Backfire (1950) User Reviews

Returning vets drawn into cesspool of postwar Los Angeles

[bmacv · 7/10 · 29 October 2001]

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.

Complex, exciting, and visually rich, but straining slightly under its own weight

[secondtake · 8/10 · 25 June 2011]

Backfire (1950)

A complicated, interesting and sometimes forced story about two ex-G.I.s with dreams of a ranch. But the realities of post-War America set in, with shades of old gangsterism (this is a Warner Bros. film, remember) and with siren calls from lonely women and a murder unexplained. The story is made more complicated (and interesting) by layering a number of flashbacks into the flow, and you have to really pay attention to keep the chronology straight. But this is a plus, in the end, because it's a richly dense movie you could easily watch a second time. Just the range of scenes is ambitious, from gorgeous pouring rain at night to a boxing arena to a sunny army rehab swimming pool to, of course, a detective's office. The photography (under Carl Guthrie) layers up many scenes, some are visually sensational (he also shot the great "Caged" a few months later).

Viveca Lindfors makes some stunning appearances here as Lysa, and you can see why Hollywood thought she might make a new Swedish import like Ingrid Bergman. And she can act, too, with an emotional intensity and range that makes you wonder why her career didn't, in fact, take off. Almost to set her off as the mysterious brooding beauty, the lead woman is the cute, cheerful, all American Virginia Mayo, who plays nurse and friend Julie perfectly. In a way you see in just these two how well cast, and typecast, two women can be, and how the director, Vincent Sherman, works so well with their differences, though we all wish for more of Lindfors.

Likewise for the two leading men. The main star is a pretty boy, and a decent actor, Gordon MacRae as Bob, but MacRae lacks presence and magnetism, and maybe true ability. At first we accept this because Bob is just lying in a hospital bed, with Julie cheerfully attending. But then up he gets, pain all gone, and the real movie starts. His best friend is the underrated noir staple Edmond O'Brien, who isn't pretty at all, but trying, I think, to be something of a Bogart, a regular guy named Steve, with guts and depth and reserve.

With Lindfors, he's still the best performer here, and they have a few scenes together that are the best acted, if not the best written, parts of the movie. If we take the Bergman/Bogart comparison out of "Casablanca" to an extreme here with Lindfors/O'Brien in "Backfire," we can see their scene by the piano as a kind of wartime flashback, shoehorned into the movie for no good reason except to say they must be fated to meet and fall in love. But this isn't easy when someone else already loves the girl, and that someone has a gun, and a warped mind.

Why exactly this doesn't all come together is one of the mysteries of the movies, where there are so many pieces to a puzzle that contribute successively, and concurrently, and getting them perfect is really really hard. Ultimately it's the director we look to for the big decisions (as well as the day to day control), and Sherman had shown once before his mastery of a complex story in "Mr. Skeffington." In a way, this one is just so fractured, following the film noir penchant for flashbacks and femme fatales and confusing plots, it would take a miracle, or a Michael Curtiz, to pull it off (I'm thinking "Mildred Pierce" more than "Casablanca" here).

Still, it's a great film to get lost in, and to pull out the subtleties where they really work well.

MacRae is unlikely star of a noir

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 28 January 2023]

This was an interesting film featuring Edmund O'Brien as a man who seemingly disappears while being investigated for murder. Virginia Mayo plays the nurse of O'Brien's friend, Gordon MacRae who is laid up in the hospital after having multiple spine surgeries. MacRae was wounded in battle during WWII. It is not exactly said how long MacRae was in the hospital, but it was seemingly a long time--long enough for O'Brien to disappear, MacRae and Mayo to fall in love, and the very involved storyline to have taken place. I was also interested in seeing MacRae in a noir. Prior to this, I'd only seen the films he made with Doris Day. MacRae and Mayo are the stars of Backfire.

