Dante's Inferno

"Dante's Inferno" (1935) is a taut drama starring Spencer Tracy as a ruthless promoter who's determined to succeed, no matter who gets in his way. Eventually he gets a glimpse of Hell and sees the error of his ways ... but is it too late for him to repair all the damage he's done to other people's lives?

This film was inspired by (but is not a remake of) a 1924 film with the same title: both films have the same premise but very different plotlines.

We first see Tracy's character Jim Carter on the bottom rung: the Depression is on, and Carter is so desperate he takes a job as a blackface performer. Then he gets a job in a carnival attraction which offers the customers a quick ride through Hell (made of papier-mache).

There's a brilliant performance by Alan Dinehart, one of those great supporting actors from Hollywood's golden age. Dinehart specialised in playing sharp guys on the edge of the law (or slightly beyond it), and this is one of Dinehart's best roles. Henry Walthall, the silent-film star, is also excellent here.

The standout sequence in the film begins when Tracy is in hospital, recovering from injuries. Walthall brings him a copy of Dante's "Inferno", and proceeds to describe the horrible fates awaiting sinners in the afterworld. On screen, we see a series of stark tableaux in which naked men and women suffer eternal torments in Hell ... dodging flames, writhing in chains, turning into trees. For some reason, all the naked people in Hell have gorgeous physiques: apparently Hell doesn't take any chubsters.

"Dante's Inferno" is often mentioned by Rita Hayworth fans, because this movie includes one of her very earliest film roles. (She was still performing as Margarita Cansino, her original name.) Hayworth/Cansino appears very briefly as a ballroom dancer aboard Tracy's gambling ship. This is a standout film, but if you think it's a Rita Hayworth movie you'll be disappointed.

I strongly recommend "Dante's Inferno".

No one has commented that Dante's Inferno, starring Spencer Tracy, was clearly based on a true story.

In the main part of the 1935 movie, Tracy plays an unscrupulous amusement park owner who decides his next attraction will be a trip through Hell called "Dante's Inferno". In his usual corner-cutting manner, fire protection measures are short-changed with the inevitable result that there is a disastrous fire. Following this is a dream sequence in which Dante's vision of Hell is re-enacted and Tracy is appropriately punished. Finally there is an ending that I won't reveal.

The non-fantasy part of the story is strikingly similar to an actual, highly publicized, event that took place about 20 years earlier than the conception of the movie. At that time, Coney Island, which is part of Brooklyn, itself part of New York City, was the premier amusement park area of the world. There were two parks, Steeplechase, which emphasized fun and sex, and Luna Park, which emphasized art and youth. William H. Reynolds, an underhanded real estate developer and former Republican state senator, was attracted by the profits and decided to create a third giant park. He called his Dreamland.

Following his typical pattern, Reynolds, through his ties to the corrupt Tammany Democratic political machine, was able to have streets closed to make some inexpensive land suitable for a large amusement park. This deprived poor people of access to the beach, but so what? Patrons of his park, and of luxury hotels, had no problem.

Oddly, his concept, despite the usual sleazy attractions, also had morality, even religiosity, as a major theme. It started off with an attraction called Genesis, the Bible story of the creation of the world. There was another called Destruction of Pompeii, presumably as payment for wickedness. His crowning effort along this line was called Hell Gate, a fantasy ride through Hell, with a gigantic Satan smirking over the entrance.

In the early hours of May 27, 1911, as they rushed to ready the attraction for the Spring opening, workers accidentally started a fire. Firefighters responded, but because of low water pressure (for which many also blamed Reynolds' machinations), could not prevent its spread and all of Dreamland, including Hell Gate, was destroyed.

Don't you agree that the inspiration, if not the actual plot of the movie Dante's Inferno, was drawn from real life? And isn't it amusing that, considering his behavior, Reynolds was so preoccupied with morality and retribution?

Incidentally, I saw this film when I was 15 and it scared me silly.

Dante's Inferno was Spencer Tracy's final film for Fox before settling in at MGM where his career really took off. It was probably one of the biggest budget films Fox had ever done up to that time with two disasters and a dream sequence of hell.

