Hold it. You’re liable to hit a taxpayer. – Backfire (1950)
Backfire (1950) – Wild WWII Connection
Sam, it’s the craziest war story I’ve ever heard.
That’s right. Nazzies and GIs fighting the SS to save French prisoners.
Yes, during World War II
In Austria.
Steve Connelly, Edmond O’Brien says he was with a tank unit in Austria, so it fits.
I guess the truth is stranger than fiction
“So, let’s start at the beginning.”
Hello to all the classic people who are returning. I am glad you are back. I want to welcome any new visitors and let you know there will be spoilers ahead. Today on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on Backfire (1950).
This movie was featured in another video as one of the Top 10 Christmas Film Noirs. Much of the action revolves around a mysterious visitor to an Army hospital on Christmas Eve. Many of the flashbacks reset to the period between Christmas and New Year’s; however, the jumps are not as clearly defined as they could be.
This movie features some great actors, including Gordon MacRae, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O’Brien, Viveca Lindfors, Dane Clark, and Ed Begley, but it is definitely a B-movie. It is rated 6.5 on IMDb.com[1], which may be slightly higher than it deserves. On RottenTomatoes.com, the film doesn’t have a Tomatometer score and only has 42 percent audience approval[2]. As I said, the jumps are awkward, and the plot is not that easy to follow. I started this movie a few times over the years before I actually finished it, even though I’m a super Edmond O’Brien fan.
I’ll tell you that crazy, true World War II story at the end.
Actors – Backfire (1950)
Returning
Edmond O’Brien played Army veteran Steve Connelly. Of course, we have mentioned O’Brien in the Film Noir masterpiece D.O.A. (1949), regular Film Noir 711 Ocean Drive (1950), Between Midnight and Dawn (1950), and Shield for Murder (1954). Other great films include Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and Seven Days in May (1964).
Virginia Mayo played the role of Nurse Julie Benson. Mayo was featured in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), where she played a semi-faithful wife.
Ed Begley played Police Capt. Garcia. We have mentioned Begley in a couple of films: Film Noir Dark City (1950) and the dystopian Wild in the Streets (1968).
New
Viveca Lindfors played the mysterious Lysa Radoff. Viveca was born in Sweden in 1920. She became a film star and moved to the USA following World War II. Viveca had a long career in movies and on television with 152 credits. She is primarily thought of as a theater actor. Viceca is known for Adventures of Don Juan (1948), Film Noir Dark City (1950), and The Way We Were (1973). However, for me, she will always be Catherine Langford, the woman who inherited the Stargate Project from her archaeologist father in the stellar film Stargate (1994). Viveca died shortly after that film in 1995.
Story – Backfire (1950)
The movie opens at the Birmingham Veterans’ Hospital in Van Nuys, California. The hospital was open during World War II to specialize in the treatment of veterans who were quadriplegic and paraplegic, among other disorders.[3] Coming from the European theater, as explained in the movie, instead of the Pacific, it is unlikely, but not impossible, that Bob Corey (Gordon MacRae) would be treated on the West Coast.
Nurse Julie Benson (Virginia Mayo) is sashaying across the campus without a care in the world. She is flagged down by Steve Connelly (Edmond O’Brien). Steve is looking for his war buddy, Bob, who has just come through his 10th back surgery.
Steve shows a flyer for a 600-acre Arizona ranch he wants to buy and work with his former tank crew member, Bob.
Julie gives Steve the bad news that Bob won’t be able to do hard work for a year or more. Steve says he will let Bob know the bad news. Steve tries to hide the news by saying they should buy a gas station.
At the hospital on Christmas Eve, Dr. Nolan (Charles Lane) goes to check in on Bob. Lane is an actor known for making appearances as a cranky old man on television shows like “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Petticoat Junction.” Dr. Nolan and Julie talk about Bob worrying about not hearing from Steve for six weeks.
Julie gives Bob a nice lip kiss and a doctor-ordered sedative. She tells him that since he has had 13 surgeries at this point and there is nothing else they can do for him, he will be released in 10 days.
When Bob is alone, a mysterious woman enters the room and says that Steve has had his spine crushed, and she wants to know if she should end Steve’s life. He says that Steve must hang on until he is released. Bob asks her to write the address where Steve is, but the woman leaves without writing anything. The woman is Lysa Radoff (Viveca Lindfors), but there is no other introduction of who she is at this point.
In the morning, no one believed that Bob had a visitor. There is no record of someone matching that description entering the gates. Bob gets a telegram from Steve saying he is okay and will return soon.
The day after New Year’s, Bob is released from the hospital. He is told not to lift anything heavier than a pencil. They give him a big suitcase to carry when he leaves the hospital. Julie brings in a telegram from Steve. It says he is in Chicago and will be in touch soon.
