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“‘Nightmare Alley'’ is grim, powerful stuff - the sordid tale of a carnival charlatan's rise and fall … it contains Mr. Power's best performance, strong and captivating.” – New York Times
Directed by Edmund Goulding
Bored with playing sympathetic heroes, Tyrone Power persuaded Twentieth Century-Fox to cast him as a calculating heel in a noir-ish film version of William Lindsay Gresham's 1946 novel. Ambitious carnival roustabout Stan Carlisle takes over a sideshow mind-reading act and transforms it into a slick nightclub turn. Determined to milk the "spook racket" for all it's worth, Stan next joins forces with a corrupt psychiatrist who supplies him with confidential information about her wealthy patients that Stan uses to convince them of his psychic ability. Power skillfully conveys Stan's cynicism and nervy charm, along with his oddly touching naiveté: he cannot help believing in tarot cards, and has a superstitious fear of divine retribution. Nightmare Alley stands out among 1940s films for its darkly humorous slant on phony religionists and their gullible followers.
---Charles Hopkins
Twentieth Century Fox. Producer: George Jessel. Screenwriter: Jules Furthman, based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham. Cinematographer: Lee Garmes. Editor: Barbara McLean. Cast: Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, Helen Walker, Taylor Holmes.
35mm, b/w, 111 min.
Watch the trailer below.
