Robin Moss
The 1962 film Backfire - there have been several with this title - is a cheaply made British B feature adapted from a story by Edgar Wallace. A cosmetic company is trading at a loss and has severe cash flow problems. One of the partners, Mitchell Logan, suggests starting a fire and claiming the insurance money but the company's founder disagrees. Logan goes ahead anyway and bit by bit things go wrong, forcing Logan to become ever more criminal. The core narrative is unoriginal but the the film is so tightly edited that the audience's attention never wavers.The film's main interest today lies in presenting two small-time actors who are now remembered because of one famous role. Zena Marshall who was exploited by a very caddish James Bond in Doctor No here plays Logan's wife and does so adequately but with no hint of the sexiness she brought to her role in Doctor No. Alfred Burke who was soon to become a household name playing Frank Marker in the television series The Public Eye here plays Mitchell Logan and very persuasively makes him sinister and unpleasant and almost the opposite of Frank Marker.As was the case with all the Edgar Wallace series, the film is well photographed and edited.
