This is an underrated film noir that hasn't gotten much exposure within the genre. Sterling Hayden and Gloria Graham were well known performers in the genre at the time and they both do an excellent job in this film. But the big surprise to me was Gene Barry as the duplicitous criminal and supposed religious family man. When I was growing up in the 1960's, Gene Barry was a very familiar face on TV. He starred in numerous TV dramas such as Burke's Law, The Adventurer, and The Name of the Game. These were very predictable TV dramas where Barry often played virtuous characters fighting criminals. He was the epitome of the bland corporate TV actor. But in Naked Alibi, Barry portrays a much more conflicted character and he rises to the occasion. It does an excellent job in his role. What has often amazed me is how actors that were so good in low budget film noir movies in the 1950's eventually became stuck in vacuous and uninspiring roles on TV in the 60's. It is probably the greatest shame of American TV and movie culture that talented actors were forced into unimaginative and simplistic roles just so they could survive. Gene Barry is a perfect example of someone who could have had a great acting career if he hadn't been destroyed by Hollywood.

****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.

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?)

I saw this film many years ago in England and remember being shocked by it. Saw it once in France under the title "Alibi Meurtrier". It's a good film but I could not tolerate Hayden's "manipulation" of Gloria Grahame. Since that time, every time I see Sterling Hayden's face in a film I am filled with hate for this man !! But decors and music are good and the whole thing is a good example of a pessismistic film or 'film noir".