Backlash

Backlash" from 1947 stars John Eldredge, Robert Shayne, Jean Rogers, Richard Travis, and Louise Currie.

Shayne, Inspector Henderson from the '50s Superman, has a larger part than usual.

John Eldredge is an attorney named John Moreland. When he appears to have died in a fiery car crash, his wife (Rogers) is a main suspect. Moreland has been poisoned not once but twice, probably at her hand, but insists that the doctor not report it. However, his law partner (Shayne) owes him $40,000, so there's another suspect.

The detectives in charge (Richard Benedict and Larry Blake) find the whole thing suspicious. If your wife is trying to kill you, why wouldn't you say so?

There are some other complicating factors, making for a muddled story with a lot of unnecessary dialogue. Also, the acting was very stiff.

This is a 20th Century Fox film, in fact, one of the last, as the B movie section would shut down and the head of it, Sol Wurtzel, eventually retired.

You can really see why after viewing this.

I wasn't really familiar with any of the cast members in Backlash but despite a rather verbose script, I thought they all did a decent job and I found most of them likeable. I'm new to Jean Rogers but I liked her here. As for the male cast members, they seemed to all be styled to look exactly alike. So the story premise is good but it just doesn't go anywhere. I think there are just too many moving parts and characters to keep track of them all, particularly for a film with a comparatively short running time. Despite a solid cast Backlash just can't create enough momentum to make it worth the viewers time.

Yikes, but there's a load of dialogue in this film-noir. It's almost exhausting to listen to after a period of relentless chatting and precious little actual action. "Moreland" (John Eldrdge) features much more prominently in this detective yarn about his own murderer than you might expect. That's because it's told via a series of flashbacks as the pursuing police detective "McMullen" (Larry J. Blake) interviews all the suspects and tries to piece together the evidence from his widow "Catherine" (Jean Rogers), the DA "Conroy" (Richard Travis) and just about everyone else from within a ten mile radius of the crime. Thing is - there is a twist, and one hell of twist at that, and that leaves "McMullen" and his theories all well and truly up in the air. We are given enough clues to anticipate the denouement, but Eugene Forde still manages to keep us guessing for some of this - it's just that there's way too much verbiage and the retrospective style of storytelling is a bit repetitive after a while. None of the acting, or the writing, really sets the heather on fire and at times it felt like quite a long hour-long watch. Watchable, but forgettable.

Where to begin? Well, it's not good, that's for sure. It's flawed in so many ways, it's hard to find much of anything good to say about it.

1) The premise is contrived. One of those movies that must have been written backwards with earlier scenes created afterwards only to help somehow find their way to the climax that was the only thing pitched to the studio to get approval to make it.

2) The plot is far too convoluted for its 66 minute run-time. Again, the whole movie is meant to lead us to the final act, whether it naturally leads there or not.

3) The dialog is ridiculous - stilted and overly dramatic.

4) Character development is nearly non-existent. Most everything we learn about any of them comes almost strictly from others' descriptions of them awkwardly jammed into the script to save time.

5) The male actors are fairly indistinguishable from each other. If you don't pay close attention it's easy to lose track of who's who.

6) Female lead Jean Rogers couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. She's very pretty, but her acting is wooden and she delivers her lines as though she's reading the script for the first time as practice for her elocution coach.

7) Supporting actress Louise Currie can't act either. Also pretty, though in that cold, slightly trashy sort of way. You know, the kind of girl you might want to see, but never be seen with.

8) The soundtrack is generic, and like the dialog, often becomes overly dramatic and even inappropriate - at times more irritating than properly mood setting.

9) The cinematography and sets belie the flick's obviously low budget.

10) The two bright spots, as far as players in the movie goes, are wasted and get the least screen time - Sara Berner as the maid and. Wynne Larke as the detective's wife.

This is strictly a late night TCM diversion when there's nothing else on and you can't get to sleep (it may help).

"Backlash" is clearly a B-movie. Its short running time (a little over an hour), absence of big-name stars and overall plot practically scream B! And, as far as B-movies go, it's okay...just okay.

John Moreland doesn't like his life nor his wife, though he's kept this very much to himself. So, when he sees an opportunity, he fakes his own death AND implicates his wife as his murderer! Naturally, the plan doesn't go off without a hitch, as the film was made during the era when crime certainly did NOT pay!

The story isn't bad but the film often resorts too much to talk...and the talkiness of the picture didn't help it. In addition, it features one of the worst and most over-used clichés in mystery films...the guy who calls up and says "I can't tell you over the phone...can you come over here right away?". You just KNOW that the guy'll be dead before anyone arrives to help him or hear his evidence! These are reasons why I think this is a purely average time-passer and not something with a bit more to offer.