The bulk of the action in Backfire may occur over the early days of January, but the holidays are a recurring backdrop over the course of this 1950 noir directed by Vincent Sherman. Gordon MacRae (in only his third feature film and on the brink of becoming a big musical star) and genre staple Edmond O’Brien play Bob and Steve, war buddies who have dreamed up a great future for themselves following their service: pooling their G.I. benefits to purchase and operate a ranch in Scottsdale, Arizona. But Bob was severely wounded in the war, and is currently bedridden in the Birmingham Veterans’ Hospital in Van Nuys, California (a real place, where some filming for Backfire actually occurred at) undergoing surgery on his spine. But it isn’t all bad— he’s fallen in love with his nurse, Julie Benson (Virginia Mayo). The action begins in late November; but on Christmas Eve, as the hospital is all decked out for the holidays and Bob lies in bed, drowsy from medication, a tiny Christmas tree Julie decorated for him sitting on his nightstand and soft choir music audible in the background, things really kick in to gear when he’s visited by a mysterious woman. Frantic, she informs him that his pal Steve has had a bad accident. Bob tells her that he will visit Steve in ten days, after he is discharged, and she gives him an address. It isn’t long before the signs wishing hospital residents a happy new year are being taken down, and Bob becomes mired in a plot involved gangsters and molls and gambling debts and murder accusations and illicit affairs.
Backfire’s excavation of the shattered hopes and dreams for post-war life of Army veterans was a popular theme for many acclaimed Hollywood movies immediately following World War II. But the film, directed by Vincent Sherman for Warner Brothers, was produced in 1948, and wasn’t released until 1950; by then, it was already existing a little out of time, unaided by the almost tacked-on feel of its artificial happy ending. Still, it’s an impressively structured and suspenseful manhunt noir with some neat twists, including a shocking villain reveal. Backfire was based on a story by Larry Marcus titled called Into the Night (a working title for the film as well), and adapted by a relatively new writing team, Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Warners was so impressed with their work, the studio offered them a five year contract. Goff and Roberts next wrote the crime film White Heat, which became an iconic movie and role for screen gangster James Cagney. Mayo also played the (infinitely more devious) female lead in that film, which was made after Backfire, but released before it, in 1949. By the time Backfire came out, the marketing for the movie attempted to capitalize on White Heat’s success and Mayo’s association with it, centering posters on sultry posters of her accompanied by taglines such as, “That White Heat girl turns it on again!”— despite the fact that Mayo’s Nurse Julie in Backfire is about as demure and good-natured as they come.
Backfire may not have been met with the same acclaim as White Heat, but it’s a fascinating and rather dark film regardless, featuring solid work from the likes of Dane Clark, Viveca Lindfors, and Eurasian-American character actor Leonard Strong (portraying a Chinese servant who proves key in dispensing information in the film), book-ended by Christmas Eve sequences (the climax flashes back to the events of that same Christmas Eve at the start, but views them from another perspective to reveal the final piece of the story) that make it appropriate seasonal viewing.
Backfire is currently streaming on HBO Max and Watch TCM, and is available to rent or purchase on all digital platforms. Runtime: 91 minutes.
Katie at the Movies 