morrison-dylan-fan With having seen actor Sterling Hayden mentioned in a number of posts on various IMDb boards for the last few months,I was thrilled,when a DVD seller revealed that he had recently tracked down a near forgotten Hayden Film Noir,which led to me getting ready to see an alibi undress.The plot:Attempting to beat a confession out of him, Chief Joe Conroy and his fellow police officers find out that due to a strong alibi and a lack of evidence,that Al Willis must be freed from his cell.Shortly after Willis is freed,two of the officers that beat him up are killed.Suspecting Willis,Conroy goes to interrogate Willis,but is caught in a photo threatening him,which leads to Conroy getting fired from the force.Trusting his instincts,Conroy decides to go above the law and secretly follow Willis.Quickly finding out that Willis has suddenly decided to stay in a different town for a few days,Conroy decides to follow Willis on his "travels" in the hope of being able to finally undress his alibi.View on the film:For the opening 30 minutes,the screenplay by Lawrence Roman, J. Robert Bren and Gladys Atwater offers a tantalising glimpse that the movie may give the characters a real moral ambiguity,thanks to Conroy acting more like a real gangster than Willis ever does.Disappointingly ,once Conroy and Willis head to a new town,the writers give up on any criss-crossing morals,and instead give them each clear moral lines,which whilst they lead to a nice,downbeat Film Noir ending,do lead to the movie really struggling to build any tension.Matching Jerry Hooper's rather stilted directing, Hayden gives an unexpected stoic performance as Conroy,with Hayden giving Conroy a calmness when the character should have a real thirst for Willis blood.Keeping the character away from any hint of being straight-lace, Gene Barry gives a very good maniacal, smirking performance as Willis,with Barry showing Willis increasing desperation to keep his alibi naked.

Martin Teller A grimly determined homicide detective tries to nab a suspected cop-killer, even after getting kicked off the force. Although there are some implausible plot elements, this is a pretty good noir. It's anchored by stellar performances from Sterling Hayden (in a part quite similar to his role in CRIME WAVE, from the same year) and the great Gloria Grahame (whose character is rather suspiciously close to her part in THE BIG HEAT, from the previous year). Gene Barry is very good too, although I can't say much about him without spoiling things. The film takes an unpredictable second act twist, at least it was far different from what I was expecting, which was more of a LOOPHOLE scenario. Grahame's entrance is strange -- she looks a bit awkward doing the nightclub singer shtick, but perhaps it suits her character to be uncomfortable in that position. The story is paced very well and has some brutal scenes, fine cinematography and generally good dialogue. Maybe not one of the greats, but definitely worth checking out, especially for Grahame fans.

dbdumonteil The movie could be subtitled:"things are not what they seem".When we meet the two principals,we do feel for Al.We do think the cop is a psychotic,or someone trying to find a scapegoat .How could a man so nice ,so honest,who works in a bakery,who's got a wife and kids,who is a believer and who goes to church ,be a cops killer?During the first part,we side with him and we think that Conroy is going off the rails (he might be the killer himself).With the appearance of Gloria Grahame ,we see things differently.What?An honest faithful man still in love with a shady singer singing a tune called "ace in the hole" ?It's really a U-turn.The depiction of the characters is nothing but derivative and the three leads are excellent ,with a firm directing ,an atmosphere where they exude hatred from every pore ,and an impressive finale on the roofs.

timshelboy For the first half of this movie we get a rather ordinary policier, with "innocent" Gene Barry seemingly the victim of Bad Lieutenant Sterling Hayden's obsessive violence- Hayden suspects Barry of being a cop killer. Hayden's temper gets him the sack. Things perk up considerably when Barry goes on the run to the border and seeks out old flame Gloria Grahame - and her advent livens things up immensely. We first see her in a sleazy border bar miming and shimmying her way through "ace in the hole", spaghetti straps straining, mouth pouting, earrings dangling. Its an amazing entrance and the director knows it - following her after the number finishes as she fends off drunks and exits the bar to wander back to her room, where Barry surprises her - her complaints about his negligence in the lover department are stilled by a swift slap round her chops - and she of course kisses him more passionately and drags him into the room... discreet fadeout. That whole sequence is essence of Gloria - its all there - the masochistic sexuality, the wisecracks, the wiggling, the face half in shadows, the tawdry glamour, - and my god - that shimmy . The remainder of the film offers few surprises, including Gloria stopping a bullet to aid the hero and expiring glamorously in his arms but it was designed as a follow up to The Big Heat and the public liked it enough to make it a hit.