Backfire (1950)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Vincent Sherman

Writers:

Larry Marcus (story)
Larry Marcus (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

11 February 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance

Plot:

Bob Corey, recovering from a series of operations in a Veterans' hospital, learns that his friend, Steve Connally...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Clue | Operation | Undertaker | Gambler

Cast

Virginia Mayo	...	Nurse Julie Benson
Gordon MacRae	...	Bob Corey
Edmond O'Brien	...	Steve Connolly
Dane Clark	...	Ben Arno
Viveca Lindfors	...	Lysa Randolph
Ed Begley	...	Capt. Garcia
Frances Robinson	...	Mrs. Blayne
Richard Rober	...	Solly Blayne
Sheila MacRae	...	Bonnie Willis (as Shela Stephens)
David Hoffman	...	Burns
Monte Blue	...	Det. Sgt. Pluther
Ida Moore	...	Sybil
Leonard Strong	...	Lee Quong
John Ridgely	...	Plainclothesman

Also Known As:

Somewhere in the City (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Completed in October 1948, but not released until 1950.

Returning vets drawn into cesspool of postwar Los Angeles

The dislocation felt by returning servicemen was one of the chief topical themes of the film noir cycle. After being primed to take risks but no prisoners in the anarchic and violent theaters of World War, many found it hard to ratchet back down upon their return to an often jarringly altered society. Amnesia was the primary noir metaphor -- having to reconstruct an entire past life from scratch. Others faced having to cope with disabilities; still others, having spent the "best years of their lives" in hellholes abroad, weren't about to wait for the high life on the installment plan.

Backfire forgoes amnesia for the latter two categories. Gordon MacRae recuperates from spinal-cord injuries in a veterans' hospital until he can get out and buy a ranch with army buddy Edmond O'Brien, who abruptly vanishes. Upon release, MacRae sets out to track him down through the labyrinthine underbelly of postwar Los Angeles. It looks like O'Brien got mixed up with heavy gamblers, and is in fact wanted for apparently murdering a syndicate kingpin. MacRae is aided in his quest by his nurse (Virginia Mayo, good as a good gal for once) but thrown off the trail by a mysterious foreigner (Viveca Lindfors, as a discount-chain Ingrid Bergman). But, as always in the noir scheme, things are rarely what they at first seem....

No masterpiece, Backfire nevertheless keeps up the pace and the suspense, drawing (like Somewhere in the Night) on themes and formats that were central concerns of the cycle.