Naked Alibi

Director– Jerry Hopper

Starring –Sterling Hayden, Gloria Grahame, Gene Barry
 

Country of Origin-  U.S.A.

Distributor - Kino Lorber

Number of Discs - 1

Reviewed by - David Steigman

Date- 11/12/2019

Naked Alibi is a crime drama / Film Noir about a police chief, Joe Conroy (Sterling Hayden, The Killing) who gets fired for brutalizing his number one suspect Al Willis (Gene Barry, War of the Worlds). Willis is accused of murdering three detectives and Conroy is so sure of it, that he hounds Willis to no end to get a confession out of him. While Conroy is fired for harassing Willis without any evidence, he continues to pursue his top suspect anyway. Willis, who was recently married, tells his wife he has to go to Mexico “on business” but this isn’t the case. We discover he does have a double life where his is having an affair with singer Marianna (Gloria Grahame), but it doesn’t necessarily mean he is the killer. Conroy followed Willis and is determined to once and for all prove that he is a killer. It might cost Conroy is own life for doing so! 

Naked Alibi is an enjoyable suspense thriller with the all the leads handing on great performances as one would expect. As the film progresses your thoughts of the characters will start to alter a bit. One of the best aspects about this picture is Gloria Grahame, who looks absolutely gorgeous in this film playing a singer who has some fantastic dance moves. The only problem I had is the singer’s voice is not even remotely close to sounding like Gloria Grahame’s east coast accent.

Naked Alibi receives its debut release on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber and it’s a superb package. Beginning with the video quality, the movie boasts a beautiful widescreen 1:85:1 1080p transfer. The black and white image is glorious with rich, deep black levels and a balanced grey scale. Film grain is present throughout and there isn’t as much as a hint of DNR applied to this release.

Kino has used their usual English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 channel mono track for their Blu-ray and the audio comes in loud and clear with added richness to the action sounds, which are mainly gunshots. English subtitles are available for this release.

There are just a couple of extras for this release; we get an audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger who as usual gives some great insight to the background of the film and the actors involved. A theatrical trailer is the remaining extra.

Naked Alibi took a while to be released after it was first announced and was certainly worth the wait. Another recommended release by Kino Lorber!