La muerte por testigo

Catch that hair-raising car chase as Geary (Kennedy) escapes prison. It's a dilly, but the crash is not one you walk away from. The movie's a 60-minute gangster programmer from the specialists, Warner Bros. Nothing memorable here, but there are highlights—the great Howard de Silva as a cruel prison guard (I'd rather serve my time in heck); battle-axe Florence Bates in an actual sympathetic role; and the race between fleeing car and speeding train. Okay, I kept a notepad so I could keep up with the maze-like plot. Seems cop Geary goes undercover to get goods on city corruption. But things don't go as planned. Meanwhile characters come and go, which is where the notepad comes in. Then too, there're more than the usual plot contrivances, but they go down easily, since director Lederman keeps things moving in typical Warners fashion.

Can't help noticing the work party scenes were filmed at all-purpose Bronson Canyon. Despite appearances, it's plumb in the middle of LA, next door to the studios. That's why it turns up in so many cheapo films, especially from the sci-fi 1950's. And get a load of leading lady Perry (Alice). No wonder Columbia's ogre Harry Cohn grabbed her off as his wife. Looks like she had a knack for marrying rich guys, so no surprise she left the business. Anyhow, it's a decent little slice of thick-ear, with a good chance to catch one of Hollywood's best actors honing his skills, the great Arthur Kennedy. Besides, who can resist a name like 'Fido Durkin'.

Arthur Kennedy stars in this film from Warner Brothers B picture unit where he plays a cop gone undercover to get the goods on a gambling syndicate. What he doesn't know is that the top cop brass Stanley Andrews and Cliff Clark are the head of the syndicate. After testifying in court Kennedy's framed for murder and sent to prison.

What a predicament, to the crooks he's a stool pigeon and he's now a criminal as well.

In only 63 minutes running time this B film goes at a rapid pace as Kennedy works out a situation that even Franz Kafka couldn't conceive.

Some mighty good performances characterize this film besides those mentioned. Florence Bates as the owner of a lakeside roadhouse, Howard DaSilva as a sadistic prison guard, Jonathan Hale as the governor, and John Ridgely as one of the few convict friends Kennedy makes in the joint.

There's a slam bang chicken run with a freight train during Kennedy's prison break. And his gimmick for clearing himself with the governor, absolutely inspired.

Good product from the Brothers Warner.

Similar premise to Beyond a Reasonable Doubt - a man undercover, the man who put him there dies, and he is sent to prison.

In Strange Alibi, Arthur Kennedy is police officer Joe Geary, who goes undercover to ferret out corrupt police officers. He winds up arrested for the murder of the Chief, the very man who sent him undercover, with the one witness on the lam.

Arthur Kennedy was always terrific, and he's ably supported here by Florence Bates.

This is the type of film Warners excelled in, and while it's just a programmer, it has some exciting scenes.

Baby boomers will see William Hopper, Perry Mason's Paul Drake, as a clerk, and the original Perry White of TV's Superman (John Hamilton) as a judge. Howard daSilva is a sadistic guard.

Some trivia - Florence Bates was the first woman to practice law in Texas.

An important witness is killed and the suspect dies in police custody. Police Chief Sprague sends Joe Geary (Arthur Kennedy) into undercover to infiltrate the crime syndicate. Sprague gets killed and Joe is wounded. Joe gets framed. Nobody believes that he was working undercover other than his girlfriend Alice Devlin (Joan Perry).

This WB gangster police crime drama thriller is mostly a fairly good B-movie. None of it really stands out. Kennedy is fine and the story keeps on moving. The movie doesn't really let anything stand still. The second half is less reasonable. The criminals would be trying to kill him in prison to tie up any loose ends. Anyways, his status as a former cop would definitely gets him killed right away. It does have some fun escape action and nobody cares about realism.

Arthur Kennedy is a police sergeant who goes undercover to root out crooked cops, only to get framed by those very cops for the murder of the police chief he was working for, and winds up being sent to prison. Kennedy, in an early role, is quite good and the film is chock full of the great character actors that pop up in these neat old Warners "B"s--guys like Jonathan Hale, Dick Rich, John Ridgely, Ben Welden and, in a scene-stealing role, Howard Da Silva as a sadistic prison guard. Director D. Ross Lederman, an old hand at these kinds of pictures, keeps things moving at lightning speed, and it has the sneering thugs, tough cops, gun molls with a heart of gold, screaming sirens, screeching tires, breakneck car chases and everything else that made so many of the Warners "B" pictures of the '40s worthwhile. Check it out.