NAKED ALIBI
US, 1954, 86 minutes, Black-and-white.
Sterling Hayden, Gloria Grahame, Gene Barry, Marcia Henderson, Craig Adams, Billy Chapin, Chuck Connors, Don Haggerty.
Directed by Jerry Hopper.
The opening credits for this film appear in the portrait of Gloria Grahame, Paul McGuigan’s? Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool. The film also includes her song, Aces in the Hole.
This is a standard police thriller and investigation of the 1950s, produced by Ross Hunter was to go on to more lavish productions at universal, with Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman, starring Sterling Hayden as a stalwart policeman (the same year that he made Johnny Guitar). Gloria Grahame does not appear until 30 minutes into the film but then makes quite an impression, a variation on her gangster’s moll performances – but she had won the Oscar for The Bad and the Beautiful.
Gene Barry makes quite an impression as the villain of the piece, a short fuse, angry, violent, two-timing his wife and child.
Chuck Connors appears as one of Sterling Hayden’s associates. The film is fairly standard, bad press for the police because of brutality, an urge to find police killers, pursuit of the villain and final confrontation, with a dalliance along the way between the hero and Gloria Grahame. Jerry Hopper was a director of action features in the mid-50s at Universal and Paramount.
1. A film noir of the 1950s? Crime thriller? Police investigation? The title?
2. Los Angeles settings, the streets, homes, bars, police precincts? Border cities and bars, tenements? The musical score? The song, Ace in the Hole?
3. Black-and-white photography, a film of shadows? Willis, the arrest, the interrogation, his drinking, his attack on the police, under control? Conroy arriving? Willis’s apology? Suspicions on Willis, killing the policeman, his being shadowed, going to the church, leaving, the explosions? The contrast with his life at home, wife and devotion to his child, celebration of the wedding?
4. Conroy, criticisms of police killers and police brutality, Conroy and his determination, his associates? Responsibility to the authorities? Willis and all the surveillance? Willis and his nervousness, his bakery, driving, following the surveillance into the street and lane? Conroy confronting him at home, the photographer at the window, the headlines, Conroy stood down?
5. Willis, leaving his wife, going to the city, taking up with Marianna, his being seen as two-timing, his relationship with her, at the bar? His temper, the waiter, anger? His suspicions of Marianna? Confronting her?
6. Conroy, following Willis, the search, the man identifying him, Conroy being mugged? The encounter with Petey, Petey helping him, Marianna looking after him? The attraction? The connection?
7. Marianna, her singing at the club, evocative, provocative? Her relationship with Willis? The sense of betrayal? The attraction to Conroy, helping him?
8. The buildup to the confrontation, Conroy in pursuit, Willis and his escaping, on the roof of the building, with Marianna, her being shot, his death?
9. Conroy, the experience, his being right, righteous? The experience with Marianna?