Julie and Bob plan a date for later that evening.
As Bob is walking out, he is taken into custody by two detectives. They take him to the Homicide Division, where he is questioned by Police Capt. Garcia (Ed Begley). The subject is Steve Connelly. The police suspect Steve murdered a gambler named Solly Blayne (Richard Rober).
Capt. Garcia goes over Steve’s pre-war life as a professional gambler. Capt. Garcia says the telegram came from Julie’s mother in Chicago to keep Bob from worrying. Capt. Garcia begins a flashback to December 4th, the night Solly was murdered.
Solly’s murder was a duplicate of the 1947 Bugsy Siegel murder in Beverly Hills. The gangster was shot through his living room window while sitting inside. Moe Greene in The Godfather (1972) was based on Bugsy Siegel. Another version of Siegel was seen in Bugsy (1991) starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.
Dr. Herbert Anstead (Mack Williams) tells Capt. Garcia needs to leave to give Mrs. Blayne a sedative. Capt. Garcia gets a call saying the desk clerk called, saying Solly was at the hotel an hour before the murder with Steve. The police rush over and begin forcing their way into Steve’s room. Steve puts on his hat and coat before escaping out the window. It was a more formal time. Hat laws and whatnot.
The cops fire a few shots at Steve, but stop for fear of hitting a taxpayer.
The movie returns to the current time, where Capt. Garcia says he has no evidence on Steve, but he is their boy. Bob mentions the Christmas Eve visit and Capt. Garcia says he knows about it, and the medicals called it an aberration. Apparition might fit better. Capt. Garcia decides to check for accidents reported by doctors during the time Steve was supposed to be injured. The cops warn Bob not to play amateur detective as they release him.
On a whim, Bob decides to move into Steve’s room at the Fremont Hotel. The clerk, the same one who called the cops on Steve, makes Bob pay Steve’s outstanding bill. It is $12 for the week, plus 20 cents for phone calls. That is two calls at 10 cents each.
When Bob goes upstairs, he is eyeballed by cleaning lady Sybil (Ida Moore). It is not long until Sybil goes to Bob’s room. She says that she and Steve were good friends, and he was a good tipper. She says he always left a note with a dollar attached.
Sybil continues that Steve and Solly were fighting over $40,000. Solly thinks that 100k, not 40k, was lost in a poker game Steve managed. Solly says that is why he is owed more money, and Steve has until Saturday to pay.
Sybil shows Bob one of Steve’s cards, and it is a business card from Peerless Mortuary.
Bob travels to the mortuary and is reintroduced to Ben Arno (Dane Clark), whom he knew during the war as Corporal Arno. They don’t seem to have been very close, but Arno is very friendly, and Bob goes upstairs for a drink with him. Arno said during the war that he would return to nightclub ownership in New York. But he was too late. He came west to try the same thing, but couldn’t get into the business. He finally decided to get into the mortuary business.
Arno says he gave Steve the card. He flashes back to a few months prior at a boxing match. In a preliminary bout, Steve is acting as a human punching bag. Steve is knocked out. In the dressing room, Steve said he was in bout to make $50. Arno tries to get Steve to join him in business. Arno said he never heard from Steve again.
Julie and Bob go on their date, but Bob can only think about Steve. Surprisingly, he is not mad about the fake telegraph. Julie gets the idea to go talk to Mrs. Blaine. They head to the murder house and get inside. Mrs. Blaine is selling the house. Julie explains what they need, and Mrs. Blayne decides to help.
Mrs. Blayne says she never knew anything about her husband’s business. She flashes back to the night of her husband’s murder. The wounded Solly asks his wife to call Dr. Anstead. However, Solly dies shortly after.
Later, Bob returns to his room. He looks at the bill he paid and sees the two phone calls are from December 3rd, the day before the murder. He goes downstairs and bribes the clerk to look up the number in the record book. After he gets the numbers, Bob steps into the lobby phone booth to call. The first is the time number. Yes, it is true, we used to call a number, and it would tell us the exact time. Much easier than looking at a clock.
The second number was more productive. Bob is connected to a woman who chews him out for being late. Bob says he is Steve, and the girl on the phone says he must want to talk to Bonnie. However, Bonnie is not home, and the unidentified voice says she herself is leaving soon. He asks for the address so he can send flowers, and the voice gives him the address.
Bob takes a taxi to the now-empty house, where he finds a note under the doormat saying the key is hidden in the usual place. He lets himself inside and begins searching the rooms. He finds a framed picture of Lysa Radoff, the mystery woman from the hospital, just before Bonnie (Sheila MacRae) returns. He convinces her that he was let in by the other roommate, Gail, and that he is meeting Lysa.
