Alibi (1929)

Nominated for 3 Academy Awards:

Best Picture

Feature Productions

Best Actor

Chester Morris

Best Art Direction

William Cameron Menzies

It won 0 Oscars out of a total of 3 nominations in 1928-29.


Alibi is a crime melodrama about an ex-convict named Chick Williams who rejoins the mob after being released from prison.  He soon, however, becomes the prime suspect when a policeman is murdered, and is protected only by an alibi that involves the National Theatre, a dizzy dame and an undercover officer posing as an alcoholic stockbroker.

The film was based on a Broadway stage play entitled "Nightstick."

A silent version of the film was released at the same time as the sound version and reportedly contains alternative scenes that were shot especially for it.


Editorial:

This movie seemed very experimental.  There are a lot of visually interesting moments peppered throughout, but are unfortunately overlooked by the poor sound recording.  The dialogue is hard to hear most of the time, the sound effects are abnormally loud and the distracting noise picked up by the microphones remains constant.

Much of it feels like a silent film with how it is staged, but the portions of long-winded and stale conversation make it evident that this is an artifact from the early days of talkies.  The silent version may be of interest considering the quality of the sound version.

Score  |  04/10  |  This motion picture is worth trying.