Alibi (1929) User Reviews (23)

Worth the view

[rbyers · 6/10 · 4 October 2007]

This movie is worth watching for the camera work, the set design, and some great scenes, but it's very uneven in just about every aspect. The scenes in the cop's apartment are probably the worst. They just die from bad sound, cheap set, bad dialog, bad lighting, and stilted acting. (As someone else commented, it seems that acting with sound was still being worked out, and these same actors did much better work later.) The scenes in the night club tend to be much more interesting. I love the art deco sets by William Cameron Menzies and the chorus girl dance routines and '20s jazz music. The camera is much more mobile in these scenes, since it isn't focused on dialog. The story flirts with equating the police and thieves as brutal figures outside the law, but it ends up in much more conventional territory, with Chester Morris prefiguring those early Bogart roles of the tough gangster who turns yellow.

There are several sequences -- including the robbery and a later zooming car ride to the scene of the robbery with a camera attached to the front of the car -- that seem to be taken from Fritz Lang, particularly the first Dr. Mabuse serial. They are very well done. The opening prison sequence is very good, as is a later rooftop chase and the final gorgeous artificially-moonlit shot. One of the more interesting sidelights is the violent relationship between one of the gang members and his moll. They're clearly going to love each other to death.

So very much a mixed bag. I've watched it three times, but I hadn't realized until now that it was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Art Direction. It definitely deserved the latter, but I'm not sure about the first two. HALLELUJAH! was probably more deserving of a Best Picture nomination, of other 1929 movies I've seen. Still, West is an interesting figure for a number of reasons, clearly influenced by the Germans. I like his silent movie, THE BAT, better than this one, but since I've watched ALIBI three times, it's obviously got something going for it.

ALIBI (Roland West, 1929) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 27 September 2008]

Having become a fan of director West via the ‘old dark house’-type comedy-thriller THE BAT WHISPERS (1930), I looked forward to watching every ‘new’ film of his – in the intervening years since that first viewing of BAT (on the eve of the Millennium, no less!), I had only managed to catch up with the somewhat unsatisfactory Lon Chaney vehicle THE MONSTER (1925) but, now, in quick succession came the original Silent version of THE BAT (1926) and ALIBI (1929), his first Talkie (notable for its innovative early Sound technique).

The latter is a gangster melodrama (a genre pioneered by Josef von Sternberg’s UNDERWORLD [1927]) whose quality was even recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where it was in the running for three Oscars – Best Picture, Best Actor (forgotten star Chester Morris) and Best Art Direction (by the renowned William Cameron Menzies). While there are many who now look at it merely as a curio – and there’s no denying that its chief interest, after all these years, remains West’s artistic approach to the medium (extending also to camera position and movement, editing, and set design) – I found the plot itself, simple and moralistic though it is, reasonably absorbing.

Morris has just been released from prison and, while resuming his criminal activities, conveniently hitches up with a policeman’s daughter – she’s obviously naïve and speaks up for him when confronted with a murder rap. An undercover agent (Regis Toomey – who, feigning a drunken act, starts off by being obnoxious but eventually proves both hero and martyr) is ironically called upon to provide an alibi for Morris…but the girl unwittingly blows his cover and, inevitably, spells the man’s doom (bafflingly, West even places unwarranted emphasis on his overlong and maudlin death scene!). Eventually cornered in the top-floor of a high-rise, Morris breaks down before the cop who had been his rival for the heroine’s affections, revealing his true color (the star’s performance – alternating between smugness and a perpetual scowl – hadn’t been particularly distinguished up to that point, but he effectively shows his range here: his come-uppance, then, is truly incredible and unexpected). Also worth mentioning is the film’s unflinching brutality: Morris’ associate, the ageing owner of a popular establishment, has a tempestuous relationship with his “dizzy” moll (played by Mae Busch, frequent foil for the comic duo of Laurel & Hardy) and, at one point, he pushes her and she bashes her head against a cabinet!; later on in the scene, it’s he who gets thrown clear across the room by a punch from an enraged Morris.

Having just read the “DVD Talk” and “Slant Magazine” reviewers’ comments on the film, I’m not sure I agree completely – perhaps because I knew beforehand Morris would be playing a crook – with their contention that the line between hero and villain is deliberately blurred (in view of the Police’s objectionable methods, particularly a scene in which a captured member of Morris’ gang is literally terrorized into a confession) and even arguing that the gangster is initially depicted as sympathetic (his stretch in jail having apparently been the result of a frame-up). However, I got the impression that the Police were required to be tough in order to effectively meet the gangsters’ wave of lawlessness and violence (note how the cops stick together when a colleague of theirs is callously slain during a robbery, with the synchronized rapping of police clubs – the film was, in fact, based on a play called “Nightstick” – unleashing a dragnet over the whole area in a matter of seconds). Incidentally, an inspired way to further showcase the new-fangled Sound system was by throwing in a handful of ‘static’ musical numbers during the nightclub sequences!