In this film, they team up to locate O'Brien and determine if he really committed the crimes he's been accused of and to see if he still has MacRae's money. MacRae and O'Brien had planned to pool their funds and build and operate a ranch in Arizona after MacRae's out of the hospital. Most of the film's narrative is told via flashback as MacRae and Mayo meet and talk with people who saw O'Brien. When the characters are introduced, they tell a flashback as to how they knew O'Brien. Each of these stories provide clues as to the reason behind O'Brien's disappearance and also provide clues behind who could have possibly committed the murder(s) O'Brien is accused of. The narrative bounces back and forth between flashback and current time as MacRae and Mayo investigate O'Brien's disappearance.

I thought this was a pretty decent noir and I especially liked the ending. Dane Clark (in a very surprising role), Ed Begley, Viveca Lindfors, and MacRae's wife, Sheila, round out the cast.

An interesting film noir.

[youroldpaljim · 23 June 2001]

Bob Corey, a war veteran recovering in a V.A. hospital for a spinal injury, becomes alarmed when his war buddy Steve Connolly vanishes. One night while under sedation his visited by mysterious woman who informs him that Steve has been seriously injured and is in trouble with the law. Bobs nurse convinces him its all a dream. But when Bob is released from the hospital, he is questioned by police who want to know if he knows where he thinks Steve can be found. The police inform Bob that Steve is suspected of killing a gambler. Bob then sets out to find Steve and find the real killer. Along the way bodies pile up and Bobs search for leads him into the clutches of mysterious mobster named Walsh.

BACKFIRE! is a well directed, photographed and acted noir mystery which holds one interest throughout. The ending comes as quite a surprise when the identity of Walsh is revealed. The cast is excellent, including many of the minor players. It was nice to see Virginia Mayo playing a good girl for a change in a film like this. The writers of this film must have had an obsession with spinal chord injuries, since both male leads suffer such injuries during the film.

Male Bonding, Film Noir Style

[evanston_dad · 6/10 · 5 August 2010]

A common cultural theme providing subtext for many a film noir was the alienation felt by servicemen returning from WWII to a world that had adapted itself to their absence. But that theme usually remained just that -- subtext. Rarely was it dealt with as overtly as in "Backfire," a modest entry in the genre from 1950, and this fact alone makes this otherwise forgettable film notable.

Bob Corey (Gordon MacRae) and Steve Connolly (Edmond O'Brien) are war buddies, Corey layed up in a veterans' hospital recovering from a spinal injury, Connolly sticking close and providing him moral support. The night before Corey's release, while in a drugged haze, Corey receives a visit from a strange, exotic woman (Viveca Lindfors), telling him that Connolly has been injured himself and is asking for Corey. The next day, as he leaves the hospital, Corey is pulled into the police station, where the head of the homicide bureau (Ed Begley) tells him of the murder of crime boss Solly Blayne and evidence incriminating Connolly as the chief suspect. Corey sets out to find his friend in an attempt to clear his name, aided by his girl Friday, nurse Julie from the veterans' hospital, played fetchingly by Virginia Mayo.

What's most interesting about "Backfire" is that though the film gives both men nominal love interests, they're much more interested in each other than either is about anyone else. It would be easy to read homosexual subtext into this film, as it is in many films noir, but it's not really played that way in the movie. The relationship between Corey and Connolly is that of two men who have had to rely on one another in literal life-and-death situations and who now do not know how to rely on anyone else.

It was refreshing to see MacRae in a film like this -- I only really knew him from his string of 1950s musicals, and he equips himself well. O'Brien, a frequent presence in films of this sort, is right at home. And Mayo is a doll, looking for all the world like a 1940s version of Laura Linney. The climax of the film is a rote shoot-em-up, but as always with movies like "Backfire," the journey is a lot more fun than the destination.

Grade: B

A Mysterious Visitor In The Night

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 7 March 2011]

Although Gordon MacRae was signed for musicals by Warner Brothers, Jack Warner like the rest of his fellow Hollywood moguls did not believe in keeping players idle. With no musical properties at the ready, MacRae starred in Backfire about a World War II veteran trying to locate a friend whom the police suspect of murdering gambler Richard Rober.

