Nightmare Alley

Nightmare Alley is a remarkable film- it hardly blinks in showing a cynical, scheming "preacher" doing his thing.Given the norms of Hollywood at the time, or almost at any time,it does give you a lot to consider.Tyrone Power is brilliant, and the movie is actually quite close to the powerful (hard to find!) novel.In the best tradition of a movie that examines the dark side of society in an effectively muckraking way, it is a rare gem. I found the movie all the more effective for the fact that while Tyrone Power is in a quite uncharacteristic role. It is obvious he is strongly committed to the film and delivers a chilling, scary, thought provoking performance. The glimpses of the brutality of contemporary circus/side show life are in themselves interesting and disquieting. It is a rare film and even rarer book, but really worth the time.

In Nightmare Alley, Tyrone Power is like the George Clooney of the 1940s, yet in a role with a pathetic side that Clooney has never dared to play. His cool, his eyes, his placid stance and walk, and his immovable self-confidence. Power is however more intense in this role than Clooney has ever been in any of his roles. Colleen Grey, the female lead, is one of the sexiest knockouts I've ever seen. I am sold when she first appears in her circus uniform, the glittery skivvies revealing that she is not skinny, but given to thick curves, especially in her smolderingly pliable and smooth hips. She plays a good-girl role, the role she always hated to play, wishing she had roles like Helen Walker's, who plays a wicked psychologist, and quite well.

The story is an interesting weaving of a con game, a horrific tale of descent, and a rags-to-riches story of luck. It's intriguing. Nightmare Alley is true film noir, whether it has gangs and guns or not, because we follow a main character who is suave and personable to without a conscience and almost a little ashamed of it. There are clever crimes, wicked antagonists, and dark, cutting cinematography. It's a must for noir fans.

Wandered in on this classic many years ago, when it aired on WGN with no advance notice. I'd read a Houdini biography by William Lindsay Gresham, and seeing his name on this really got my curiosity up. Can't understand all the comparisons to "Freaks". They share a carnival setting, and little else. In these days of "Crossing Over", and psychic 1-900 hotlines, everybody should see this expose of the psychic business, possibly more important now, than then. Tyrone Power is excellent, playing against type, and showing more acting ability than many expected. The cast is virtually flawless, and the story remains timely. Having worked on a carnival myself, this film was very useful. Between this, and the gambling books of John Scarne, I started at the carnival with full knowledge of the scams that augmented their operations. I guess that a new print has been struck for arthouse showings, but we really need a lavish DVD presentation, with all the extras and documentation they can find!

--Judexdot1--

A tense film-noir melodrama that typically hovers between A-film status with Tyrone Power, a major star, some top-writers and an A-list director, but it has a very B-movie feel to it, mostly because of the film's unusual characterizations, the setting with the sideshow-artists and its subsequent reluctant release by 20th-century Fox. Due to these related rights issues the film was long unseen, and quickly assumed cult-status that lasted for a long time, but since its DVD-release, this film came out of obscurity and was generally received as a very fine and unusual noir-classic.

Tyrone Power is very impressive as Stanton Carlisle, a sideshow hustler who gets a menial job with a cheap carnival and becomes fascinated with a mind-reading act performed by Pete and Zeena (Ian Keith and Joan Blondell). Knowing a good con when he sees one, he learns the tricks of the mind-reading act from Zeena, and seduces her into recreating with him a more spectacular version of the act which relies on a secret word code which enables the spiritualist to discern the questions Carlisle has gathered from patrons in the audience. But soon, Molly (a drop-dead gorgeous Coleen Gray!), a pretty sideshow artist, falls for Carlisle, who is forced by the other Carnival people to marry the girl, and they move to Chicago. Soon, they both start a duo, successful club artist act, reading the minds of upper-class Chiacgo society. One night, a visiting psychologist, Lilith Walker (Helen Walker) is fascinated by Carlisle, and agrees to gives him confidential information about her wealthy clients in return for a substantial cut of the take. Molly, however, finds it increasingly hard to bilk people, and Lilith discovers some damning information about Carlisle form Zeena.

Many of the plot twists are a bit strained and not very credible, and the ultimate downfall of Carlisle seems a bit too far-fetched and extreme to me, but the atmosphere, the crisp photography by Lee Garmes and the acting are all of such high standards, it hardly matters. This was very much Tyrone Power's project, as he wanted to shed his image as just the handsome Saturday matinée-idol, and really wanted to embark on some more ambitious projects in which he could show his talents as a character actor. With this film, he more than proved his capabilities. This is perfect gritty, hard-edged noir, that I can only recommend.

Camera Obscura --- 8/10

As other commentators have noted, once you've seen this film it haunts you. The creepy carnival milieu has rarely been better done (well, Tod Browning's "Freaks" of course) but seems more wholesome than the upscale world of nightclub mentalists and corrupt psychiatrists to which Tyrone Power ascends. Joan Blondell is carnally blowzy but she's almost upstaged by the ill-starred actress Helen Walker (the duplicitous wife in Impact) as that double-crossing shrink. No one soon forgets Power's slippery climb to the top followed by his horrifying fall. This film is a true, dark classic.