That said, the quality of the “restored” audio was frankly quite horrid – with dialogue often too low to grasp or else being drowned out by extensive crackling on the soundtrack, and even dropping out entirely for a few seconds a couple of times! While nowhere near as distracting, the DVD transfer does display occasional combing; for some reason, too, the opening credits of the film have been digitally recreated!

Tough going, but you can see why it impressed in 1929

[mgmax · 5/10 · 25 January 2000]

This crime melodrama isn't terribly easy to sit through today, but you can see why it impressed everybody and got a Best Picture Oscar nomination in 1929-- director West is constantly experimenting with the possibilities of sound, dramatically raising and lowering voice volumes and playing with background noise, music (there's a not-bad dance number that foreshadows Busby Berkeley a little), etc.

Wonderful to look at.

[boris-26 · 4 December 2001]

One of the first scenes of ALIBI has a camera prowl an art deco night club and into the world of an ex-con (Chester Morris) Much of the film is stagy, including Morris' almost death scene. What makes ALIBI shine so well are the visual elements. The art-deco set direction, the incredibly well edited cop shooting sequence and a rooftop chase that looks more pen and ink rather than photograph makes up for the staginess.

Worth a watch

[matthewjrau · 7/10 · 19 May 2020]

This is about 10 years older than the oldest film I had previously ever seen. So I don't know if it's a matter of digital remastering or if it's just the way movies were at the time but you can certainly tell the difference between picture and sound quality of the late 20s versus the late 30s. That being said I have read that this was either the first or one of the first gangster movies ever made. It took a while for me to figure out who the characters were simply because it was difficult to understand both sound wise and picture wise. But after I did figure it out it was not a bad film. The plot was a bit simplistic but if it was the first one ever groundbreaking for its time. Additionally I remember watching scenes of Elmer Fudd shooting bugs bunny and bugs bunny dying very slowly then coming back to life and saying different things like "say goodbye to the boys" "Say goodbye to my wife" while somebody hold him in their arms. I'm certain those Bugs Bunny scenes had to have been based on this or movies like this because that was exactly one of those scenes when the undercover cop was killed. Interesting to see the origins of that... but overall this movie is very similar to reading classic literature. In the fact that if you want to be sarcastic about it it's very easy to make fun of, but if you want to watch it legitimately I'd appreciate it for its time and the fact that it was the original or one of the originals of an entire genre then it's actually pretty great. On the political side of things it is also interesting to show please corruption not only existed but was understood by Hollywood all the way back in the 1920s. Shown by several scenes in the movie and one were one of the main good guys attempts to blackmail a criminal into a confession by threatening to murder him if he did not confess, and using a police gun to show it was self-defense. So politically goes to show things really haven't changed over the past century here in America at least not from Hollywood's perspective but also very interesting sentiment was the movie that was released in 1929.

A Pretty Good Story And A Very Interesting Example Of An Early "Talkie"

[sddavis63 · 7/10 · 25 January 2010]

The story here is interesting enough and on its own ensures that no one will feel disappointed at having watched this. Chick Weaver is a gangster just released from prison who hooks up with a "copper's daughter." Unfortunately, he can't go straight and gets involved with a warehouse robbery during which he kills a cop. The rest of the movie essentially deals with his attempts to frame an alibi for himself and with the efforts of the police to find the cop-killer. There are a few points at which the story gets a bit confusing, but it holds your interest well enough as you follow the various characters. What's really most interesting about this, though, is its status as a very early "talkie."

In that sense, I almost saw this serving as a proverbial "missing link" between the silent era and the sound era. There are parts of this movie which are very much like a silent movie - with no dialogue or sound effects other than a musical background. And yet, most of the movie has dialogue, although strangely the accompanying sound effects (ie, the sound of doors slamming, etc.) often seem to be missing. At times, this movie even has, in both sound and picture quality, a very later (say 1950's) feel to it. This diversity of "style" (for lack of a better word) would seem to me to be an example of director Roland West experimenting with this new way of movie-making. The weirdest aspect of this would probably be an extended scene right at the beginning of the movie, where police officers do nothing but bang their billy clubs against a wall for no apparent purpose - except, perhaps, to demonstrate to the audience that this has sound?

