Alibi [Nominee ~ 1929]

"Well you would think so, Tommy.  I beat you to it."

First off, this is a very trippy movie poster for 1929.  The colors, the typography, the floating heads...   I kind of like it.  Which also pretty much sums up my thoughts about this movie in general.

Alibi is the story of mobster Chick Williams, who finds himself wanted for the murder of a police officer.  His alibi almost checks out, but detectives are eager to poke holes in his story.  Things are further complicated when Williams marries Joan, a police officer's daughter who has also caught the eye of an overzealous detective.

What I found most interesting about this film is how it completely blurs the line between hero and villain.  The mobsters are initially portrayed in a sympathetic light (Williams' is released from prison in the beginning, and insists he was framed by crooked cops), and the policemen stoop to objectionable and often brutal methods on the job (a cop threatens to murder a man if he doesn't identify Williams as the murderer).  This questioning of right and wrong perfectly reflects the atmosphere of the 1920s.  Prohibition was probably the most flouted law in American history.  Political corruption was rampant in many large cities.  Al Capone, though clearly a criminal, was viewed as a modern-day Robin Hood for funneling his ill-gotten gains into charity work.  Alibi shines a light on these issues, which have never completely left the American landscape.

What I didn't care for was the story's pacing.  The film clocks in at just under 1 hour 30 minutes, yet somehow drags.  The most exciting scenes last a few minutes, while boring bits are allowed to carry on for far too long.  (There is one death scene in particular that is ridiculously long and over the top.  I hope that even the 1929 audience cringed a little while watching this.)  The short runtime also means there is little character development.  Joan particularly suffers from this.  She is introduced as a naive girl, and never amounts to anything more.  It was also frustrating to receive almost no back story on her and Chick's romance.  How did they meet?  What drew her to him?  Why would she wait for him while he was in prison?  These are details that could have fleshed out her character, and developed further audience sympathy for Chick.

Alibi also offers some nice visuals.  The opening scenes use highly stylized sets that feel very ahead of their time.  I also enjoyed a nearly silent montage where two detectives test Chick Williams' alibi.  Scenes like this really highlight the transition that was being made from silent films to "talkies."  Directors were experimenting with new storytelling techniques, but often still relied on old standbys to pass information to the audience.  Finally, a couple performance numbers are thrown in to showcase the use of sound, but what I really enjoyed were the hideously unflattering costumes and Rockettes-style dance numbers.

All things considered, Alibi is a pretty good film.  I rather liked it, and feel it probably should have won the Best Picture Oscar over The Broadway Melody that year.  It's certainly a more engaging story, and dealt with serious issues of the day.  Definitely worth watching, though I will warn you that the audio quality on the DVD is terrible.  (The dialogue is often too low to hear, and gets drowned out by crackling static in the films soundtrack.)