Strange Alibi


Strange Alibi is a 1941 American film noir directed by D. Ross Lederman, written by Kenneth Gamet, Leslie T. White and Fred Niblo Jr., and starring Arthur Kennedy, Joan Perry, Jonathan Hale, John Ridgely, Florence Bates and Charles Trowbridge. It was released by Warner Bros. on April 19, 1941.

Plot

After a witness is shot and a suspect hanged in a jail cell, Police Chief Sprague decides to send Sgt. Joe Geary undercover, looking for a mysterious crime-syndicate boss responsible for ordering these murders. A story is planted by the chief that Geary is being suspended from the force, in order to help him infiltrate the mob.
Geary discovers that a police captain is the criminal mastermind. Sprague is killed, though, and Geary framed when nobody believes his story about being undercover. While jailed, his fiancée Alice Devlin works to clear his name. Geary breaks out of jail and personally goes to the reform-minded governor to prove his innocence. Justice triumphs. Joe collapses onto a sofa and instantly falls asleep. Alice kneels beside him and gently kisses his forehead.

Cast

In a contemporary review, Variety gives the film a positive review: “This rates high among the average run of B mellers. It’s an evidence of Warners’ crime-and-punishment actioners working at an all-out peak. Everything in it has been seen before—particularly the sets—but the concoction has been tossed together again under director D. Ross Lederman to become a speedy and delectable dish.”
In a review bylined “T.S.”, The [New York Times] wrote: ”Latest addition to the "I wuz framed" school of cops-and-robbers epics is "Strange Alibi,"...More high-minded than original, the Warner Brothers are again searching out corruption in high places even if their hero is rooked of his freedom for a spell in the effort... But when dead men can provide alibis, when true love remains patient and when all the bullets fired at the hero seem made of nothing more dangerous than cream cheese, one can await the climax with calm. Despite a credible performance by Arthur Kennedy "Strange Alibi" is a not-too-alarming masquerade.”