This is an enjoyable enough movie, and an interesting look at this transitional era of movie-making. 7/10

Ages about as well as milk!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 13 February 2008]

Aside from wine and cheese, not all things age well. Like a gallon of milk, over time this film has started to sour--thanks mostly to changing and improving film-making. In fact, had this film been made just a year or two later, it would have been much easier to sit through. Unfortunately, this can be said of most films made in 1929. This was a transition period in which silent films were changing to sound and the technology frankly wasn't very good. Plus, since this was all new territory, the films tended to be very, very stagy--mostly because the sound men had no idea how to compensate for people as they moved away or towards microphones. This is all painfully obvious with ALIBI. Some characters are loud and easy to understand, others appear as if whispering and others have their voices fade as they move. Additionally, the film looked a lot like a play in parts as they used very long single shots with few inter-cut scenes. Plus, it was obvious some scenes were originally filmed as silent because the standard 24 frames per second (used for all sound films) made these segments seem like people were moving too quickly (as silents were filmed anywhere from 16 to 22 frames per second).

As for the plot, it's a crime drama with a lot to like and a lot to hate. I liked how, at times, the film was rather gritty--particularly in the last few minutes (the building scene at the very end was amazingly tough and memorable--one of the best death scenes in film history). Some may also like how the cops in the film pretty much ignore the Bill of Rights--and weren't above slapping a confession out or someone or threatening them with guns! Some may also be appalled, but this is truly Film Noir-like in its sensibilities. But, the plot also is really stupid at times--with some of the dumbest criminals you'll ever see in films, clichés galore and a very sappy death scene that will practically make you cringe.

Now as for the plot. For 1929, it was really quite good. If we'd had IMDb and the internet back then, a score of 7 or 8 wouldn't be unexpected. However, by today's standards, I'd have a hard time giving it anything more than a 2 or 3. So, splitting the difference, a 5 seems appropriate--for the time, a very good film but when seen today, it's terribly old fashioned and dull.

Alibi review

[JoeytheBrit · 7/10 · 5 May 2020]

Chester Morris is an ex-con who uses police chief's daughter and love interest Mae Busch to unwittingly provide him with an alibi when he shoots a policeman during a robbery in this fast-paced crime thriller. Doesn't stand up to contemporaries like Public Enemy and Little Caesar, but does boast two death scenes - one toe-curlingly bad, the other terrific - in its closing moments that aren't to be missed. Watch out for a young Regis Toomey in an eye-catching role as an undercover cop.

Historical interest only

[max von meyerling · 5/10 · 16 February 2007]

I know it is de rigor to inform readers if a comment contains spoilers but I want to issue an even sterner warning that this comment will treat the plot of ALIBI (1929) as mere fodder to be referred to in passing regardless of the consequences for those who haven't seen the film and who might want to maintain some sort of "suspense".

For me the most interesting aspect of ALIBI is the fact that at this point (1929) the film industries of the US, Britain, Germany and France were equally capable of producing this type of film. The urban crime drama may have been pioneered by the French feuillade whose roots go back to written literature but it was perfected by Lang and the German School. Film Expressionism cried out for the geometrical shapes and dark shadows of the urban setting and the speed of what was just becoming known as 'modern life'. After all it was only in 1920 that 50% of the American population lived in cities even though the Jeffersonian ideal of the rural ideal was to linger in both film and literature until WW2.

While expressionist lighting was used to tell the quintessential urban tale, the gangster story, in Germany, it was imitated around the world. The most adept imitator was Alfred Hitchcock, a one time art director who made his first film in Germany. It is important when discussing ALIBI to compare it to Hitchcock's contemporary effort BLACKMAIL, which was also shot in silent and sound versions. In fact ALIBI comes off as being vastly inferior. This is because ALIBI's auteur, Roland West is merely artistic while Hitchcock is an Artist.

The disparity is most evident in the talking portions of ALIBI. There are problems with the sound which look like a compendium of SINGING IN THE RAIN gags. Sound levels vary and people are grouped, presumably to be in close proximity to the microphones. There is even a song in which the vocalist is seen badly lip synching to what, in the days before mechanical playback, must have been the actual singer off-camera. Hitchcock had a similar problem in that his female lead had a heavy Slavic accent and had to lip sync her entire role, which he pulled off far more effectively.

