Good start, but then it gets ruined

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The title "Naked Alibi" is a very strange one, as back in the day you'd never see naked people in mainstream Hollywood films and there is nothing naked whatsoever in the movie. Don't let that stop you from watching it, as it's an excellent and gritty film noir story.When the film begins, police captain Joe Conroy (Sterling Hayden) is investigating a case where a lieutenant was brutally murdered. He thinks Al Willis (Gene Barry) is responsible--after all, he's a HUGE hot-head and he had a grudge against this dead cop. Soon, two more cops are brutally murdered and Willis appears to be the likely suspect. But, when Conroy is fired for police brutality, he's determined to follow Willis into Mexico and prove he's a psycho killer. However, he's no longer a cop and has no jurisdiction...and Willis has a gang waiting for him. All Conroy has is a dame (Gloria Graham) and her kid!The film works well because Sterling Hayden (as usual) is excellent in these sorts of tough-guy roles. Additionally, Barry is very good as a scum-bag and the script keeps you on edge. Not a great film but certainly a good one worth your time.

****SPOILERS*** Being arrested and roughed up by the police especially after smashing Let. Park's, Casey Adams, face in with a coffee cup accused vagrant and drinking in public Al Willis, Gene Berry, is released due to lack of evidence. It's the next day that Parks is gunned down by an unknown assailant and a few days later two other cop are killed in a car bombing that has Willis, who claimed to get even with the police department for manhandled him, arrested as a suspect for all three murders. As we see Willis is as he always claims to be as innocent as the morning snow or is it dew but it's Chief of Detectives Joe Conroy, Sterling Hayden, who doesn't buy Willis' story.Going overboard in trying to arrest Willis for the murder of the three cops has Conroy suspended from the force and ordered to get a forced, by the department, psychological examination before he's allowed to get back to work. While on ice, or suspension, Conroy goes out on his own to get the goods on Willis whom he's sure is the one who murdered his three fellow policemen. This lead to this honky tonk town on the Mexican/USA border where Willis who works as a baker on the US side is the head mob boss there. There's also Willis' girlfriend Marianna, Gloria Grahame, who can't stand the guy but is terrified of leaving him in that if she did he'll murder her! ****SPOILERS*** Working behind the scenes, until he's discovered, Conroy gets to have Marianna, with a couple of free drinks, to talk about her boyfriend Willis' crimes including the one where he gunned down Let.Parks and even more important where he hid the murder weapon. Which is all the proof that Conroy needs to arrest him. Besides being a cold blooded murderer Willis isn't that bright either. Where he could have easily disposed of the gun he murdered Parks with he instead hid it in of all paces a local church! That Willis he attended not to pray but use as a alibi for where he was at the time that he in fact murdered Let. Parks. With the murder weapon recovered by Conroy Willis makes a run for it not on the street but on the neighbor rooftops where he's a perfect target for the perusing police. Gene Barry in one of the most craziest roles in his entire both film & TV career does a great job playing the Dr. Jekyll & Mister Hyde-like Al Willis who's so crazy it's a miracle that he can hold down two jobs, as a baker and mob boss, at the same time without anyone around, with the exception of the mentally and physically abused Marianna, noticing just who unstable he is. It's the suspended Chief of Detectives Joe Conroy who saw right from the start just how dangerous Wilis was and never stopped for a moment in trying to get the goods on him as well as have him arrested. That had the already not that on the ball, in his mental capacity, Willis crack and thus blow his cover as him being a perfectly normal and law abiding citizen which has him blown away at the end of the movie.

For the first half of this movie we get a rather ordinary policier, with "innocent" Gene Barry seemingly the victim of Bad Lieutenant Sterling Hayden's obsessive violence- Hayden suspects Barry of being a cop killer. Hayden's temper gets him the sack. Things perk up considerably when Barry goes on the run to the border and seeks out old flame Gloria Grahame - and her advent livens things up immensely. We first see her in a sleazy border bar miming and shimmying her way through "ace in the hole", spaghetti straps straining, mouth pouting, earrings dangling. Its an amazing entrance and the director knows it - following her after the number finishes as she fends off drunks and exits the bar to wander back to her room, where Barry surprises her - her complaints about his negligence in the lover department are stilled by a swift slap round her chops - and she of course kisses him more passionately and drags him into the room... discreet fadeout. That whole sequence is essence of Gloria - its all there - the masochistic sexuality, the wisecracks, the wiggling, the face half in shadows, the tawdry glamour, - and my god - that shimmy . The remainder of the film offers few surprises, including Gloria stopping a bullet to aid the hero and expiring glamorously in his arms but it was designed as a follow up to The Big Heat and the public liked it enough to make it a hit.

Two great film noir actors - Sterling Hayden and Gloria Grahame - star in this movie. Hayden is excellent as a tough cop bound-and-determined to get a killer than has been turned free (Gene Barry).Barry is very good as the criminal who falsely claims "police brutality." In that respect, this movie was ahead of its day as that term became widely used two decades later.Overall, this a good film noir that's a bit different from the normal fare, but certainly not different when it comes to great noir photography and good suspense. Where is the DVD of this film? (In fact, where was the VHS, in the first place?)