Nightmare Alley (1947 film)
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| Nightmare Alley | |
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| Directed by | Edmund Goulding |
| Produced by | George Jessel |
| Written by | William Lindsay Gresham (novel) Jules Furthman |
| Starring | Tyrone Power Coleen Gray Joan Blondell Helen Walker Taylor Holmes Mike Mazurki |
| Music by | Cyril J. Mockridge |
| Cinematography | Lee Garmes |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | October 9, 1947 |
| Running time | 110 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Nightmare Alley is a 20th Century Fox film noir released in 1947. The movie rights for the 1946 novel of the same name, written by William Lindsay Gresham, were bought by actor Tyrone Power who planned on starring in the film. Power was attempting to expand his limited range playing romantic swashbuckler types in movies by playing the unsavory lead, "The Great Stanton".
To make the film look believable, the films producers built a full working carnival on 10 acres (40,000 m²) of the 20th Century Fox back lot. They also hired over 100 sideshow attractions and carnival men in an attempt to make the film look authentic.
[edit] Plot
The movie follows the rise and fall of a con man — a story that begins and ends at a seedy traveling carnival. Stanton Carlisle (Tyrone Power) joins the carnival, working with "Mademoiselle Zeena" (Joan Blondell) and her alcoholic husband, Pete (Ian Keith). They were once a top-billed act, using an ingenious code to make it appear that she had extraordinary mental powers, until her (unspecified) misdeeds drove Pete to drink and reduced them to working in a third-rate outfit. Stanton learns that many people want to buy the code from Zeena for a lot of money, but she won't sell; she is saving it as a nest egg. He tries to romance Zeena into teaching it to him, but she remains faithful to her husband. One night, Stanton accidentally gives Pete the wrong bottle; he dies from drinking wood alcohol instead of moonshine. To keep her act going, she is forced to train Stanton to be her assistant.
Stanton however, prefers the company of the younger Molly (Colleen Gray). When this is found out, they are forced into a shotgun marriage by the rest of the carnies. No longer welcome, Stanton realizes this is actually a golden opportunity for him. He and his wife leave the carnival. He becomes "The Great Stanton", performing with great success in expensive nightclubs. However, he has even higher ambitions.
With crooked psychologist Lilith Ritter (Helen Walker) providing him with information about her patients, Stanton passes himself off as someone who can actually communicate with the dead. It almost works. But when he tries to swindle sceptical Ezra Grindle (Taylor Holmes), it all comes crashing down when Molly is unable to force herself to masquerade as Grindle's long-lost love. The couple leave town hurridly; Stanton tells Molly to return to the carnival world, while he gradually sinks into alcoholism.
Finally, the fallen carny tries to get a job at another carnival, only to suffer the ultimate degradation: the only job he can get is playing the geek in a sideshow.
[edit] Critical reaction
In 1947, Time Magazine film writer James Agee found the film's cynical humor and sharp social observation praise-worthy while Variety found it both grimly realistic and horrifyingly fantastic.
Today, the film receives mostly positive reviews. In a 2000 review of the film in The Village Voice, writer J. Hoberman commented, "This 1947 account of an archetypal American's rise and fall is neither a great movie nor even a classic noir but it has a great ambition to be daring and, once seen, is not easily forgotten. The movie suggested far more than it showed but what it showed, including the climactic degradation of 20th Century Fox's then-major star Tyrone Power, was remarkably sordid for so high-profile a release."
Also in 2000, New York Times reviewer Elvis Mitchell praised normally stiff leading man Power: "The vivid, hard-boiled dialogue of Alley, ... allows Power to use his charm ruthlessly. Here the actor traded on the public perception of him as a handsome wind-up hero to play a calm opportunist. Like Tom Cruise, Power started his career as a sleek hood ornament who made his way through the movies on his charisma and good looks. And like Mr. Cruise, he learned to act, using his career as on-the-job training."