The overwhelmingly biggest problem in the talking portions of ALIBI is the acting. Screen acting in talking films just hadn't been done and in this film everyone seems to be counting to three before talking. Its very off putting. Regis Toomy plays an undercover cop pretending to be a drunken stock broker referred to as "The Boy Wonder". He plays it like a grinning idiot with a silly broad smile on his face which seems to have been carved on in imitation of THE MAN WHO LAUGHED. No thought to the idea that he might appear sober and progressively get drunker and drunker, he's just a full time fool who couldn't have put over his act to a room full of ten year olds. Chester Morris, who was actually nominated for an Oscar for his performance, changes his demeanor as the role, NOT the character, demands. Released from prison, after a very effective silent montage, he assumes the leadership of a gang on no authority at all. His showy scene at the end where he becomes a blubbering coward reeks more of propaganda than drama. Re: All gangsters are yellow. When the undercover cop is discovered he is murdered somewhat inexplicably as knowing they were discovered the gang would have been better advised to get the hell out and not square accounts which would inevitably lead to the electric chair. However the necessities of propaganda required the villains kick the dog to confirm their sinister evil. Toomy has a super hammy drawn out death scene in which he actually wonders out loud why its getting dark. The academy might have thought this scenery eating was just the ticket in talking screen acting but apparently the public hated it and actors had to adapt to the new medium or else new actors untainted by the conventions of the stage brought in. Again, Hitchcock's characters are human beings, dualistic and inconsistent, their reactions ambiguous even to themselves. In ALIBI characters are set in stone and lack even free will. They act at the behest of a rigid morality tale whose points are hammered home. The police acquire information by literally pointing a gun at a suspects head not because they are tarred with the same brutal brush as the gangsters but to point out that this is the only way to treat 'them".

The settings are over the top as well. Early geometrical deco, adapted from cubist designs and the neo-Mayan decorations of Frank Lloyd Wright (the curvilinear 'streamlined" deco was to come later) overwhelm the backgrounds. The silent scenes are very well shot. West knows the dramatic power of the dynamically unbalanced frame. Some shots use Caligari like angles and black and white shadows. There is a high shot of a car coming around a corner and stopping (done twice) which looks like it could have been lifted entire from Lang. (Also pointing out that as well as their film industries, automobile design hadn't yet diverged either.) Crowds pass by nighttime city streets as in Murnau. There are successful attempts at process shots and less successful attempts to use sound 'creatively'. Again, West's attempts pale beside Hitchcock's famous 'knife' sequence.

As can be found in Roland West's IMDb biography, when he died he reputedly made a deathbed confession to Chester Morris that he murdered his mistress, Thelma Todd, whose death ended his Hollywood career. Morris and Todd co-starred in West' last film, CORSAIR (1931), another gangster melodrama. Apparently, unlike Hitchcock or Lang, West became involved in the gangster milieu rather than the cinematic arts.

Very Interesting Crime Drama

[ctrout · 8/10 · 11 April 2006]

For its time, Alibi was probably groundbreaking with a crime world never truly seen before. That's probably why it was nominated for Best Picture in 1929. Today, people just see it as one of those creaky gangster movies from the early days of sound and pass it up thinking that it won't hold their attention one bit. I'm here to prove those people wrong.

For one thing, the story is what usually makes a movie for me. A film has to have a good story to get me to see it. Well, if you like any type of crime related movies, that's all you need to know. Even if you aren't a fan of crime dramas, this film will interest you with the way it captures the human spirit and the way it can deteriorate very quickly in times of stress.

Obviously that last bit can only be performed by great actors and actresses with natural talent. That's what you get with this film. Chester Morris deserved the Oscar he was nominated for, even if you just see his final scene you'll give it to him for his shocking portrayal of a rotten gangster.

I think that it's Regis Toomey, a forgotten star, who really shines in this film though. His performance as a drunk with something to hide is really quite remarkable. If they had Supporting categories back then, he'd have been a shoe-in.

I hope I've convinced you enough to check out Alibi because it's actually a really good film. I recommend it if you're looking for a good crime drama that will hold your attention, which shouldn't be hard since it's not a very long movie. Enjoy it, if you get the chance to see it.

