Gesetzlos

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.

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.

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.

I thought "Backfire" was an engrossing story, a noir told in flashbacks. The script was literate and had some snappy repartee customary of the genre. It was genuinely mysterious as injured war vet Gordon MacCrae searches all over Los Angeles for his missing buddy Edmond O'Brien. He comes across several dead ends and there seems to be no apparent answer for his predicament, or for a lead on the whereabouts of O'Brien.

Then came the ending. As so often happens in many movies, the screenwriters seemed stumped for a way to end their story, and resort to unsatisfactory circumstances that do not fit the rest of the plot and spring a ridiculous final scene on us that leaves us slack-jawed. They also leave us with unanswered questions and give us a chance at revenge via the IMDb website by awarding a lower rating than it was originally destined for.

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.