Alibi

1929 gangster melodrama

Rating: 12/20

Plot: Chick the gangster's released from prison and joins up with his old pals. He also starts dating the daughter of a police officer, a woman who will eventually be the titular alibi after a policeman is murdered.

Bad sound on this release didn't help matters, but it's a dated and boring gangster movie anyway. But I was definitely irritated by having to turn up the television to hear the dialogue submerged in all this scratchiness only to be startled by these jarring loud sound effects. This one goes through all the 1930's melodramatic gangster motions and has a lot of shots that are secretly becoming my favorites in old movies--the forced personal space invasion where the camera demands that characters awkwardly stand about two inches from each other during conversations. There are some nice moody sets, downright expressionistic, and a neat car-driving scene with bad special effects that somehow makes it look really cool. Policemen with percussive nightsticks though? What the hell was that all about? And boy, Regis Toomey sure is bad in this. He plays drunk very poorly, almost like he got his inspiration from watching a cartoon where a bear gets drunk or something, and he's so bad that there are scene where he's getting looks from other actors. They were clearly what-the-hell?-you're-ruining-the-whole-movie looks. Either that or I imagined those looks.