The friend is Edmond O'Brien and MacRae thinks so because he got a woman visitor with a mysterious foreign accent while he was still all doped up on anesthetic from a final operation. The visitor turns out to be Viveca Lindfors and MacRae despite warnings from police captain Ed Begley is on the hunt, aided and abetted by his nurse Virginia Mayo who took a real liking to MacRae while in her care.

Backfire is not a mystery as such because the more MacRae looks, people get bumped off right and left. When MacRae is finally closing in on solving the mystery, the suspect is rather obvious.

For the most part however Gordon MacRae confined himself to musicals of varying quality and later on left the Hollywood scene altogether for nightclubs. Still he did show he could handle a straight acting job in Backfire and Warner Brothers did give him a strong supporting cast. Backfire still holds up well for today's audience.

Los Angeles Plays the Straight Man Yet Again

[The_Dying_Flutchman · 7/10 · 21 July 2011]

Perhaps not the best of film Noir, but more than serviceable with a fine cast and a haunting performance by Viveca Lindfors. What a babe when young and quite exotic in this role. "Backfire" may well have been written with the matinée crowd in mind as it has many weaknesses, but the director, Vincent Sherman, was efficient in the sequences of action and brutality. Gordon McCrae was a little flat, but I think the studio was trying to give this singer the benefit of the doubt. That has always been the way of things in the movies: give the popular singers of the day a chance to become known in some other milieu. It might have worked better if Edmund O'Brian had played the lead, but such was not the case. Anyway, a slightly better than average trip down the darkened alleyways of Noir's mean streets.

Warners noir, not very effective

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 23 July 2015]

Vincent Sherman was a solid director, but unfortunately, he missed the boat with "Backfire" because a backfire it was and went unreleased for two years. By the time it was released, Edmond O'Brien had enjoyed some big success - but in this, he doesn't have much of a role.

Actually, the beginning of the movie is the best part. O'Brien is Steve Connelly, just back from the war and hoping to buy a ranch with his wartime body, Al Corey (Gordon MacRae). Al was badly injured and has been in the hospital a while. Steve takes off and says he will contact him. But eight weeks go by, and no communication.

One night, while Al is asleep in the hospital and they have given him something to help him sleep, a woman rushes into his room and wakes him up. She tells him that Steve has been injured, he's in terrible pain, and he wants to die. She doesn't know what to do.

Groggily, Al tells her that he is due to be released soon, and Steve should hold on. He points to a pad where she can write down the address. In the morning the paper is blank, and Al's nurse (Virginia Mayo), among others, is skeptical about his story.

Once released, Al sets off to find Steve. He walks into sticks of dynamite getting ready to explode. He learns that Steve became involved with gamblers, and is wanted for murder of a big shot who wanted what he believed was owed him.

The problem is that once they started in on the flashbacks, the film became confusing. Most of the time going back and forth like that in a film is easy to follow, but for some reason, this wasn't.

The film also stars Dane Clark as another war buddy and Viveca Lindfors who is involved with someone named Lou Walsh, a mystery figure responsible for a great deal of mayhem.

"Backfire" seems too long at 91 minutes because the pace was off. MacRae did an okay job but he needed a little more guidance; this would never be his milieu. Viveca Lindfors is stunning -- it's a shame her film career didn't carry her further, but she wasn't one to play Hollywood games. She was an award-winning stage actress and for some time did a one-woman show that toured around the country. Even into old age she did television and small roles in films.

A disappointment all around.

Quite good---and proof that Gordon MacRae was not just a pretty singin' boy!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 11 December 2011]

It's interesting that Gordon MacRae received 5th or 6th billing in this film as he's clearly the star. I think it's because MacRae's Hollywood career had yet to really take off plus he was known as a singing star--not a film noir hero. Heck, Dane Clark and Edmond O'Brien were billed higher than him and they were barely even in the movie. It's also interesting because Gordon's real-life wife, Sheila, is in the film--and they even have a scene together.

