Redirecting the browser with JavaScript

 I have a Flash 8 swf animation that is called from a web page by clicking a thumbnail image:

<a href="../MyAnimation.html"><img src="../images/AnimationThumb.jpg"/></a>

The animation has a button to "Close Animation." The code that was assigned to the button within Flash is

on(release) {
    getURL("javascript:window.history.back()");
}

This works fine as long as the animation is called from another page on the same web site that contains the animation.  But if the animation is called from an external site, the above code doesn't cause the browser to return to the page that called the animation.

I've tried changing the release code to

on(release) {
     
      getURL ("javascript:window.document.referrer");
}

and

on(release) {
     
      var siteURL = ("javascript:window.document.referrer");
      getURL(siteURL);

}

but neither of these works.   Rather than sending the browser to the referrer URL,  the referrer URL is printed out on a new document, as if the command were something like    document.write("javascript:window.document.referrer")

But if I enter the originating site directly, as below,

on(release) {
     
      getURL ("http://www.orignatingsite.html");
}

then the getURL works as a goto, as I would expect, sending the browser back to the external page that called the animation, instead of printing out the site URL in a window.

Does anyone know why

getURL ("javascript:window.document.referrer");

doesn't cause the browser to transfer to the referrer URL?

Thanks
steva