Moving Sound

[stoney24 · 3/10 · 11 September 2007]

It's hard to watch this film out of the context of 1929 when it was first released. The Idea of a talking moving picture was still a novelty. In fact this film was released simultaneously with a silent version for those theaters that had yet to convert to sound. That said the biggest problem with this film is that it doesn't seem to know which side of the law it wants to side with, first it makes the cops out to be, I don't want to say bad guys, so let's just say unlikable. Then towards the end it's creates the criminal as well lets also say unlikeable. The problem is that it has one of the worst transitions I've ever seen. Again one has to go back to the time in which the film was made, this at the height of Al Capone and the bootlegging racketeering of that period and just before the stock market was to crash in October. Today many people see the police forces in a dualistic light, as being both there to serve and protect, and as villains with a corrupt politicized agenda. With this the film should hold up, but it doesn't. The main problem is that the characters are so flat and unlikable. It's hard to care one iota about who lives and who dies. In the end it's a film about jerks, plain and simple. I doubt however that when the film was released the audiences of the day had this same feeling. The idea of beating or threatening a criminal suspect was most likely looked at as not only acceptable but necessary. It's hard to come down on the film one way or the other, as I have mixed feelings about it as a whole. With that said the ending is one of the most anticlimactic endings I've seen since Chinatown. In that film, the whole concept of the movie was based around this idea of the inevitable of the outcome. Alibi fails in that it doesn't seem to hold on to any one concept for too long, instead making leaps that just feel awkward and clumsy. I think that what most likely amazed the audience was the fact that Alibi is one of the first films to start to play around with the sound design, having a moving camera and dancing and sound all working simultaneously creating a spectacle that most film goes of the day had never seen before. I can't say stay away from this film as it has it's place in the pantheon of cinema history, in part because it was nominated for Best Picture at the academy awards. However, if you're just looking for a classic film to watch on a Saturday night, you might want to steer clear of this one.

Early Gangster

[Michael_Elliott · 26 February 2008]

Alibi (1929)

** (out of 4)

Early talkie has a gangster (Chester Morris) released from prison and deciding to go straight. He married a police captain's daughter (Mae Busch) but soon afterwards police begin to think he was behind a cop killing. This thing was a huge hit back in the day and even got Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor but time hasn't been too friendly to this thing. Like many early talkies, the film spends way too much time letting the viewing know that it can talk. In fact, the first minute is nothing more than various police hitting their nightsticks up against a wall so that the sound effects can come through. Also with most early talkies, the characters just keep talking and talking and most of the talk has nothing to do with the plot of the film. Director Roland West does a nice job in certain aspects but I guess you can't blame him since I'm sure the studio was wanting to show off this new format. Future Boston Blackie star Morris is good in his role but it's Busch who steals the show. Some might remember her from The Unholy Three as well as several Laurel and Hardy shorts.

A Warm-Up to the Warners Gangster Film

[evanston_dad · 4/10 · 1 May 2012]

"Alibi" starts out promisingly enough, with a sort of sound symphony set to an expressionist montage of a man being released from prison. We hear the tread of wardens' boots, the clank of truncheons against metal bars, steel doors rasping and clanging -- it's almost like a musical number and pays homage to the new technology that had so recently hit screens and changed films for ever in the late 20s.

But then "Alibi" starts talking, and things go quickly downhill from there. This Best Picture nominee from 1929 does manage to capture a striking visual style, which is something I can't say for the film that won the second Academy Award for Best Picture, "The Broadway Melody." But it's clear that the team behind "Alibi" didn't have much more of an idea of what to do with sound than the creators of that other film did.

As with "The Broadway Melody," "Alibi" is more interesting as a blueprint for films that would spring from the same genre than it is on its own terms. In this case, that genre is the seedy gangster film that Warner Bros. would turn into an art form only a few years later.

Chester Morris received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance as the reformed gangster who's not really reformed, but his mugging is nearly uncomfortable to watch -- he would prove himself to be a quick learner in the sound medium and deliver a very good performance in "The Divorcée" only a year later. The abstract art direction by William Cameron Menzies was also recognized by the Academy with a nomination.

"Alibi" tricks a viewer into thinking that it's going to go to some rather interesting places that it ultimately doesn't. There's some attempts at obscuring the boundaries between the criminals and the cops that a more heavily enforced production code wouldn't allow in movies from a decade later, but it doesn't take that juxtaposition very far, and we always pretty much know whose side we're supposed to be on.

As with "The Broadway Melody," "Alibi" is interesting for people who want to see what some of the early Academy Award winning and nominated movies look like, but it's not very enjoyable for anything else.

