Retro Film Noir: Nightmare Alley

The world of film noir is full of murder-filled cityscapes, rain-slicked streets and doomed characters, but one of the bleakest and most cynical stories in noir cinema actually starts out not in the big city, but at a carnival. Nightmare Alley, a 1947 tale from director Edmund Goulding, is a cynical tale filled with a sense of foreboding, which features some very dark twists and turns. The movie stars Tyrone Power as Stan Carlisle, an ambitious guy, who's something of a heel. He’s eking out a living as a barker at a slightly low-rent carnival. He also assists Zeena, a mentalist, and her husband Eric, with their act. Stan, who’s both a con man and a ladies man, is having an affair with Zeena, and wants to find a way into the big-time.

Stan learns that Zeena and Eric had a popular vaudeville show, before her extramarital affairs and Eric’s drinking ruined their careers. They used a shared “code” which made it appear that Zeena truly had supernatural powers of perception. Stan’s desperate to get a hold of it, believing that he and Zeena could put a successful act together. But she won’t share the code or leave her husband. Then tragedy strikes, and Pete dies in an accident, for which Stan is inadvertently responsible. Zeena has to teach Stan the code in order to continue the act. Meanwhile, the venal Stan’s already thinking about his next conquest, and is romancing Molly, a younger member of the carnival troupe, who's infatuated with him, behind Zeena’s back. Stan is a bit of a cad, and pretty full of himself.

When Stan’s liaison with Molly is discovered, the carnival crew forces him to marry her, and Stan and Molly leave the show behind. Stan re-invents himself as a mentalist, and with Molly as his assistant, their show becomes popular on the nightclub circuit. One night, a woman in the audience challenges Stan’s supposed “power.” Stan’s able to outwit her, but can't get her off his mind. She turns out to be a psychiatrist named Lilith Ritter, who’s as fascinated by Stan as he is by her. Stan and Lilith enter into a scheme using the recordings of sessions with her clients to enhance his con, and display his remarkable powers of perception, in order to wrangle money from their marks. Just how low will Stan go to attain fame and fortune? What’s Lilith’s game, and is she trying to further her own ends?

Every time Stan makes a choice, he picks the self-interested path that will profit him, even at the expense and downfall of others. The carnival troupe is depicted as a family, and the fact that Stan, as a rootless drifter who'd been given a home there, discards them so casually, is another factor in his undoing. He also underestimates Lilith, who’s much sharper than Stan gives her credit for, and ignores Molly’s warnings about going too far with his schemes. Will the dark prediction Zeena saw in her tarot cards back at the carnival regarding his ultimate fate come true? Stan is haunted by his part in Eric’s accidental death, and when things really unravel for him, he'll find himself brought lower than he’s ever been before. Is Stan's fate his own doing, or was it his destiny all along?

Nightmare Alley is based upon a novel by William Lindsay Gresham, which became a best-seller upon its release in 1946. The book is, if anything, even darker than the film, and it was a big success with readers. Gresham was fascinated by seamy side of carnival life, and based the novel on conversations he had with a former carny. Tyrone Power read the book and wanted to star in the film version. Power was looking to do something a bit different from the romantic leads and swashbuckling roles he normally essayed, and thanks to his star power, as well as the recent success of his dramatic turn in The Razor’s Edge, he convinced Daryl Zanuck to produce the film version of Nightmare Alley. The studio brought in writer Jules Furthman to adapt the novel, and assigned Power’s Razor’s Edge director, Edmund Goulding, to helm the film.

Power gives a terrific performance as Stan, imbuing the character with just the right mix of con man charisma, suave ladies man charm, and the complex emotions of a multi-layered noir anti-hero. He’s perfectly matched by Joan Blondell as Zeena, Coleen Gray as Molly, and Helen Walker as the enigmatic Lilith, all of whom are excellent. Mike Mazurki as Bruno and Ian Keith as Eric are also wonderful in their supporting roles. Goulding’s direction is solid, and there’s some brilliant cinematography by Lee Garmes, who uses the film’s black and white palette to its full advantage. His masterful lighting and shot composition are showcased throughout the film.

Nightmare Alley was not a success upon its original release, and Daryl Zanuck quickly pulled the film from theaters. Perhaps the subject matter was a bit too dark and disturbing for the time, even with its studio-imposed "happy" ending, but the movie remained one of Power’s personal favorites, and has gone on to become a classic of film noir. There’s a remake of the film (which is reportedly a closer adaptation of the novel) coming later this year, directed and co-written by Guillermo Del Toro, and featuring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Ron Perlman. In the meantime, check out Nightmare Alley on the recently released Criterion Collection Blu-ray or DVD, which has some excellent special features, including a commentary by noir historians James Ursini and Alain Silver, and interviews with co-star Coleen Gray, writer Imogen Sara Smith and Todd Robbins, a real-life carnival performer. Nightmare Alley is a terrific movie, and it’s one of my absolute favorite noir films. If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to check it out. If you have seen it before, maybe it’s time to re-discover it! Here’s a link to the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Nly0xSm1E, which is textless and narration-less.