Strange Alibi

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.

Often ridiculous but breathlessly paced and mostly entertaining. It's got all of the Warner Brothers staples: quick pace, lots of gun play, average looking leading man with above average acting ability (in this case a very young Arthur Kennedy) and a convincing rough and tumble feel. (You sometimes fear for the actors' safety.) It also has the great Howard Da Silva stealing every scene he's in as a sadistic prison guard.

Sacrifices logic for speed. Hey, plausibility slows things down. A standard undercover-cop-stuck-in-prison flick, though a bit more interesting because of its cast.

Detective Arthur Kennedy hits chief of police Jonathan Hale and gets booted from the force. But don't worry; it's a frame-up so Kennedy can go undercover to investigate who killed an important witness. When Hale is killed, Kennedy is framed and winds up in prison. Can he escape? And how can a corpse prove his innocence?

This Warner Brothers B movie sure packs a lot of plot switches into its 62 minutes, something that's possible because it's Kennedy in the lead, one of the premier character actors of the movies, given a rare lead because it is, after all, a cheapie. That's probably why they got away with so much police corruption on view, and even Howard Da Silva as a brutal prison guard. With Joan Perry, Florence Bates, and Stanley Andrews.

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.

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.