Suspended Alibi | |
---|---|
Directed by | Alfred Shaughnessy |
Written by |
|
Based on | original story by Kenneth R. Hayles (as Kenneth Hayles) |
Produced by | Robert Dunbar |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Peter Hennessy |
Edited by | Robert Jordan Hill (as Robert Hill) |
Production company | |
Distributed by | J. Arthur Rank (UK) |
Release date | February 1957 (UK) |
Running time | 64 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Suspended Alibi is a 1957 black and white British crime film directed by Alfred Shaughnessy and starring Patrick Holt, Honor Blackman and Lloyd Lamble. [1] [2] The film was produced by Robert Dunbar for Act Films Ltd. [3] It was reissued in the United States as Suspected Alibi.
Paul Pearson's alibi for seeing his mistress Diana is with his friend, but when this friend is found murdered, Pearson is arrested for the crime, condemned by his own alibi and sentenced to hang. Fortunately, his story is believed by Sandy Thorpe, a diligent crime reporter, who helps to fight Pearson's case.
The Stop Button wrote, "the movie opens with a neat trick – Holt’s creeping through the opening credits with a gun drawn only for a curtain to pull and reveal he’s playing cowboy and Indian with his son (in England?) – and I hope a better film stole it because it’s a reasonably deft move. But as far as film noir goes – bad film noir – the incompetent direction disqualifies Suspended Alibi. Even from the label"; [4] while Britmovie called the film an "efficient thriller...undemanding yet fanciful b-movie crime drama crisply directed by Alfred Shaughnessy"; [5] and TV Guide noted "an okay crime drama that passes the time pleasantly." [6]
Film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane praise it as "much faster, more frantically and densely plotted than most 'B' movies. The familiar race-against-the-clock to save the condemned man produces some well-sustained tension, and, if the ending is never in serious doubt, Shaughnessy's brisk storytelling and Robert Hill's editing sustain interest in the crowded narrative." [7]
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