The film begins at a VA Hospital. A guy (Gordon MacRae) has been there for a long time following the war and has been undergoing a lot of surgeries due to a spinal injury. It looks like he FINALLY is about to be released and his final operation is nearing. So, he and his friend (Edmund O'Brien) are making plans for MacRae's release. But, just before the surgery, an odd foreign woman shows up and begins telling him a confusing story about his friend being severely injured. MacRae has been anesthetized, however, and can't understand her at all. When he tells the hospital staff about this odd night visitor, they insist that this did not happen. It gets weirder, though, as when MacRae is released, he finds out his friend is missing--and wanted for murder! So, MacRae and his nurse/girlfriend (Virginia Mayo) decide to investigate for themselves and piece together exactly has has occurred.

The missing friend plot is not that unusual--I've seen a few films like this. However, it's sure handled well--with lots of very good supporting actors (such as Ed Begley) and the dialog is quite nice. Now I called this a film noir film and it is, but it is not quite as gritty and dark as typical noir. In addition, it's a bit too polished and lacks the odd camera angles and shadows you might expect in noir. Now these are NOT complaints--more just observations about the film's style. Quite enjoyable and worth seeing--it's a good Warner Brothers effort.

Best line in the film? When the Chinese servant dies while the police are interrogating him, the doctor says "The next person he'll talk to will be one of his ancestors"! Priceless. Best moment? When the baddie is shooting it out with the cops and he CLEARLY has run out of bullets. So what do the cops do? Yep, they fill 'em full of lead!

Backfire Burns Bright ***

[edwagreen · 7/10 · 26 December 2011]

Gordon MacRae in an actual totally non-singing role. He did well here as a veteran searching through the film for his war buddy Edmond O'Brien who seems to have gone missing as the Gordon character is supposed to be released from the hospital.

Ironically, the femme fatale here is not Virginia Mayo but rather Viveca Lindfors, who delivers a quality performance. Ed Begley is his usual crusty self as the head of the police force and Dane Clark steals each scene he is in and as always is at his best in his insanity scene with those bulging eyes.

When the bodies start to pile up, you think it's all related to gambling, but as always there is a girl involved and trouble ahead for those who fell for her.

Overbearing Score...

[jbacks3 · 4/10 · 27 August 2014]

I'd like to nominate Backfire as having the most overbearing, obnoxious musical score in the history of motion pictures. Every scene features ominous music to the point of distraction (1947's Angel & the Badman stands on a plateau just below Backfire... but sounds like Wayne & Co. simply recycled a serial soundtrack to save money). Backfire's music undermines every scene, creating the nauseating feeling that every frame is bursting with suspense... essentially validating Ivan Triesault's (as the director Von Ellstein) complaint (paraphrased) in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) that every scene cannot be climactic. This is a textbook example of how less is more in film noir.

Better than expected crime drama.

[michaelRokeefe · 8/10 · 15 February 2012]

Vincent Sherman directs this star-filled Film-Noir. You don't see the full development of characters; but that is part of the mystery. Bob Corey(Gordon MacRae)is recovering from several spinal surgeries in a California Veteran's Hospital. And who wouldn't want to fall in love with his nurse Julie Benson(Virginia Mayo). The wounded veteran is released from the hospital in time to try and clear his Army buddy Steve Connolly(Edmond O'Brien)from a murder charge. Steve's earlier friends weren't exactly strangers of crime; so who does he go to get money enough for the ranch he and Corey had plans for after getting out of the Army. Steve gets tangled in a bad situation and goes into hiding. Steve and Julie play detectives and unravel a messy set of circumstances. Other players include: Dane Clark, Viveca Lindfors, Ed Begley and Sheila MacCrae. Atmospheric and very watchable.

"C'mon 'Mumbles,' Hurry It Up, Will Ya!"

[davidcarniglia · 7/10 · 25 August 2018]

Pretty good film noir, let down somewhat by a confusing structure. The performances are even and nuanced. Gordon MacRae's Bob undertakes a quest to find a war buddy who has gotten mixed up with gangsters; strangely enough, another war buddy turns out to be the head gangster. By the time Bob has rescued Steve (Edmund O'Brien) there's a pile of bodies left along the way.

