Backfire ** (1964, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Gert Fröbe) – Classic Movie Review 11,560

Breathless stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg are reunited for director Jean Becker’s solid 1964 action crime-comedy Backfire [Echappement Libre].

Belmondo plays David Ladislas, a small-time Parisian crook who tries to smuggle a car to Beirut, Lebanon, and on to Damascus, Syria, on a deal from a Paris crime organisation. But David, accompanied by photographer Olga Celan (Seberg), discovers that he is smuggling gold, and he wants to keep it.

Backfire is minor, forgotten stuff from Belmondo’s best period, but the adventure, action and the caper are quite appealing handled, with the actors on good form.

It is based on the novel by Clet Coroner.

Also in the cast are Gert Fröbe as Fehrman, Enrico Maria Salerno as Mario, Renate Ewert as Comtesse, Jean-Pierre Marielle as Van Houde, Diana Lorys as Rosetta, Fernando Rey as the Lebanese policeman, Wolfgang Preiss as Grenner, Michel Beaune as Daniel, Roberto Camardiel as Stephanidès, Fernando Sancho as Ylmaz, and Giacomo Furia as Nino.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,560

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