Among the actors and actresses most at home in film noir, the ideal teaming, as evidenced by the header on this site, would be Sterling Hayden and Gloria Grahame. He of the tall, strong, Scandinavian stock flecked with cool authority and she burning with a pouty sensuality that flashes a warning you won’t heed. When I realized, and it wasn’t too long ago, that two of my favorite actors had actually made a film together, a noir no less, the immediate goal became to find a way to see this movie. Directed by Jerry Hopper, a guy who made a dozen or so forgotten pictures before turning to one television series after another? So what. Screenplay by Lawrence Roman, whose middling career was, at best, highlighted by McQ, the adaptation of Paper Lion, and Under the Yum Yum Tree? Bring it on.

Seeing Hayden and Grahame in a film noir together could not possibly be disappointing for me. Quality is simply not an issue. Oh sure, having Naked Alibi actually turn out to be a pretty good movie would be nice, but my enthusiasm was healthy regardless of any such minor details. I believe that sort of starting point is what one would normally call a “bias,” but okay. Acknowledged. Naked Alibi is not the easiest movie to find as it’s owned by Universal, a studio that scours its back catalog a couple of times a year but hasn’t released any previously unavailable film noir since probably the summer of 2004. It did get a VHS edition and the AMC channel was an occasional source in what now seems like another life for that place. Point being, the film can be seen legitimately if you try hard enough. And I’m not very hopeful that it’ll ever receive an official release from Universal considering the current landscape for classic films on DVD.

Sterling Hayden’s list of films released in 1954 reads like an obvious career year for the actor. I haven’t seen his Sir Gawain in Henry Hathaway’s Prince Valiant or the B-western Arrow in the Dust, but Johnny Guitar is in the conversation for Hayden’s best film and the stylish Crime Wave, directed by Andre De Toth, bathed him in cool. There’s also the short, lightweight Suddenly, where Frank Sinatra plans to assassinate the president, and, of course, Naked Alibi, which gives Hayden a character reminiscent of his Crime Wave cop. The setting is California and Hayden plays a police chief who comes a little unhinged, obsessed with the idea that newlywed Gene Barry first shot and killed one of his men and then blew up two more officers. There’s no physical evidence linking Barry, who’s in custody when the film begins on an alcohol-related charge but soon gets released to return to his bakery and seemingly wholesome home life, to the crimes. In this first half hour of the movie, Hayden comes across as less stable than Barry. His awkward rhythms and indifferent cadences were strengths for the actor, in my opinion, so having him be so obsessed, to the point of getting fired for a cheap shot photo where his chief character appeared to be brutalizing Barry, allows for Hayden to put his physically imposing presence to good use. For better or worse, there’s apparently no due process in noir.

This initial half hour is interesting because it establishes Hayden’s Joe Conroy as a guy more concerned with justice, or at least his idea of justice, than his own livelihood. As the film progresses, the Conroy character reinforces his obsession with bringing Barry’s Al Willis in and he does so with little regard for his own safety or reputation. Conroy will eventually be stabbed, beaten up, and wanted by police - his former colleagues and underlings - for kidnapping. It’s all for one guy, but Conroy’s dedication is admirable in that he’s certain Willis is his man and it was three men who’d worked under him who lost their lives. The best scene for Hayden in this portion of the film, and maybe in its entirety, is a short park bench conversation he has with another cop where they discuss how Willis appears to be a normal, churchgoing man with a family. “Who knows what goes on in people’s minds,” Hayden asks.  “I don’t”, he says, before adding “but I do know about Willis. He’s psycho.”

It takes almost exactly thirty minutes before Gloria Grahame’s character of Marianna enters the picture. Both Barry and Hayden, tagging or, perhaps more accurately, stalking along find refuge in the locale of Border City, a town, as its name suggests, that lies along the Mexican border. A blatant signifier crudely serves its geographical purpose on the studio backlot in case anyone had difficulty following the action that preceded this change in setting. Willis is here, rather tenuously from a plot aspect, as a hijacker on the run. This is the criminal part of his double life. He’s undoubtedly a busy man, what with duties caused by a new marriage, owning a bakery, and maintaining a separate criminal lifestyle with a hefty commute. Unsurprisingly, he turns out to be a real nasty guy. Willis has been stringing Marianna along for years and doesn’t see the need to tell her he recently married another woman. Meanwhile, she’s suffocating in Border City as a low-level chanteuse.

There are some incredibly convenient plot developments, including Hayden’s Conroy finding himself rescued near the residence of Marianna, but I’m not looking to scrutinize quite that much here. The film’s strengths lie with the pair of lead performances, which are both exactly what you’d want as a fan of these actors. Hayden is formidable and stubborn, but in the right. Grahame, who was no stranger to playing both wicked and scorned women, probably outdoes her co-star by balancing the perfect amount of desirability and ordinariness. It’s not all that different from her role in The Big Heat except that here Grahame gets to play a comparatively brighter woman who is nonetheless mired in a dead end situation. The attainability factor in most all of Grahame’s characters is key. It makes unsuspecting male viewers long to rescue her, which is certainly a large part of the appeal. Her biographical reality and all the sad, unfortunate aspects of that life add to the adopted sympathy.

In perspective with the best of noir, Hayden or Grahame, Naked Alibi is, at most, a notch above average. The treat is having these two principals together. The film is handled well, with Russell Metty’s cinematography adding some extra degree of competence. I’d doubt anyone ever pronouncing it as a great movie, but that doesn’t mean it’s expendable in any way. I genuinely liked Naked Alibi. I was entirely entertained and involved for those 86 minutes. It’s a picture totally deserving of a DVD release, and I imagine that Universal underestimates the long-term popularity of film noir. My instinct also tells me that Universal doesn’t realize Gloria Grahame’s popularity among noir buffs. This was the only time she worked for the studio in her prime so maybe it isn’t too surprising that Universal lacks anyone who really understands the appeal. I honestly think it would be a modestly good seller if released and properly promoted. I’m just as confident in the idea that it won’t find its way to DVD, but stranger things have happened, including the apparent inevitability of Sony actually remembering it has an untapped well of classic films people would be happy to purchase.