Alibi *** (1929, Chester Morris, Eleanor Griffith, Regis Toomey, Mae Busch, Harry Stubbs, Irma Harrison, Pat O’Malley, Purnell Pratt) – Classic Movie Review 13,777  

Roland West’s 1929 early gangster thriller film Alibi is based on the 1927 Broadway play Nightstick, and stars Chester Morris and Eleanor Griffith. It was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Art Direction.

‘A hair-curling thriller vibrant with the pulse of the underworld, asparkle with the glamour of the New York night clubs.’

Producer/ director Roland West’s 1929 early gangster thriller film Alibi is based on the 1927 Broadway play Nightstick, and stars Chester Morris, Eleanor Griffith, Regis Toomey, Mae Busch, Harry Stubbs, Pat O’Malley, Purnell Pratt and Irma Harrison. The film was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Art Direction.

Alibi is an interestingly made early sound film, highly regarded in its day (star Morris, film and art direction were Oscar nominated) for its early gangster story, Chester Morris’s performance, the production, and Roland West’s commendable experiments with sound, music and camera angles.

The credible, pioneering yarn, based on the 1927 Broadway play Nightstick by Elaine Sterne Carrington, J C Nugent, Elliott Nugent and John Wray, is about an ex-con, prohibition gangster Chick Williams (Chester Morris), exploiting his wife Joan (Eleanor Griffith), the daughter of police sergeant Pete Manning (Purnell Pratt), as a cover for a killing of a policeman during a robbery.

Chick attends a theatre with Joan but sneaks out during the intermission, commits the robbery when a cop is killed, and uses Joan to substantiate his alibi. 

Allowances have to be made for its great age. Although understandably creaky, it is still possible for patient audiences to admire Roland West’s direction, Hugo Riesenfeld’s score and William Cameron Menzies’s art direction.

The screenplay is written by Roland West and C Gardner Sullivan, who also provide the titles for the silent version.

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture (Roland West), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Chester Morris) and Best Art Direction (William Cameron Menzies).

Alternative scenes were shot for the silent version released simultaneously.

Alibi is also known as The Perfect Alibi, and as Nightstick.

It was released by United Artists on April 20, 1929.

It entered the public domain on January 1, 2025.

The Chicago Board of Censors banned the film for ‘immorality, criminality and depravity’. But Judge Harry Fisher ruled that ‘censorship is a form of tyranny at best and abhorrent to ideals of the American people’, and issued an injunction allowing the film to be shown in an United Artists cinema.

The cast are Chester Morris as Chick Williams, Eleanor Griffith as Joan Manning Williams, Pat O’Malley as Detective Sgt Tommy Glennon, Purnell Pratt as Police Sgt Pete Manning, Regis Toomey as Danny McGann/ Billy Morgan, Mae Busch as Daisy Thomas, Harry Stubbs as Buck Bachman, Irma Harrison as Toots, Elmer Ballard as Soft Malone, James Bradbury Jr as Blake, Ed Brady as George Stanislaus David, Kernan Cripps as Trask, Virginia Flohri as theatre singer, Al Hill as Brown, and DeWitt Jennings as Officer O’Brien.

Oscar-nominated Chester Morris is best known for The Big House (1930) and for playing Boston Blackie in the 1940s detective series of 14 films beginning with Meet Boston Blackie (1941) and Confessions of Boston Blackie (1941). He received his Academy Award nomination for Alibi (1929).

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,777

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