The premise is fine, right up noir-alley. Although I'm not convinced that the rather long opening sequence (showing Bob's convalescence) helps the pacing or the tone. It has a lighter romantic motif. Virginia Mayo, as MacRae's love interest Julie, is the angelic counterpart to the sultry dark-haired Viveca Lindfors' Lysa. Maybe the movie should've begun with Bob meeting Bonnie (memorably played by MacRaes's actual wife) and Lysa in the first nightclub scene.

It's difficult to unpack the plot due to a quicksand of flashbacks. That device works better when it's sort of a 'one-way ticket'. If a movie has a frame story, with the bulk of the plot unfolding as a continuous flashback, that's guiding the viewer one way. Or, if the movie starts near the denouement, then goes back, leading up to and beyond the opening, that also points one way.

But in Backfire, flashbacks pop us back, forward, every which way, to the point that we're having to guess when something 'really' happens. The effect isn't only disorienting, it subordinates all the other, more interesting aspects of character, motivation, and atmosphere, to the technical plot puzzle.

The dialogue, especially Shiela MacRae's, was well-written and delivered. Ed Begley's Captain Garcia manages a nice balance between world-weariness and toughness. Lindfors makes a great noir kept woman, and Dane Clark's businessman/hood character(s) shows the superficial charm needed to aptly fill both roles. MacRae doggedly plays the ordinary guy in over his head in noir territory.

Definitely watchable, Backfire suffers from overly-slick plotting that obscures a genuinely good film noir. 7/10.

Waste of a great cast

[WarnersBrother · 4/10 · 23 December 2011]

It isn't difficult to see why this film was held back from release for two years. On a strictly personal level, when I get to see a retorted film noir from Warner's with Edmond O'Brien, Dane Clark and Virginia Mayo, I'm in. But this wasted all of them along with a supporting cast including uncredited parts by some previously and later known stalwarts.

It isn't really much of a film noir, borrows heavily from others and is quite poorly helmed by Vincent Sherman who completely mis-handles the actors and is lensed in a very lackluster fashion.

If you are an O' Brien fan like me, he is a cameo on this pic and by the time it was released was a leading man. Dependable Dane Clark is used over the top of his skills and lovely Virginia Mayo is denied her chance to shine as the good girl. Gordon McRae isn't nearly as bad as some have said, but suffers from a directorial failure.

I do feel the need to comment on a previous review above regarding a subtextual homosexual relationship between McRae and O'Brien. They have a total of less than 4 minutes screen time together and the rest of the film can only lead me to think that the reviewer may have a penchant for finding skeletons not in this particular closet.

Vincent Sherman made some exceptional films "The Hard Way" comes to mind, but this is one of his least efforts.

Passable

[dougdoepke · 20 December 2011]

No need to recap the plot. Those first few scenes in the hospital are charming, when not also spooky. The chemistry between Mayo and McRae is so infectious, I expected them to burst into song at any moment. But then there's that spectral visitation at the foot of McRae's bed. It's expertly staged, surpassing in impact anything else in the film.

However, both the screenplay and the direction go downhill following this promising start. It's a complicated narrative whose alternating threads between flashback and real time are clumsily woven. At the same time, focal shifts between McRae and O'Brien further dislocate the viewer, (and why is Dane Clark given top billing with such limited screen time ).

At the same time, director Sherman doesn't appear to have a feel for the material, filming in flat impersonal style despite noirish touches from cinematographer Guthrie. Good thing that fine actor Eddie O'Brien is on hand to carry the acting department. McRae is handsome and likable, but without the needed gravitas of crime drama, while the ravishing Lindfors's best scene is as the apparition.

I like reviewer Brocksilvey's comments on the male-bonding aspects that I overlooked. In my experience, it's a very real part of military life and need have nothing to do with same sex attraction. Rather it has to do, I think, with the sharing of grueling experiences and the bonds thereby established, ones which can go deeper than more conventional types. Happily, the movie suggests the very sort of bonding Brocksilvey expresses.