Tracy plays a ship stoker and would be con man who gets fired off his ship for malingering. Down on his luck, kindly old Henry B. Walthall who owns a sideshow attraction at a carnival midway takes him in and Walthall's daughter Claire Trevor falls for him.

Spence is nothing if not determined to make something of himself and he becomes a rich man in the amusement game. But his ethics leave a lot to be desired.

The title is not Dante Alighieri's famous poetic saga of his journey through hell, but it's the name of the exhibit that Walthall owns. It's 'educational' but Tracy starts on his road to financial success by glamorizing the more prurient aspects of it.

The Inferno catches fire and there's a climatic ship's fire as well that Cecil B. DeMille could not have staged better. One wishes the film had been in color for that as well as the imaginary ten minute journey through hell that Walthall describes to Tracy.

The dancing team on the ship before the fire marks the screen debut of one Marguerite Carmen Cansino or better known as Rita Hayworth. She was quite the dancer on screen as well as in this person's opinion, the biggest sex symbol the screen ever knew.

Dante's Inferno was a fine film for Tracy to leave Fox with. But it would have astonished the executives at Fox if they could have imagined the career direction it would take at MGM.

For an early 1935 film,Dante's inferno is great.Spencer Tracy plays a con man who goes into the carnival business by reconstructing an attraction called Dante's inferno.its a morality tale with some great special effects for 1935,claire Trevor plays his love interest.look for Rita hayworth (billed Rita cansino)as a dancer in one of her early roles.its a good movie that still holds up today.Spencer Tracy was one of the great actors of the thirties thru the sixties.filmed in black and white.also in the movie is scotty Beckett who was one of the little rascals(aka:our gang)kids.a very good film and Rita hayworth does some awesome torrid dancing.I'm giving Dante's inferno 8 out of 10.

There is no denying that Dante Alighieri is not only a major literary figure of Italy's Renaissance, but one of the world's greatest poets. Actually he left many poems in his works, especially regarding the forbidden love of his life Beatrice, but the poem most associated with him is a 33 canto poem entitled INFERNO. Most people don't realize it is actually the first third of a larger book of poetry called THE DIVINE COMEDY. Dante wrote three sections of this book, in which he, a traveller, is escorted by the ghost of the Latin poet Virgil through the nine levels of Hell, then into purgatory, and finally into paradise. The conclusion of the poem is when Dante is able to see the grandeur and beauty of God's love, which is the ultimate position at the top of the universe's order. Although Purgatory and Paradise have moments of exceptional power in them, they are less exciting than the human tragedies that make up the cantos of The INFERNO. What story about redemption or love can compete with the hideous doom of Count Ugolino of Pisa and his children, condemned to starve to death by a political enemy (Ugolino had betrayed the enemy, once a friend of his). The punishment is very gruesome - Ugolino is forever hungry for his crimes, and is gnawing at the brain of his political foe forever as a result.

Nothing quite that gaudy here - The central figure (Tracy) begins as a stoker, but slowely rises in the world, frequently not realizing that his greed and drive have alienated friends and relatives. The source of his wealth is the carnival and gambling empire he has put together. In the course of building it he meets Henry Walthall, who wants to build a midway building that shows Dante's Inferno - Walthall believes it will be beneficial to the public as it will show the public the dangerous ice they are on if they continue to sin. Of course this is the screenwriter's take on Dante's Divine Comedy, and the Inferno in particular - actually Dante is far too clever a poet to have such a trivial motive in the actual work for writing it that way.

That Tracy is saved in the end is due to heeding the wisdom of his friend (later his father-in-law)and due to a sea tragedy - Tracy's latest addition to his empire is a gambling ship, which catches fire off the coast of the U.S., and requires Tracy's leadership qualities to save the passengers and crew. A suitable fiery conclusion to the film - and also an historic footnote: the boat is made to resemble the ill-fated Morro Castle, which burned in a fire in 1934 (the year before this film) off the coast of New Jersey, killing 130 passengers and crew. As such, this is the sole movie I know of that refers to that disaster, except for a line of dialogue in the contemporary satiric comedy BOY MEETS GIRL.