Zeus

Strange Alibi (1941)

• Director
  • D. Ross Lederman
• Writers
  • Kenneth Gamet(screenplay)
  • Leslie T. White(from a story by)
  • Fred Niblo Jr.(contributing writer)
• Stars
  • Arthur Kennedy
  • Joan Perry
  • Jonathan Hale

  Strange Alibi offered young Warner Bros. contractee Arthur Kennedy to carry a picture all by himself. The star is cast as detective Joe Geary, who is suddenly and unexpectedly fired from the police force. Appararently embittered, Geary joins a criminal gang. Actually, it's all part of a scheme cooked up between Geary and police chief Sprague (Jonathan Hale) to infiltrate the mob. But the crooks get wise, bump off Sprague, and frame Geary for murder. It takes a jail break and a wild chase before Geary is able to clear himself. Critics in 1941 noted that a Warner Bros. B picture would have seemed incomplete without at least one prison scene. And isn't that a young Jackie Gleason as one of the bad guys?