Dozens of films & tv episodes use BACKLASH in the title. Yet, having seen but one other (BACKLASH/’56 - https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/01/backlash-1956.html), I can still comfortably say this is the worst of all BACKLASHes.* Poor 20th/Fox Exec Sol M. Wurtzel, long-time head of B-pics, no longer able to count on MR. MOTO films or CHARLIE CHAN to keep his unit profitable. Now, forced to make-or-break on every release, always starting from scratch. Sure enough, Wurtzel was on his last legs. Only in his 50s, he’d be out of the biz in two years after nearly 200 film credits. This one a substandard film noir about a murdered defense attorney with a former killer-client at large; a young wife with insurance to claim upon his death; and a D.A. already involved with the straying wife. Plenty of suspects for the beetle-browed detective on the case, along with his comic-relief Italian partner. (He puts the make on every secretary with a bit of Italian verse. Maybe it played better in ‘47 . . . nah.) Journeyman hack Eugene Forde, a regular CHARLIE CHAN megger, can’t find a single interesting angle or a spark of originality in his cast of also-rans and serial players. Blah would be putting it mildly.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: I’m sure Forde has better CHARLIE CHANs to watch, but who can keep them straight? On the other hand, seven of the eight MR. MOTOs are top-notch programmers, the good ones all directed by Norman Foster, and produced, of course, by Sol Wurtzel. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/06/thank-you-mr-moto-1938.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Not so fast, a few of those BACKLASH titles come from WWF/WWE tv specials which are probably worse than this film. Too bad no kitchen-sink dramas, suggested title: BACKSPLASH.
No comments:
Post a Comment