Goff and Roberts would go on to write White Heat the following year, a film that also stars O'Brien and Mayo.

In November 1948, Bob Corey is an American soldier badly wounded at the end of World War II who is undergoing a number of surgical operations on his spine at the Birmingham General Army Hospital in Van Nuys, California.

On Christmas Eve, as Corey lies semi-conscious in bed, a woman with a Swedish accent appears at his bedside.

She says that Connolly has been in a horrible accident; his spine is shattered and he wants to die, but she has refused to help him commit suicide.

One night, Connolly went to a nightclub to pick up Radoff and bring her to Walsh's party, and Willis joined them.

The next night, Garcia interrogates Corey and Nurse Benson and accuses them of interfering in the investigation and causing Willis' death.

Garcia is alerted by telephone that a local Chinese man, Lee Quong, has been shot and is claiming he has information on Steve Connolly.

Quong relates how he was the butler and cook at a magnificent nearby home which Walsh purchased as a gift for Radoff.

Walsh had installed Connolly in the house as her bodyguard unwittingly putting the two lovers together, and their relationship intensified.

Quong relates that on December 14 he eavesdropped on Connolly and Radoff as they made plans to run away and get married.

Walsh released the parking brake on the car, and it rolled down the driveway and injured Connolly — crushing several of the vertebrae in his back.

Acting on a hunch, Nurse Benson contacts Mrs. Blayne and asks her the name of the doctor she called the night her husband was murdered.

Corey is intercepted inside the house by Ben Arno, who reveals that he is the gambler Lou Walsh.

Arno tells Corey he did not want to martyr Connolly for fear of losing Radoff's love, so he staged the accident.

[2][3] The studio tried to interest Vincent Sherman into directing the picture, but he felt the story was "confused and pointless" and refused.

By the spring of 1948, Sherman had finished directing Adventures of Don Juan with Errol Flynn and Viveca Lindfors, and wanted to work on a simple picture.

Although Goff and Roberts considered themselves comedy writers, Warner Bros. hired them to work on the crime story Into the Night.

[2] He had six actors who were "sitting around doing nothing but picking up their checks": Edmond O'Brien, Gordon MacRae, Virginia Mayo, Dane Clark, Viveca Lindfors and Richard Rober.

The song that Viveca Lindfors sings in the nightclub is "Parlez-moi d'Amour," written by Jean Lenoir.

[1] White Heat, starring James Cagney, Edmond O'Brien, and Virginia Mayo, had been released to widespread acclaim and strong box office while Backfire remained unreleased.

The poster also gave away the surprise conclusion to the film by depicting Dane Clark strangling Viveca Lindfors.

Bosley Crowther, writing for the New York Times, found the film feeble and listless, and the plot rambling.

"[12] Leslie Halliwell, writing in 1977, noted that the flashback structure, intended to solve some of the expository problems in the film, did not work.

[14] Critic John Howard Reid assessed the film as "borderline" in 2006, but felt cinematography was effectively atmospheric and the action sequences fair.

Reid thought Mayo's part too slim, and that it had been improperly built up by the script and editing to accommodate a star of her stature.

[18] Warners was much more pleased with the efforts of Goff and Roberts, and gave them a five-year contract to write screenplays.

The film was regularly screened on broadcast television in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, although most airings trimmed Mayo's part substantially.