Grade: C

Alibi

[CinemaSerf · 5/10 · 12 September 2022]

Regis Toomey ("McGann") steals this otherwise rather humdrum gangster flick - and that's largely because he is drunk for most of it. Otherwise, "Chick Williams" - the not very menacing moniker attributed to Chester Morris is released from jail and picks up where he left off - with his prohibitionist mob. When a cop is shot dead during a robbery, he falls under suspicion - but he has an alibi in the form of "Joan" (Eleanor Griffith) and some theatre tickets! What let's this down rather, is that we know who did what to whom, we know the identity of the fifth columnist the police install in his gang, and thus almost all of the jeopardy is compromised right from the start. The presentation and most of the acting is very static and stage-bound, somewhat woodenly theatrical in it's style. It might have been better had it been made a few years earlier as a silent film as the dialogue adds very little to this average crime caper.

Beware of films where wallpaper outperforms the cast.

[st-shot · 4/10 · 4 February 2010]

The ugliness of the early sound era is on parade in Alibi, a cops and robbers yawn that features both figuratively and literally a lot of bad actors. Sound was new territory for cast and crew and it shows both in the direction of Roland West and his cast who clearly needed a lot more rehearsal time as they endlessly pause between sentences an attempt to convey menace by locked in mug like facial expressions. West shows no grasp of pacing as he dissembles nearly every taut moment in the film with pregnant pauses followed by bad inflection from his actors who on occasion seem to be winging it on their own.

Only Chester Morris leading with his Dick Tracy chin offers some convincing moments while the rest of the cast seems content just to have their voice picked up by the microphone. West meanwhile allows scenes to linger and linger to a point where you swear you can here crickets chirping. A glowing example can be found in undercover cop Regis Toomey's three minute dying scene that has to be endured to be believed. Was West incapable of saying the word cut?

There are some fine rooftop scenes of dramatic silhouette and neon and interiors that feature some eye popping and audacious art deco design that may well have carried the day if it were a silent. But in the infancy of sound these growing pains make Alibi one big one to watch.

A Classic Gangster Film: Overacted but Startling At Times

[jayraskin1 · 9/10 · 31 January 2010]

The acting is mainly from the silent film era, but the fact that it is a sound film actually makes it quite interesting.

The film is pre-Hayes Code and is startling in its violence. I don't think it was until 1937 and "Petrified Forest" (Humphrey Bogart) and 1951 "White Heat" (James Cagney)that such a psychopathic criminal was on screen. I don't think it was until 1970 and "Dirty Harry" (Clint Eastwood) that such a anger-filled cop was shown. The way the police are shown threatening to shoot a suspect and make it look like an attempted escape, really makes one see the need for Miranda Rights for suspects, something that didn't exist in 1929.

The lead performances by Regis Toomey and Chester Morris are memorable. This was Morris' first starring role and he went on to star in nearly 50 films over the next 10 years. In the 1940's he starred 14 times in the detective movie series "Boston Blackie". He did around 45 television shows in the 1950's and 60's.

This was Regis Toomey's first movie. He went on to star in some 25 movies over the next 5 years, before becoming one of Hollywood's most dependable supporting character actors in some 150 more films into the 1950's, often playing police detectives. He was in such classics as "His Girl Friday," "Meet John Doe," "Spellbound," and "Mighty Joe Young." He went on to appear on over 100 television shows from the 1950's to the 1980's. He costarred with Gene Barry in "Burke's Law" for three years in the 1960's.

Director Roland West did just two more films the following years starring Morris, "the Bat Whispers" and "Corsair." Unfortunately, he apparently became involved with real life gangsters and was involved in the tragic death of actress Thelma Todd, which abruptly ended his career. He shows a nice unique style here, with sequences of fluid camera movement inter-cut with quite static shots, a little like James Whale. It is quite similar to the other movies I have seen by him "The Bat" and "The Bat Whispers". If he had continued with films, he might be considered a great auteur today.

This is a must see for cinema buffs and especially lovers of gangster films.

If you want to get sleepy before bed, this one is for you.

[ted.kierscey · 2/10 · 12 February 2008]

1929 was a beginning for talking picture entertainment. A few of the motion pictures made in 1929 were really good, i.e., The Broadway Melody (1929). This one, even though it has a couple of good moments, is terrible and nearly unwatchable. The reason for this is the direction and the limitless periods of silly time between lines and scenes. You find yourself talking to the characters and asking, well, OK, what?, as they stare at each other waiting to deliver the next line. Chester Morris, Eleanor Griffith, and Mae Busch of Laurel and Hardy fame are fine in their own right. The 1929 music is just fine too. But, I couldn't finish watching the film because of Roland West's absolutely silly direction and lack of skill in the medium. This one is a loser. So was Roland West.