Anyway, in my view, the movie's a passable crime drama, but nothing more.

Can You Make a Film Noir Without Venetian Blinds?

[boblipton · 7/10 · 20 December 2020]

Gordon Macrae has been in a veteran's hospital since the War, while doctors operate on his spine again and again. His only visitor is Edmond O'Brien; they talk about going into ranching, but even though Macrae seems up and fine now, the doctors tell O'Brien that ranching is out. O'Brien leaves; a mysterious woman visits Macrae after he gets a sleeping pill; and when he is finally released, he's picked up by police captain Ed Begley. O'Brien is suspected in the murder of a gambler.

It's got all the earmarks of a classic film noir: the camerawork, the film noir, the fever-dream sequences, the flashbacks and the femme fatale. Film editor Thomas Reilly makes some odd choices, but director Vincent Sherman has a sure hand and gives everyone a moment or two in the center of the screen. Maybe it's to throw suspicion on each of them -- except for Ida Moore, who offers an important clue -- but that's part of the mystery game.

As to the question I posed in the title of this review, yes you can. But it's hard and rarely done. Certainly Carl Guthrie's excellent noir photography makes extensive use of them.... and lampshades.

Are you a Viveca fan? I am!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 28 March 2018]

Produced and released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., by whom copyright 11 February 1950. Released 11 February 1950 (U.S.A.), 13 August 1951 (U.K.), 27 July 1951 (Australia). New York opening at the Globe: 26 January 1950. 8,139 feet. 90½ minutes. Shooting title: Somewhere in the City.

SYNOPSIS: Complex crime yarn following Mayo and MacRae as they search for ex-G.I. pal O'Brien, who is on the lam for a murder he didn't commit.

NOTES: Second collaboration of writers Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Their first was White Heat (1949).

COMMENT: A moderately suspenseful thriller with engagingly atmospheric photography, some fair action sequences, and at least one stand-out support performance (Viveca Lindfors). In fact, all the support players walk rings around the two principals, here somewhat out of their element in non-musical roles. Actually, Virginia Mayo is not in the film to the extent her top billing implies (and often in TV transmissions her part is the first to be trimmed).

The identity of the real killer is obvious, but nonetheless intriguing thanks to the skillful playing of the person concerned. The film is also a bit slow to get under way and there are some extraneous episodes that could have stayed in the cutting-room (but were doubtless left in to build up Miss Mayo's part). These things aside, the film is directed at a reasonably fast pace and with a modicum of power and style.

Production values are no more than average by "A" standards but behind-the-camera credits (sets, costumes, music, film editing) reflect the usual craftsmanship of Warner Bros. studio.

I didn't only break his back the last ten days, I broke his heart.

[hitchcockthelegend · 6/10 · 16 February 2020]

Backfire is directed by Vincent Sherman and collectively written by Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts and Larry Marcus. It stars Virginia Mayo, Gordon MacRae, Edmond O'Brien, Dane Clark, Ed Begley and Viveca Lindfors. Music is by Daniele Amfitheatrof and cinematography by Carl Guthrie.

While recuperating from wartime back injuries at a hospital, veteran Bob Corey (Macrae) is visited on Christmas Eve by a beautiful stranger with a message that his army friend Steve Connolly (O'Brien) is seriously injured and in trouble with the police. Upon release, and aided by his girlfriend nurse, Julie Benson (Mayo), Bob enters the labyrinthine underworld of post war Los Angeles in search of his friend.

The warning signs that this might not be a particularly sparky film noir are evident with the lie on the film's poster. Tantalisingly suggesting Mayo as a femme fatale type, the girl from "White Heat" is anything but since she's literally an angel of mercy. Pic is a trifle of nifty noir moments and awkwardly acted scenarios. That it's needlessly convoluted only makes the problems of the staid script come to light.

The problems faced by returning veterans was a recurring noir theme, and here, even though it's not pushed forward to the maximum, it at least gives the story some psychological heart. It has a good cast, good monochrome photography and is played out with some classic noir staples, but it's not all it can be, compounded by a weak finale that feels like a writers compromise. 6/10

"Why do you always get romantic after your hypo?"

