Strange Alibi

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.

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'.

Adventurous old fashion Warner Brothers crime drama, and an early role for Oscar nominee Arthur Kennedy, showing off talent to come. Kennedy plays cop Joe Geary who strikes up a "secret" deal with police chief Sprague (played by Jonathan Hale, famous as Mr. Dithers in the Blondie series). In order to nab a killer of a key witness, he gets himself tossed off the force, thus making himself available for the rats.

Not so fast. What happens when the chief is murdered, leaving Joe with absolutely no alibi, getting carted off to prison. The story rolls here and duck for cover; Howard Da Silva taking center stage as one brute of a guard. A nightmare for Joe, although he has the good fortune of having resourceful gal friend Alice (Joan Perry) helping him on the outside. Veteran actress Florence Bates (who had previously appeared in REBECCA for Hitchcock) has a good role, and some other familiar B film actors. Warner Brothers always had worthy backup for both large scale and small scale productions, that you can count on.

The biggest bit of trivia about this film is Joan Perry would shortly retire and marry Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, making her one of the most influential women in Hollywood for years.

Thanks TCM for running this golden oldie. Always on remastered dvd. Shop online for dvd and blu ray updates via WB.

Strange Alibi harks back to the quick, crude Warners crime-and-corruption movies of the 1930s, showing none of the more nuanced, ambiguous style that started to coalesce in the early 40s. It's a rough and ready programmer, just watchable because of a few of its cast members.

Arthur Kennedy, in one of his earliest roles, plays a cop who stages a dishonorable discharge from the force in order to work the shady side of the street. But, framed for the murder of the one man who can vouch for his honesty, he ends up in the Big House, a target both of other cons (since he was a cop) and the guards (since they think he was a dishonest one; Howard Da Silva plays a particularly sadistic screw). He's in for life, which promises to be nasty, brutish and short, but a few fast friends on the outside are trying to get him exonerated. Chief among them is gold-hearted vice queen Florence Bates, one of the movies' most formidable old battleaxes (before taking to acting, she was the first woman to practice law in Texas).

The plot races and bumps along but manages to work itself out with passable cleverness: Kennedy contrives a scheme in which his innocence is proved by the "testimony" of a corpse.

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.