Crime drama of its era

[russjones-80887 · 4/10 · 5 September 2020]

A police Sergeant's daughter marries a gangleader who she believes has given up crime. When together at a theatre, he uses the interval to commit a robbery in which a policeman is killed. Suspected of the crime, he seems to have the perfect alibi.

Moderately interesting film which earned 3 Oscar nominations, including Best Film and Best Actor for Chester Morris. However, this now seems very much of its time. Co-stars Mae Busch and a film debut for Regis Toomey.

Some ground-breaking techniques in this early sound film

[AlsExGal · 9/10 · 14 November 2009]

Hitchcock's "Blackmail" and Lubitsch's "The Love Parade", are probably the very best of the early sound films made in 1929, but this one is close behind. I'm rating this film 9/10 when ranked with other early sound entries from 1929 -1934. Although the dialogue still has some of that halting quality that is common in early talkies, it doesn't cause the film to plod along. Instead, it moves along at a good pace and keeps you engaged. The actors have a pretty natural quality in their performance, Chester Morris in particular. He's the one actor you're likely to recognize, since he had a pretty good career in the 30's and 40's playing romantic leads first and then in a crime drama series later on.

The film starts out with Chick Williams (Chester Morris) being released from prison, supposedly after being framed by the police. He's dating the daughter of a hard-boiled detective, and from the way the detective and his subordinates handle things - not to mention his rough treatment of his daughter - at first you might believe Chick is a wronged guy. Shortly after Chick's release there is a robbery that goes bad in which a police officer is killed. Chick is suspect number one, except he has an alibi - the hard-boiled detective's daughter, and roughly a hundred other people who saw him at the theatre at the time of the robbery.

There are lots of little interesting tricks and turns in this movie, not to mention the interesting use of sound and the mounting of the camera on the front of the car so that as the police and the criminals speed around in the dark, you see what they see. Look at any other typically claustrophobic 1929 film, and you'll appreciate this even more. I also enjoyed how this film used musical numbers - not to intrude on the plot in a silly way as so many 1929 films did - but to add to the atmosphere of the club that Chick and his gang hang out at.

Finally there is Chester Morris' acting. He was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his performance, and he certainly deserved it. He transitioned from playing the smooth and possibly wronged man, to vicious criminal, to trembling coward quite believably. Not for another two years, when Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney came along, do we get quite such a powerful performance from an actor playing a gangster.

The one bad thing I'll say about the Kino DVD is that the sound has quite a bit of static in it. It's not terrible, but there are times when you need to really turn up the volume to understand what's being said.

Pivotal Early Gangster Talkie Portrays Criminal Sympathetically

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 7 June 2022]

Prohibition during the 1920s had federal government law enforcement officers battling a wave of criminals skirting the laws against making, importing and selling illegal alcohol. The violence these gangs were committing was especially highlighted in early 1929 with the well-publicized St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago.

Daily headlines of such killings made the all-talkie movie, April 1929's "Alibi," all the more popular. The Roland West-directed film looked into the tactics some local law enforcement officers took to battle the underworld. In "Alibi," based on the 1927 play 'Nightstick,' Chick Williams (Chester Morris) is framed by police, sending the innocent man to prison. Once released, Williams joins a gang and allegedly kills a cop. "Alibi" was an important movie in early gangster films, a genre launched in the waning days of silent movies and in the beginning of talkies. The film was the first to show an ambivalent, even sympathetic portrait of a criminal, at the same time giving a somewhat cynical eye on police actions. "Alibi" is also one of the first Hollywood films to have a gangster, Williams, whose guilt in a participation of a heist and the murder of an officer, is vaguely shown since he's not clearly seen in either case.

"Alibi" was banned in several cities, including Chicago, whose censors claimed the movie was disrespectful to law enforcement and their procedures as well as displaying the blatant murder of a police officer.

As one of cinema's earliest talkies, "Alibi" reflects an advancement in audible effects. Film historian David Shipman labeled the motion picture as "the first film to use sound imaginatively." Director West's practice of capturing the sound of a police officer's night stick beating against an object in the opening frames sets the movie's tempo. Repeated staccato beats are used throughout the film, especially when a policeman comes across robbers stealing furs from a store. Using his baton at the base of an iron lamp post to signal his colleagues, the patrolman frightens the thieves before he's shot in the back.

