All I really knew about Nightmare Alley (1947) was that it was a classic film noir, it’s currently being remade by Guillermo Del Toro and it’s another film I’d not seen that was covered in Danny Peary’s Cult Movies 2. That, and it had something to do with carny life. This is definitely a case for going in cold because Nightmare Alley has the twists and turns of your usual film noir, but also surprised me in how things unfolded, the way it took its time and how the plot developed, following the fortunes of a carnival worker Stanton Carlisle (Tyrone Power) who is the barker for the fortune teller, Zeena (Joan Blondell). There’s a community of characters including Zeena’s alcoholic husband Pete (Ian Keith), the mermaid-costumed Molly (Coleen Gray) and the strongman Bruno (Mike Mazurki). It’s a character study of a mover and shaker with Tyrone Power’s character, who is allowed to remain human and well-rounded, even as things fall into his favour, willingly or subconsciously. Nightmare Alley shifts from simply being about an operator on the make into a drama with some depth about manipulation, the various forms it takes, and the levels of society who want to be manipulated. It reminded me a bit of The Master and could be a great double feature, even though they are about different worlds. Another great character in the mix is a psychologist with a game of their own, Lilith Ritter (Helen Walker). Photographed in black and white, there’s an eerie quality to what transpires, particularly the scenes at night in the darkened carnival when the crowds have left and it’s just the performers. Directed by Edmund Golding and adapted from the novel by William Lindsay Gresham, the film has been released on Bluray by the Criterion Collection, but you can find a copy to stream digging around on YouTube. Power is excellent in the lead, allowing shading beyond the archetype and taking us through his character’s changing fortunes; Blondell and Walker are also great, the former a believer in the Tarot cards, the other an even colder operator. Recommended.
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