John Chester Brooks Morris was an American stage, film, television, and radio actor. He had some prestigious film roles early in his career, and received an Academy Award nomination for Alibi (1929). Chester Morris is remembered for portraying Boston Blackie, a criminal-turned-detective, in the Boston Blackie film series of the 1940s.
Morris in 1934
Morris and Mae Marsh in The Beloved Traitor (1918)
Morris (second from right) received an Oscar nomination for his performance as a gangster in Alibi (1929)
Morris and Wallace Beery in The Big House (1930)
Alibi is a 1929 American pre-Code crime film directed by Roland West. The screenplay was written by West and C. Gardner Sullivan, who adapted the 1927 Broadway stage play, Nightstick, written by Elaine Sterne Carrington, J.C. Nugent, Elliott Nugent, and John Wray.
Theatrical release poster
"Alibi" ad in The Film Daily, 1929