“Bullet Scars” director David Ross Lederman’s ballistically-paced, B-movie thriller “Strange Alibi” casts Warner Brothers contract actor Arthur Kennedy as rogue detective Joe Geary. Geary staggers the chief of police with a punch in the face in front of departmental witnesses after the chief questioned his moral integrity. Police Chief Sprague (Jonathan Hale of “The Black Parachute”) refers to Geary’s chummy rapport with known criminals. Naturally, our hero is suspended. However, things aren’t as incriminating as they appear. Later, we learn Sprague conjured up this elaborate ruse in a desperate effort to unearth corruption within his department. Unfortunately, our hero cannot risk letting his devoted girlfriend, Alice Devlin (Joan Perry of “Shakedown”), in on this secret, so she worries about him. Meantime, the mob welcomes Geary with open arms, and he proves his worth as a tenacious bill collector.
Meantime, notorious gambler King Carney (Herbert Rawlinson of “Dark Victory”) has returned to town. Carney has agreed to sing like a canary for the grand jury! No sooner has he arrived than somebody mows him down in a barrage of scorching lead. When Carney dies, the prosecution’s case collapses. At the same time, the police search for Carney’s driver Louie Butler. However, before they can grille Butler, the guy hangs himself in his cell! What nobody knows until the end is Reddick killed both Carney and Butler! The coroner has his suspicions, but he cannot prove Butler didn’t kill himself. As it turns out, another hoodlum fresh out of the pen, Benny McKaye (Joe Downing of “Danger in the Air”), may know something but he refuses to talk. Geary is poised to expose the corrupt officials in the department when he arranges a secret rendezvous with the Chief. Tragically, everything goes to haywire. Another high-ranking but corrupt cop, Lieutenant-Detective Pagle (Stanley Andrews of “Cry Terror”), barges into the room, blasting away at Sprague and hitting him. The chief gets off one shot, but his bullet accidentally strikes Geary rather than the diabolical Pagle. Strewn face down on the floor with a head wound from where Sprague’s stray slug grazed him, Geary lies unconscious at Pagle’s feet. Naturally, Pagle puts the gun that he riddled Sprague with in Joe’s hand, so when the police swarm into the premises, they believe Geary killed the police chief. Predictably, Geary protests his innocence vehemently at his trial. He divulges Sprague’s decision to use him as an undercover agent to smoke out corruption. Nevertheless, the jury sentences him to life!
Mind you, this scenario about a cashiered flatfoot infiltrating the mob is as antiquated as Methuselah. Nevertheless, time after time, Hollywood has resorted to this proven formula with success. Typically, the hero and his confidante are the only people privy to their plan. The chances of their best laid plans backfiring on them is ever-present. Moreover, if anything goes amiss, the hero will find himself knee deep in danger, unless his confidante stashed evidence of their collusion. Since Sprague trusted nobody, both Geary and he were running an extreme risk. Since nobody can corroborate Geary’s revelations, our hero cannot convince anybody of his innocence.
Geary lands in prison where he tangles with a sadistic guard, Monson (Howard Da Silva of “1776”), who terrorizes him enough that our hero plans to break out of stir with another convict, Tex (John Ridgely of “The Big Sleep”), who unbeknownst to anybody has stashed a car for this very occasion. During their careening getaway with cops racing after them like maniacs on motorcycles and in cruisers, Geary risks their lives with his daredevil driving. Recklessly, Geary avoids a collision with a speeding train at a railroad crossing. Quickly, the authorities resume their pursuit. Sadly, the second time Geary tries to pull this death-defying feat, our protagonist cannot beat the locomotive and careens off the road and skids to a halt. Alas, Tex doesn’t survive this close encounter. Nevertheless, Geary manages to get back to town into one piece. Imagine his chagrin when he learns McKaye, the only man who can clear him, has died! For all practical purposes, Geary’s goose looks cooked!
Nevertheless, our hero improvises and sets McKaye’s corpse in a car and then parks the vehicle in plain sight on a city street. Now, the audacious Geary surprises the reform-minded governor, Phelps (Charles Trowbridge of “The Paleface”), in the latter’s hotel room. Holding him at gunpoint, Geary dopes out in detail his own outlandish ploy. Although McKaye is kaput, Geary persuades Phelps to notify the police about the gangster’s presence in a parked car and prompts them to send out men to arrest the hoodlum. Since the police believe McKaye may still be alive, Reddick and Pagle decide to handle it themselves but they end up incriminating themselves. Imagine Phelps’ shock when he watches the cops dispatched to arrest McKaye blast the car with a fusillade of gunfire nobody could survive. Mind you, not only does Phelps witness this homicidal act, but he can also identify both Reddick and Pagle. Now, the shoe is on the other foot, and the foolish villains have incriminated themselves!
Clocking in efficiently at an adrenaline-fueled 63 minutes, “Strange Alibi” lives up to its title. In fact, the words ‘strange alibi’ appear in the newspaper flashes inserted during Geary’s trial. Arthur Kennedy delivers another charismatic performance as the wronged hero, while Howard De Silva stands out as Geary’s abrasive guard in the prison scenes. Director David Ross Lederman never lets the momentum slacken during this slam-bang, white-knuckled, hellbent, urban crime saga.