"Alibi" received three nominations for the second Academy Awards, including Outstanding (Best) Picture. William Cameron Meniez was nominated for Best Art Direction for his art deco interiors. Chester Morris received his only Academy nomination, this for Best Actor. The 27-year-old actor had only been in bit parts in film, concentrating mostly on the stage and in vaudeville. "Alibi" was his first major role on the screen and his first talkie. He earned his nomination, most critics claim, for the final 10-minutes of the film when he's squirming while a police detective said he's going to shoot him in the back just like Williams did to the cop on the street. In this highly charged sequence, real bullets were fired through the door several times, just missing Morris.

Chester Morris Deserved an Academy Award!!!

[kidboots · 10/10 · 21 October 2011]

"Alibi" was a sensational talkie debut for Chester Morris who played Chick Williams, the first of the anti heroes who were to dominate Hollywood in the 1930s. Chester Morris was first noticed in the Broadway cast of "Crime" - in fact the whole cast was raided for the movies - Sylvia Sidney, Douglass Montgomery, Kay Johnson, James Rennie, Jack La Rue and Kay Francis, a cast Broadway producers nowadays could only dream about. The role of amoral Chick Williams bought him instant recognition and an Academy Award nomination and even though he lost to Warner Baxter for "In Old Arizona" (Chester should have won) studios were riveted to his performance and during 1929 Paramount, Warner Brothers/First National and RKO used him constantly. Even though Roland West produced, directed and wrote the screenplay for this trail blazing talkie, based on the Broadway play "Nightstick", his career faded soon after when he retired and went into the restaurant business with his current girlfriend Thelma Todd.

Joan (Eleanor Griffith) is going out with recently released prisoner Chick Williams (Morris), she is a policeman's (Purnell Pratt) daughter who feels he only needs the love and support of a good woman to help him go straight. But behind Chick's pleasant exterior is a hardened criminal who is really the brains behind the gang who welcome him back to the fold. Another fixture at the almost futuristic nightclub (shades of "Broadway") is amiable drunk Danny (Regis Toomey) who has his eye on cute singer Toots but when Joan walks into her apartment one night she finds Danny with her father and realises he is a plain clothes policeman. They are trying to get the robbers of a fur heist in which a policeman was killed - they are convinced Chick was responsible. Even though she could betray Danny she doesn't, but she also has a bombshell of her own to drop - she is now married to Chick and can furnish him with an alibi for the night of the murder.

Although Morris didn't have much to do during the first half of the movie once Chick's true colours are revealed he dominates every scene. There was a trifle bit of over acting and grimacing but for his first talkie he handled himself like a veteran. For an early talkie (April 1929) there was a lot of innovation and while a couple of things didn't come off the rest did - in the interrogation room as a prisoner is broken down into confessing to his part in the robbery, through having his face directly at the audience, they see his expressions and know he is guilty before the cops do. It may have been lifted from the stage production but it worked. The German expressionistic vogue hadn't entirely faded away and the Art Deco sets and lighting were used to great advantage, especially the chase sequence up on the roof top.

Because 1929 was the height of the musical boom, action was often stopped for a musical number (they slowed the film down a bit). It even boasted a hit song "I"ve Never Seen a Smile Like Yours" sung by Irma Harrison (dubbed by Virginia Flohri, as reported in a Photoplay expose about dubbing in 1929). Harrison was cute but didn't make much of an impression, the same can be said of Eleanor Griffith who only made "Alibi" and another film back in 1922, but she did make an impression on movie suavey John Halliday whom she married in 1929.

Great sets and photography, but a discombobulated story.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 17 March 2024]

This was apparently all the rage in 1929, but 95 years later can be a bit challenging to watch. The usual trials of early talkies are there with large periods of silence and slow camera movement, but some of the track shots seem really inventive for its time, particularly at the beginning. Compared to other films of 1929 though, it's nearly a masterpiece thanks to the inventive choices of director Roland West.

The first hour gives a lot of focus to the alcoholic criminal played by Regis Toomey who sunk from leads and major supporting roles to bit parts by the 1940's ("Meet John Doe", "The Doughgirls"), but here, he's quite commanding with the rather tragic character he plays. The leading man is Chester Morris whose gangster is much more subtle than Cagney or Raft or Robinson, and it's a character that builds in intensity.

Then there's Mae Busch who played some rather shrewish women in the Laurel and Hardy shorts, showing great range here. Eleanor Griffith, as Morris's wife, is also very interesting. The film interspersed a ton of musical numbers that aren't full length but adds to the atmosphere. Ray June should be greatly credited with some very intriguing camera work here, whether having a camera moving through an empty set to move into another room where the action is taking place, or peaking into windows as a bunch of people engage in various activities. Definitely one of more historical value than entertainment, but I can see why this is acclaimed as an advancement in film technology.