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 28 August 2014]

Veteran Gordon MacRae is recuperating from wartime injuries in a hospital. His buddy Edmond O'Brien has been visiting him regularly but suddenly the visits stop. On Christmas Eve, Viveca Lindfors shows up to tell MacRae that his friend is hurt. When he's released from the hospital a short time later MacRae tries to figure out what happened to O'Brien, with help from pretty nurse Virginia Mayo.

Solid film noir with a good cast and several twists & turns. Great role for MacRae, best known for musicals. His wife Sheila also appears in this. Edmond O'Brien, Viveca Lindfors, and Dane Clark are all good. Virginia Mayo is lovely but it's odd seeing her in black & white. She will always be a Technicolor goddess to me. She's enjoyable in this and has believable chemistry with Gordon MacRae. Ed Begley is terrific as the police captain who's also looking for O'Brien. He gets some great lines such as when he stops another cop from shooting at a fleeing suspect because "you might hit a taxpayer." It's something of a hidden gem among film noir movies. For some reason, it sat on the shelf for about a year and a half before it was released.

A complex and well written film with brilliant cinematography

[mauricebarringer · 8/10 · 12 December 2012]

I was quite impressed with the thoughtful, knowledgeable and humorous comments written by so many classic film experts and their keen insights of such a detailed and complicated plot

Since this wonderful noir has been dissected so thoroughly I only have one item to analyze and one other comment to make.

In the beginning of this film Edmund O'Brien jumped out of a window and ran away. The police shot one bullet at him before Ed Begley told the other officer not to take any more shots and risk hitting a taxpayer.

O'Brien was ONLY a person of interest at best and a suspect at worst, but there was NO evidence of any type that he had anything to do with a murder. Why did the police take a shot at him?

P.S. Virginia Mayo did get to star in many musicals, adventure and comedy films during her career, especially from the late 1940s on but probably her 2 best known films were ones in which she played bad girls, "The Best Years of Our Lives" and "White Heat."

OK Suspense Movie

[hogwrassler · 7/10 · 30 November 2020]

I just watched Backfire (1950) this afternoon on TCM. It starts off a little slow but gradually picks up steam in the interest department. The cast is uniformly good with Dane Clark giving a standout performance. The numerous flashbacks are necessary but they make the viewer really pay attention to keep up with the plot. Gordon and Sheila MacRae we're married when Backfire was made. What's really interesting about this movie is watching for the many soon to be familiar faces who show up in small roles, either on screen or voice only. Helen Westcott would have the the female lead in The Gunfighter (1950) with Gregory Peck in the same year that Backfire was made. Others with small roles are: Monte Blue, Russ Conway, John Dehner, Vinton Hayworth, Douglas Kennedy, Charles Lane, and John Ridgely. Backfire is an OK way to spend 90 minutes.

What was that tune you were playing on the piano, Viveca?

[Yasujiro60 · 3/10 · 21 December 2021]

In spite of liking every one of the actors in this movie (in other films), I have to declare that it is the worst noir I have ever seen (just edging out Lightning Strikes Twice ). The plot has deep holes, the acting seems terribly rushed (I mean you, Ed Begley), and the musical score is an awful muddle. What was the director thinking, having Viveca Lindfors sing instead of Gordon MacRae?

If this were a desert than it would be really good until the last few bites

[Ed-Shullivan · 8/10 · 1 December 2020]

As mysteries and dramas go, Backfire held my attention and I was genuinely interested in the four (4) main characters, Actor Gordon MacRae plays an injured war veteran named Bob Corey, While recovering in the hospital from a broken spine he is nursed back to health by the gorgeous Virginia Mayo who plays his nurse and subsequent girlfriend named Nurse Julie Benson, Bob;s army buddy and best friend is a guy named Steve Connelly played by veteran actor Edmond O'Brien. While in the hospital Bob gets a visit from his buddy Steve who shares some information with Bob then suddenly Steve disappears. While still heavily sedated to relieve his pain, Bob gets another mysterious visitor who we subsequently find out is a woman named Lysa Radoff played by Swedish actress Viveca Lindfors.