Bonnie is a rapid-fire New York talker, and she is built like a showgirl. This movie was her film debut, and she later married co-star Gordon MacRae. It turns out that Sheila MacRae played Alice Kramden for 50 episodes on “The Jackie Gleason Show,” from 1966 to 1970. This was the role Audrey Meadows played on “The Honeymooners” from 1955 to 1956. That all being said, Audrey Meadows was the vibe Bonnie was giving off.
Back to the story. Bob tells him that he is a friend of Steve’s, and Bonnie perks up. She asks if Steve or Lysa was in trouble because of Lou. Bonnie adds that Lou was insanely jealous of anyone who paid attention to Lysa.
In flashback, Bonnie tells of how she and Lysa met Steve on the last night they were working at a nightclub. Lysa was finishing her last song when Steve came in with instructions from Lou to bring Bonnie and Lysa to a party. Steve is hit by lightning bolts.
Steve doesn’t quite insist that the ladies attend the party. The ladies know there is a poker game and that they are needed to entertain out-of-town guests. Steve shows he is not afraid of Lou, and Lysa liked that.
Lou is in the poker room gambling and is not shown. Solly comes out of the room and tells Lysa that he has been losing all night. Solly recognizes Steve from the one boxing match. A poker-playing guest becomes hostile toward Lysa, and Steve steps in to protect her.
Lysa sits at the piano and begins an awkward tune. Steve says he recognizes it from an Austrian town outside of Vienna. She says her father wrote the song. This is when it is confirmed that Steve was a tanker and was in Austria during World War II, connecting this movie to the May 5th, 1945, Battle of Castle Itter.
Back in the current time, Bonnie tells that if Lou had seen Steve and Lysa, it would have ended badly for Steve. She also tells Bob that Lou left town, heading to Miami. Bob confirms that Solly lost in the poker game before ducking out while Bonnie was still talking to him.
A man hiding in the bushes shoots Bonnie through the window, killing her.
After Bonnie is killed, Capt. Garcia hauls in Julie, Bob, Corporal Arno, Sybil, the hotel cleaning lady, and the desk clerk. One by one, he releases the people. The ballistics report comes in for Bonnie’s murder, and they are a match for the Solly killing.
Plainclothes cop Blake (John Dehner) brings in information about Lou, but they can’t identify him or find any sign that he is in Miami.
When it’s just Julie and Bob that are left, Capt. Garcia gets a call about a man named Lee Quong (Leonard Strong) who has been shot but is still alive. Since Quong is babbling about Connely, the captain takes the two civilians along.
In the hospital, Quong is delirious. Standing over the bed is a Plainclothesman (John Ridgely). Capt. Garcia questions the man about Lou and Solly. Quong says Solly and Lou are friends, but Solly is dead, and no one knows who killed him.
Quong continues his story in flashback. At a house, Lysa is playing the piano, and Steve is pacing like a caged tiger. Steve is hiding so the police don’t find out that Lou owed Solly 40k. Lysa and Steve are forced to stay in the house, while Lou is the only one allowed to leave. Quong is the man servant.
Lysa begins to question whether Lou killed Solly and why he bought her a house under an assumed name. She says Steve doesn’t owe Lou loyalty. Lysa has a minor breakdown about her decision to stay with Lou, even though she doesn’t love him. Lysa says she loves Steve and wants him to take her away. They get all kissy-faced.
Quong sees Lou watching from the bushes outside. Steve heads out to confront Lou and then go to the police. Lysa decides to go along as well. Lou watches from across the yard. Steve backs the car up the drive and sets the handbrake. On cars, without automatic transmissions, there was no park on the gear selection. So cars parked on a slope were placed in neutral with the handbrake set.
Quong continues to narrate that Lou released the “blake” and the car rolled into Steve, crushing him against the garage. Lysa sees Steve crushed, but not Lou’s actions.
While Lou calls a doctor, Quong gets ready to go to the police. But when Lou realizes Quong saw him loosen the brake, Lou fires a couple of shots into his back. This is told, not shown, as the scene returns to the current time. Quong says the house is in the canyon, but he passes out or dies before he can give the address.
Bob and Julie work on the mystery while riding in a cab. She realizes that Lou only called a doctor to fool Lysa into thinking that he wasn’t involved in the accident.
Back at her hotel, Julie calls Mrs. Blayne and gets Dr. Anstead’s name and address. She dons her nurse outfit, complete with hat and cap, before heading to the office. She convinces Janitor Hommel (J. Louis Johnson) to let her into the doctor’s office. Johnson appears in small roles in four Film Noir out of his twenty credits.
