This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Gordon MacRae is a wounded ex-GI who's been in an army hospital for treatment for a broken spine. He falls for the beautiful nurse who took care of him, and he and his army buddy have planned to go into business as ranchers when he was released from the hospital. However, his buddy disappears suddenly and MacRae is told by the police that's because he's the prime suspect in the murder of a notorious gambler. MacRae, refusing to believe that his pal is guilty of the crime, sets out to find his buddy and clear his name.Director Vincent Sherman, an old Warner Brothers hand, was an expert at making tight, suspenseful thrillers--check out "Underground", a terrific 1941 little "B" he made for Warners--but this isn't one of his better efforts. He doesn't seem to have had his heart in it, as there are holes in the somewhat contrived script big enough to drive a truck through, there are way too many convenient coincidences and the identity of the real killer becomes very obvious not long into the picture. Edmond O'Brien is excellent as MacRae's army buddy but Virginia Mayo isn't much more than window dressing as MacRae's love interest (his real wife Sheila MacRae has a small part as a brassy party girl). MacRae tries hard, but he just isn't up to the part. It has a good supporting cast and does have its moments, but overall it's one of Vincent Sherman's lesser efforts, with more minuses than pluses.

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.

I was quite impressed with the thoughtful, knowledgeable and humorous comments written by so many classic film experts and their keen insights of such a detailed and complicated plot Since this wonderful noir has been dissected so thoroughly I only have one item to analyze and one other comment to make.In the beginning of this film Edmund O'Brien jumped out of a window and ran away. The police shot one bullet at him before Ed Begley told the other officer not to take any more shots and risk hitting a taxpayer.O'Brien was ONLY a person of interest at best and a suspect at worst, but there was NO evidence of any type that he had anything to do with a murder. Why did the police take a shot at him? P.S. Virginia Mayo did get to star in many musicals, adventure and comedy films during her career, especially from the late 1940s on but probably her 2 best known films were ones in which she played bad girls, "The Best Years of Our Lives" and "White Heat."

Caught this movie on TCM, and never having heard anything about it, I watched it mainly because of the principal actors. However, the story line was quite a good one, but unfortunately, it was very poorly executed. Film noir - I don't feel so, it was really a B-Grade Whodunit?, and was disappointing when you think of some of the Actors. Edmond O'Brien (usually very good, but had some terrible lines to say), Virginia Mayo (lovely, and actually very good as a good girl!), Dane Clark (really hammed it up late in the movie), Gordon MacRae (should have stayed in Oklahoma), Viveca Lindfors ( really bad, and she sang worse). Ed Begley, a great actor, was badly miscast, and amongst the unknowns I saw John Ridgely ( a staple in many warner films), but all in all, very much a programmer.