For this "re-post" we add the solid, sober viewpoint of the late, great Bill MacVicar as a counterpoint to the curmudgeonly bon mots of the late, often grating Bosley Crowther...(see below!)

Film noir from the classic period often deals with returning servicemen trying to cope with life after the military. Sometimes the protagonist is injured or even suffering from some sort of amnesia. Other times, the vet just is having a hard time returning to civilian life. There are many examples of men suffering some sort of dislocation including: The Crooked Way, Dead Reckoning, Act of Violence, Nobody Lives Forever and...



Backfire.

Shot by Warner Brothers in 1948, Backfire wasn't released until 1950. The film, although produced by a major studio, is in the B-movie mold. The stars, with the exception of Virginia Mayo, are not high in WB’s pantheon. Also most of the plot is lifted from other, mostly better films. But that shouldn’t stop you from seeing it. I found the film an entertaining mystery with a flashback structure (a number of people telling their side of the story from their point of view) that was somewhat reminiscent of The Killers.

[EDITOR's NOTE: Lead screenwriter Lawrence B. (Larry) Marcus begins a thirty-year career which has some interesting titles that begin with 50s noir (DARK CITY, CAUSE FOR ALARM, THE BIGAMIST, THE UNGUARDED MOMENT, WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION) and spin out into unusual areas in the 60s (BRAINSTORM, A COVENANT WITH DEATH, PETULIA), ending on a high note in the late 70s with THE STUNT MAN.]

I’m not going to go into the plot too much in detail but it begins nicely. Bob "Cowboy” Corey, a returning serviceman, is in a California VA hospital recovering from over a dozen spinal injuries. While there, he falls in love with his nurse (Mayo) and begins to make plans with his Army friend Steve (Edmond O’Brien) to buy a ranch when he is finally released.

While stuck in bed for months, Cowboy looses touch with Steve and begins to have nightmares that his army buddy is in danger. While doped up on pain killers one night, he’s visited by Steve’s mysterious lounge-singer girlfriend (Viveca Lindfors, doing a sexy Ingrid Bergman impression) who tells him that his future ranch partner is now also suffering from back injuries. Even worse: he’s suicidal. Cowboy passes out before he can find out how to get in touch with him.

Things start looking better when he gets a telegram from Steve telling him all is well. The good news lasts about five minutes (and less than a minute of screen time). After he's released from the hospital with plans to spend a romantic weekend with Mayo at a local swank motel, Bob’s weekend plans are scrubbed when he’s picked up by cops not fifty steps from the hospital exit and taken to the homicide division. There he’s told that his best friend is the suspect in the killing of a high-profile gambler and is on the lam. Cowboy sets out to try to find his friend and clear Steve’s name.



The cast is fine in this one. Mayo gets top billing, but really it’s Gordon MacRae’s film. MacRae, a post-WWII singing star, was famous for appearing in a number of colorful musicals: Backfire is his first and only noir. He plays “Cowboy” Corey as a naive but determined man out to solve a mystery. Mayo, often known for playing snooty dames, plays the good girl in this one. Noir fans will be happy to see Edmond O’Brien (though we really don't see all that much of him, since he's been disappeared). They'll also perk up at the sight of Dane Clark (playing an army buddy with a surprising secret). Noir die-hards will dig seeing Richard Rober. Backfire's obligatory police chief is played by Ed Begley, as he did in about every other film of this type. He does get the best line, however. When a cop begins firing at a fleeing suspect in a crowded street. Begley grabs the policeman’s arm and says, “Stop. You might hit a tax payer!”



While the film gets convoluted due to the multiple flashbacks, it does include some interesting camera work: particularly the scenes shot at a seedy downtown hotel. You'll enjoy the performances by the actors playing the maid and hotel clerk. Look out for the camera view through a keyhole.

Other notable scenes include a shooting of a man in his living room (shot nicely from the outside of the house). Near the end, in another stand-out scene, the killer is foiled in an unsuspected way.

One last note: I enjoy reading Bosley Crowther's contemporaneous reviews at the New York Times. Crowther often more than lives up to his rep as a curmudgeon: I was reminded this week of his very negative review for Gilda when the film first came out. In that vein, here’s his complete review for Backfire (dated January 27, 1950):

A very terse observation is all that Backfire deserves, in view of the feeble detonation of this Warner mystery drama at the Globe. Telling a most unlikely story of a young man who casually proves that his best friend, suspected of murdering a gambler, did not do the job, it rambles from one small coincidence to another without style or suspense until finally it puts a listless finger upon the fellow who did the deed. And even though several nice young people, including Gordon MacRae and Edmond O'Brien, are involved, the most that can possibly be said for them is that they get the thing done.

In this case, the title is descriptive of the effort expended by all. A short and sweet observation covers Backfire: It does!




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.

--bmacv