Backfire! *** (1962, Alfred Burke, Zena Marshall, Oliver Johnston) – Classic Movie Review 12,106

The 1962 British black and white Edgar Wallace Mysteries thriller film Backfire! stars Alfred Burke, Zena Marshall and Oliver Johnston. An arsonist burns a factory down for the insurance but the plan goes murderously wrong.

Backfire! (1962, Alfred Burke, Zena Marshall, Oliver Johnston).

Director Paul Almond’s 1962 British black and white Merton Park second feature Edgar Wallace Mysteries thriller film Backfire! stars Alfred Burke, Zena Marshall and Oliver Johnston. Arson and murder seem the last resort for a failing cosmetics firm.

It is a cheap and humble but entirely involving and satisfactory Edgar Wallace mystery support feature about an insurance man (Noel Trevarthen as Jack Bryce) investigating suspected arson and murder at a cosmetics factory. The Edgar Wallace Mysteries were long underestimated, just quickie films given away with the main feature, but now their value is being properly appreciated.

Bernard Curzon (Oliver Johnston), the elderly head of a failing cosmetics firm called Venetia Beauty Preparations, employs the brash, cold and confident and vaguely sinister Mitchell Logan (Alfred Burke) as a partner, along with his greedy, scheming wife (Zena Marshall as Pauline), to save his ailing business. However Logan’s confidence is not matched by his business abilities and sales have slumped and Venetia Beauty owes money to its main supplier (Derek Francis as Arthur Tilsley), who wants his money back immediately.

Logan decides that the best way forward, the only way forward, is the desperate idea of employing an eccentric American professional arsonist (John Cazabon as Willy Kyser) to burn the factory down to claim on the insurance, against the wishes or agreement Curzon.

The night of the planned fire, Logan learns his wife’s £5,000 mink coat is still in the factory, and drives over fast to rescue it, but finds the nice Hungarian cleaning lady (Madeleine Christie as Hannah Chenko) at work in the stockroom where she notices the wire apparatus to set the fire off. Logan acts fast and makes his getaway, leaving the cleaner dead.

Backfire! has a capable screenplay by Scottish screenwriter Robert Banks Stewart, is very tolerably made on its low budget by Paul Almond, and is effectively performed, especially by the three principals Alfred Burke as the devious Mitchell Logan, Zena Marshall as his wife Pauline, and Oliver Johnston as the company’s manipulatable elderly founder, all fine actors. Burke and Marshall are tremendous villains, quite excellent.

But also notable in the cast are Noel Trevarthen as Jack Bryce, Suzanne Neve as Curzon’s sweet grown-up daughter Shirley Curzon, Derek Francis as blunt businessman Arthur Tilsley, John Cazabon as Willy Kyser, and Madeleine Christie as Hannah Chenko. They are all good in their different ways. It’s an interesting cast, giving attractively, some showily, eccentric performances that work nicely in the context, adding a layer of fun and warmth to what is essentially a dark and chilly story.

Paul Almond directs briskly and capably. Robert Banks Stewart’s screenplay is packed with engaging quirks and plenty of suspense, with loads of Edgar’s Wallace’s trademark intricate plotting. The production is entirely workmanlike, with the cosmetics company flavourfully created in the studio both before and after the fire. Bernard Ebbinghouse’s jazzy pop score is very effective in places and discordantly out of place in others.

It was released in UK cinemas on 30 April 1962 as the support film to Waltz of the Toreadors (1962), one of a handful of Merton Park’s Edgar Wallace series to go out on the Rank circuit rather than ABC.

Backfire! is directed by Paul Almond, runs 61 minutes, is made by Merton Park Studios, is released by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (1962) (UK), is written by Robert Banks Stewart [Robert Stewart], based on the novel by Edgar Wallace, is shot in black and white by Bert Mason, is produced by Jack Greenwood, and is scored by Bernard Ebbinghouse.

Zena Marshall (1 January 1926 – 10 July 2009) also appeared in the Edgar Wallace mystery film The Verdict (1964). She is best known as Miss Taro in Dr No (1962) and Countess Ponticelli in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965).

The cast

The cast are Alfred Burke as Mitchell Logan, Zena Marshall as Pauline Logan, Oliver Johnston as Bernard Curzon, Noel Trevarthen as Jack Bryce, Suzanne Neve as Shirley Curzon, Derek Francis as Arthur Tilsley, John Cazabon as Willy Kyser, Madeleine Christie as Hannah Chenko, Claire Neilson (credited as Claire Isbister) as Valentina Chenko, Frank Hawkins as Inspector Fletcher, Donald Eccles as Hargreaves, Melody O’Brian as Thelma, Edwin Brown as commissionaire, Beresford Williams as nightwatchman, Bernard Kay as fire chief, Philip Ray as coroner, Audrey Nicholson as hotel maid, Terry Bale as van man, Stuart Hutchinson as fireman.

The 48 Edgar Wallace Mysteries

The 48 Edgar Wallace Mysteries: Clue of the Twisted Candle (1960), Marriage of Convenience (1960), The Man Who Was Nobody (1960), The Malpas Mystery (1960), The Clue of the New Pin (1960), The Fourth Square (1961), Partners in Crime (1961), Clue of the Silver Key (1961), Attempt To Kill (1961), The Man at the Carlton Tower (1961), Never Back Losers (1961), The Sinister Man (1961), Man Detained (1961), Backfire! (1962), Candidate for Murder (1962), Flat Two (1962), The Share Out (1962), Time to Remember (1962), Number Six (1962), Solo for Sparrow (1962), Death Trap (1962), Locker 69 (1962), Playback (1962), Locker Sixty-Nine (1962), The Set Up (1962), On the Run (1962), Incident at Midnight (1963), Return to Sender (1963), Ricochet (1963), The £20,000 Kiss (1963), The Double (1963), The Partner (1963), To Have and To Hold (1963), The Rivals (1963), Five To One (1963), Accidental Death (1963), Downfall (1963), The Verdict (1964), We Shall See (1964), Who Was Maddox? (1964), Act of Murder (1964), Face of a Stranger (1964), Never Mention Murder (1964), The Main Chance (1964), Game for Three Losers (1965), Change Partners (1965), Strangler’s Web (1965), Dead Man’s Chest (1965).

The long series of second feature films based on Edgar Wallace novels, released between 1960 and 1965 in British cinemas, were later sold to American TV and screened there as The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,106

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