As the mystery grows deeper and Bob exits the hospital with a good bill of health he is told by the local police to leave the mysterious disappearance of his buddy Steve to the police to solve. The two attractive female leads in Virginia Mayo and Viveca Lindfors and Gordon MacRae are all considered suspects in the disappearance of Steve Connelly who is wanted as a suspect in a recent murder invloved in gambling.

The film kept me intrigued until the so called mystery fell flat as an upside down cake and I must say overall the film was great but the ending was a bit disappointing for what appeared to be a good mystery film until the proverbial THE END was posted.

I give it a better than average 8 out of 10 IMDB rating

This was a surprisingly enjoyable noir watching G.I. Gordon McRae solve the mystery of what happened to his friend.

[cgvsluis · 7/10 · 13 December 2022]

Gordon McRae, who is more famous for his musicals like Carousel, plays an injured G. I. named Bob Corey who has returned from the war with a serious back injury. While he is recuperating he is visited in the middle of the night, while on a strong sedative, by a mysterious woman with an accent. She tells him his friend, fellow soldier, and future ranch partner Steve Connelly has been injured and is on the verge of death. He is also contemplating suicide. Bob tells the mysterious woman to tell Steve to hold on for ten days...the length of time until the doctor said he would be released from the hospital.

Upon his release Bob is picked up by the police and told by Police Captain Garcia (Ed Bagley) that his friend Steve Connelly is wanted for murder. Bob is convinced that his friend couldn't be a murderer and remembering the mysterious women sets out with the help of a sweet nurse and his love interest Julie Benson (Virginia Mayo) to find Steve and prove he is innocent.

This is a great mystery with a nice twist and just a little bit of Christmas...given to us through Christmas carols. This noir really surprised me and I enjoyed it more than I expected to. I recommend this to both mystery and noir fans...and Gordon McRae fans as this was a different role for him. It was nice to see the struggles of the G. I.'s portrayed on film as well as the camaraderie and brotherhood that was developed while they were in service.

Undistinguished.

[rmax304823 · 3/10 · 1 August 2010]

The title, "Backfire," adumbrates the quality of the film. It's one of those generic titles that could mean anything. You know the type -- "Another Dawn," "Guns of Darkness," "Whirpool," "Danger Signal," "Fatal Bliss," "Lethal Panties: The True Story of the Victoria's Secret Murders". The movie is a talky, rather dull murder mystery about Gordon MacRae, who's been undergoing surgery for a couple of years in a VA hospital in Los Angeles, trying to clear his buddy, Edmond O'Brien, of a murder charge.

It has an interesting cast -- Virginia Mayo, Ed Begley, Dane Clark, Viveca Linfors, and even John Dehner and John Ridgeley in small parts. The latter has only one or two lines. Caramba, he was a Warners stalwart during the war years, and here, with that mustache, he looks like an aged John Dillinger.

But this is no film noir, unless we want to invent a new definition for the term. There is no femme fatale, no expressionistic photography, no evocative sets, no atmosphere of resigned despair. What it is, is a B murder mystery. Dump the post-war background, change the casting, and you've got a cheap thriller from the 1930s. Not Charlie Chan, maybe, but Boston Blackie or Dick Tracy.

I was able to spot the mysterious villain shortly after he appeared, not because of an excess of ESP but because of the Inviolable Law of Excess Characters. The director keeps the murder's face hidden during his rare appearance so we know immediately that he's someone we've already met. And which character have we met that uses a well-known performer but seems to have nothing much to contribute to the narrative so far? In any case the structure is clumsy. There's a good deal of talk about money in the movie -- did Edmond O'Brien make off with someone's stash? -- but it's all a red herring.

The performances are all professional except Viveca Lindfors. She's beautiful in a darkly Scandinavian way but her acting is wincingly stilted. Some ten years later she was to have a few small roles in which age had wrecked her good looks and she was immeasurably better.