Alibi (1929)

The premise of "Alibi," one of the first gangster movies of the sound era, is pretty solid. A prisoner who's maintained his innocence throughout his incarceration is finally released from prison and into the arms of the girl who believed in him all along. Her dad's the cop who put him in jail in the first place, so he's less-than-happy about the arrangement.

The movie isn't what I'd call horrible, but the acting is. Most of it reminded me of the "Singing in the Rain" sequences where the former silent stars were overdoing everything -- apparently subtlety was off the menu and they had a choice of only wooden or hammy. The storyline, perhaps daring at the time, is fairly boring now.

But hey -- the art deco sets are awfully pretty and that's something.

C-