BACK STAB

Canada, 1990, 91 minutes, Colour.
James Brolin, Dorothee Berryman, Meg Foster, June Chadwick, Brett Halsey, Isabelle Truchon.
Directed by Jim Kaufmann.

Back Stab is a routine thriller filmed in Montreal. It was directed by Jim Kaufmann who spent most of his time in television although around this period he made another feature film besides Back Stab, A Star for Two, a romance with Lauren Bacall and Anthony Quinn.

The film focuses on an architect played by James Brolin who is involved in an affair after his wife’s death but also in a murder mystery – and he has to spend his time justifying his innocence to his lawyer, played by Meg Foster.

There are many coincidences but the film is so fast-paced that audiences are kept moving along with it until the final denouement. An ordinary murder mystery that is average entertainment.

1.The popularity of murder mysteries? The quality of this mystery? The court sequences? The denouement?

2.The Canadian city, the world of affluence, the professional world, the apartments? Offices, courts? The musical score and its moods, over-emphasising atmosphere?

3.The title and its irony? The murder victim? Cliff?

4.James Brolin’s performance as Cliff: the architect, the grief at his wife’s death, the takeover and the celebration, his work, leaving, his relationship with Jennifer? The seduction? Juliet and her relationship with Cliff? The discovery of the body? The arrest? His relying on Sarah, her legal advice? The court? Caroline? Witnesses, his growing desperate? The intervention of Jennifer? The hanging? Juliet, the photo and the gun? Caroline and the confrontation? The background story, so often explored of, the wrong man?

5.Juliet, relationship, her loyalty, her mother, support, the truth, the affair, hearing Caroline, feeling used, her death?

6.Jennifer, acting, the seduction, the hanging?

7.Sarah, her friendship, her skill at her work, listening to Cliff, her suspicions, her work in court?

8.The takeover of the company, the background of divorce? The plans, murder and framing?

9.Popular themes of evil and greed, victims and being used, courts and justice – in the context of a popular murder mystery thriller?