- After watching Vincent Sherman's Backfire, I must confess that I have absolutely no idea what this film's title refers to. Personally, I would have called it "Half a Dozen Flashbacks Narrated by Funny Side Characters," but I suppose that isn't quite as catchy. Anyway, the film's main gimmick is that it deploys flashbacks both well and often, granting its many amusing character actors (Ed Begley, Ida Moore, Dane Clark, Frances Robinson, Sheila MacRae, Leonard Strong) a few more minutes in the spotlight than they would normally have gotten. If only the wonderfully odd David Hoffman had gotten a chance to narrate, too, we might have had a perfect movie.
- As it stands, we still end up with a very good movie in which injured war veteran Bob Corey (Gordon MacRae) embarks on a quest to locate his best friend Steve Connolly (Edmond O'Brien), who used to visit the hospital every day. Corey's nurse and love interest, Julie Benson (Virginia Mayo), suspects that Connolly is simply out of town, but the police have Connolly pegged for the murder of a crooked gambler named Solly Blayne (Richard Rober). Corey's own investigation tracks matchbook covers back to mortuaries and phone archives to apartments before finally stumbling upon a picture of a beautiful woman (Viveca Lindfors) whom everyone else thought was a hypo-induced dream. Corey figures Blayne was killed by the woman's boyfriend, a shadowy figure named Lou Walsh, but how can Corey hope to catch this killer on his own?
- Did I mention that Backfire has a surprisingly high body count? It seems like people are constantly getting shot through windows in this film, and always with the same gun. In fact, I was a bit disappointed when a doctor (Mack Williams) is gunned down without a window being involved, but then again I suppose his office was located on an upper floor. In any case, Backfire certainly manages to pack a few surprises into its final moments, even if it is fairly easy to deduce Lou Walsh's big secret. Overall, I was reminded that very few films employ flashbacks nearly as well as this one does. In fact, I can picture myself thinking back on this issue in the future, slowly narrating to myself about how good of a movie this was...