Julie is very casual as she prepares to search. She can’t find any records concerning Steve in the regular files, so they must be in the hidden file location. Dr. Anstead arrives, and Julie hides in an exam room. Anstead opens his desk and reveals the secret file location. Steve’s file says he has four fractured vertebrae and was placed in a cast.
Anstead begins burning the records, but stops when Hommel comes in. Hommel asks about the nurse, and Anstead is alerted to Julie’s presence. She grabs Steve’s file, but Anstead catches her. Julie bluffs that the police are on to the doctor’s secret treatment of Steve. She says to call Bob for verification.
Anstead locks Julie in an exam room. He calls Bob and demands protection in exchange for Steve’s location. He gives Bob that address on Canyon Road. Lou enters the room but is not shown as he shoots Anstead.
Bob takes a taxi to Canyon Road.
Hommel enters the office and finds the murdered Anstead. He frees Julie, who phones for help.
Bob arrives at the house on Canyon Road. He wanders into the dark dwelling as discordant piano music plays. Ben turns on the light, and when Bob calls his name, Ben says, “Ben lives in Glendale, and this is where Lou lives.” BASTARDO. Ben/Lou holds a gun on Bob until the slow man figures it out.
Lou thinks Bob has been looking for Lysa the entire time, since he is insanely in love with her. Lou tells how he set Steve up to work for him, and Steve and Lysa betrayed him.
Lou flashes back to Christmas Eve. He only learned that Lysa visited Bob in the hospital when they were in Capt. Garcia’s office. On Christmas Eve, Lou sat outside waiting for Lysa to return home, not knowing where she was. Lysa pulls into the sloping drive and sets the handbrake. As she walks toward Lou, she realizes that Steve was crippled by Lou. She confronts Lou about the accident. [DON’T CONFRONT THE KILLER WHEN YOU ARE ALONE.]
Lysa tries to call an ambulance for Steve, who is upstairs in a body cast. Lou tries to kiss Lysa into staying, but when she refuses, he strangles her. The murder is shown only in shadow.
Lou tells that Steve is still upstairs. Bob tries to get past the gun-toting Lou. Steve comes down the stairs wearing a torso cast. Sirens are getting louder. The unseen Steve jumps on Lou and saves Bob. Bob pulls the lamp’s cord, and the lights go out. Lou goes outside just as Capt. Garcia and some other cops arrive. After a gunfight, Lou is killed. Julie arrives in another police car.
Steve is rushed to the hospital, and Bob offers him a cigarette as they ride. Steve feels better knowing that Lysa didn’t run out on him.
Sometime later, Steve is released from Birmingham Hospital, carrying a big suitcase. Julie and Bob arrive in a jeep to pick him up. On the spare tire, it says Happy Valley Ranch. They drive away to live out their dream.
Seems to be more of a redneck Saturday night. A guy, his girlfriend, and his best friend in a pickup truck.
Conclusion – Backfire (1950)
This movie was completed in October 1948 but was not released until 1950. The title credits list Viveca Lindfors and Dane Clark above Virginia Mayo and Edmond O’Brien in fourth position. The popularity of the major players had changed over the two years, and the marketing material at the release listed the players as Mayo and MacRae in larger type above the title. O’Brien, Clark, and Lindfors were listed in smaller type below the title.
So, it is finally time for that odd World War II tie-in. In the movie, Steve and Lysa talk about him and Bob being tankers and being in her Austrian town. Historically, on May 5th, 1945, three days before the German surrender in World War II, a battle was fought near Castle Itter in Austria. Members of the 23rd Tank Battalion of the 12th Armored Division, joined with Wehrmacht soldiers, who were still at war with the USA, to fight against hardcore nazzie 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division members. The Americans and Wehrmacht soldiers were fighting to save the lives of French prisoners who were being held at the castle. The French prisoners also joined the fight against the SS.
There was another time when the Wehrmacht and American soldiers joined forces to fight the SS. Called Operation Cowboy, the combined force attacked into nazzie-occupied Czechoslovakia to save the Lipizzaner Breeding Mares of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna from falling into Soviet hands. To accomplish this task, they had to fight off two SS attacks.[4]
At this time, the Soviets were US allies. The Americans used freed allied POWs, from several nations, German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe troops, and anti-Soviet Cossacks who had deserted from the nazzies to complete the operation. Soviet tanks arrived at the end of the removal but presented no opposition. [5]
You can’t make this stuff up.
World-Famous Short Summary – Don’t date the gangster boss’s wife or girlfriend.
Beware the moors.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042219/
[2] Backfire | Rotten Tomatoes
[3] Birmingham General Hospital, California – Wikipedia
