Naked Alibi *** (1954, Sterling Hayden, Gloria Grahame, Gene Barry) – Classic Movie Review 7,384

Sterling Hayden and Gene Barry are ideal, and so is noir favourite Gloria Grahame as bar singer Marianna, in the toughly cast, enjoyable little 1954 crime thriller Naked Alibi, with a moody film noir atmosphere.

Director Jerry Hopper’s 1954 Universal International Pictures crime film noir Naked Alibi is based on the 1951 story Cry Copper by Gladys Atwater and J Robert Bren, and stars Sterling Hayden, Gene Barry and Gloria Grahame, fresh from her Oscar in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).

Gene Barry plays boozy, aggressive Al Willis, a California baker who is the chief suspect for a series of three brutal cop murders, and he is hunted down to a scrubby Mexican town by the disgraced ex-chief of police detectives, Chief Joe Conroy (Sterling Hayden), who was fired for brutality.

Both Hayden and Barry are ideal, and so is Gloria Grahame as Willis’s bar singer girlfriend Marianna, in this toughly cast, enjoyable little crime thriller with a good film noir atmosphere, moody black and white cinematography by Russell Metty and an intriguing script by Lawrence Roman that does not always hold up but still stays interesting. Marcia Henderson also stars as Willis’s wife Helen.

Naked Alibi also features Chuck Connors, Max Showalter [billed as Casey Adams], Billy Chapin, Don Haggerty, Stuart Randall, Don Garrett, Richard Beach, Tol Avery, Paul Levitt, Fay Roope, Joseph Mell, John Alvin, Dick Crockett, Bob Forrest, Michael Fox, Phil Garris, Sol Gorss, Brett Halsey, Byron Keith, Mike Mahoney, Frank Marlowe, Paul Newlan, William H O’Brien, Kathleen O’Malley, Alan Paige, Ed Parker, Byron Poindexter, Ray Quinn, Carlos Riviero, Jack Stoney, Frank Wilcox, Max Trumpower, Lewis Wilson, Bud Wolfe, Barbara Marshall, Kenner G Kemp, Beverly Ruth Jordan, Dee Carroll, Cheryl Clarke, Dean Cromer, John Daheim, Alan DeWitt, and Herbert Ellis.

It was released on October 1, 1954.

It is partly shot in Tijuana, Mexico.

Naked Alibi is directed by Jerry Hopper, runs 86 minutes, is made by Universal Pictures, is released by Universal-International, is written by Lawrence Roman, based on the story Cry Copper by Gladys Atwater and J Robert Bren, is produced by Ross Hunter, and is shot in black and white by Russell Metty.

It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 5, 2019.

The cast are Sterling Hayden as Chief Joe Conroy, Gloria Grahame as Marianna, Gene Barry as Al Willis, Marcia Henderson as Helen Willis, Max Showalter [Casey Adams] as Det. Lt. Fred Parks, Billy Chapin as Petey, Chuck Connors as Captain Owen Kincaide, Don Haggerty as Matt Matthews, Stuart Randall as Chief A.S. Babcock, Frank Wilcox as Councilman Edgar Goodwin, Don Garrett as Tony, Richard Beach as Felix, Tol Avery as Irish, Paul Levitt as Gerald Frazier, Fay Roope as Commissioner F.J. O’Day, Joseph Mell as Otto Stoltz, Alan DeWitt as motel proprietor, John Alvin, Dick Crockett, Bob Forrest, Michael Fox, Phil Garris, Sol Gorss, Brett Halsey, Byron Keith, Mike Mahoney, Frank Marlowe, Paul Newlan, William H O’Brien, Kathleen O’Malley, Alan Paige, Ed Parker, Byron Poindexter, Ray Quinn, Carlos Riviero, Jack Stoney, Frank Wilcox, Max Trumpower, Lewis Wilson, Bud Wolfe, Barbara Marshall, Kenner G Kemp, Beverly Ruth Jordan, Dee Carroll, Cheryl Clarke, Dean Cromer, John Daheim, and Herbert Ellis.

Gloria Grahame (born Gloria Penelope Hallward; November 28, 1923 – October 5, 1981)

Gloria Grahame (born Gloria Penelope Hallward; (November 28, 19A23 – October 5, 1981).

Noir favourite Gloria Grahame was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Crossfire (1947) and won that award for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). After starring with Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place (1950), she was famed for Sudden Fear (1952), The Big Heat (1953), Human Desire (1954), and Oklahoma! (1955), but then her film career unfairly waned.

Why? Was she too associated with  film noir? Was it that she was rumoured to have been difficult on the set of Oklahoma! Was it that the paralysis of her upper lip from plastic surgery had altered her speech and appearance?

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7,384

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