent criminals in a far more positive light than the police and French judiciary system.  This is hardly groundbreaking material, but it allows actor Alain Delon to explore the role of the sympathetic hoodlum in more depth than in perhaps any of his earlier films.

In defending his son, who faces the prospect of death at the guillotine (the death sentence was not abolished in France until 1981), Delon’s character for once has a legitimate basis on which to pursue his one-man crusade against the world.  This is still the Delon we know and love, the charismatic loner harbouring a sinister past, the dangerous man of action, but here he has a sympathetic halo, he is the father who loves his son above all else.  The iron fist has a velvet heart.

From the first dramatic scene to the final nail-biting conclusion, this is a compelling piece of cinema, suffering only because of the slight mediocrity of its plot.  There is an impressive performance from veteran actor Charles Vanel, a popular French film actor in the 1950s.  The music is by Georges Delerue, that maestro of the French cinema musical score.  All in all, this is a well made film of its genre which evokes just the right emotional responses without resorting to unnecessary sentimentality or violence.

© James Travers 1999

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