Alibi
Directed by Roland West
Written by Roland West and C. Gardner Sullivan from a play by John Griffith Wray et al
1929/US
Feature Productions
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Instant
Joan Manning Williams: Law! Is bull-dogging, third-degreeing people into confessing crimes they didn’t commit, is that law?
Buck Bachman: No, but… Oh, I don’t understand.
Joan Manning Williams: Of course you don’t. You’re a policeman. And you’ll never understand!
This precursor to the great gangster films of the early thirties is atmospheric but suffers from early talkie-itis.
Straight-arrow Detective Sgt. Buck Bachman (Harry Stubbs) is in love with Joan Manning (Eleanor Griffith), a policeman’s daughter and wants to marry her. She rejects him in favor of recently released gangster Chick Williams (Chester Morris), whom she thinks was wrongfully convicted. They marry.
But Chick is unrepentant and is soon back to his evil ways. He takes Joan to the theater and uses her as an alibi for a robbery committed during the intermission. A policeman is killed and soon an intense police investigation begins to corner him. With Regis Toomey in his film debut as a police double agent.
This movie has its merits. It looks good, with plenty of atmospheric lighting, and Chester Morris makes an excellent charismatic anti-hero. On the other hand, it suffers from the slow pacing and stilted dialogue style that mars many of the very early talkies. Regis Toomey hams it up to the max as my least favorite film character the “comic” drunk. On balance, I’m glad I saw it.
Alibi was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Morris), and Best Art Direction.
Restoration Demonstration
