Nightmare Alley

Starring:Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, Helen Walker, Taylor Holmes, Mike Mazurki, Ian Keith, George Beranger, Mike Lally, Al Herman, Roy Roberts, Jack Raymond, George Lloyd, Harry Hays Morgan, Henry Hall, Nina Gilbert, Florence Auer, Frank O'Connor, Kenner G. Kemp, John Wald
Director: Edmund Goulding
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
The long-awaited emergence of Nightmare Alley into the light of DVD should achieve two things: make a legendary film noir available to a new generation, and restore the horrific charge to the lately watered-down term geek, a concept that once had the power to give people very bad dreams indeed.

To his lasting credit, Tyrone Power--20th Century Fox's extraordinarily handsome but not terribly interesting star of the '30s and '40s--begged for the chance to play Stan Carlisle, the predatory charmer who snakes his way through this bracingly unwholesome story. A spieler for--and lover of--carnival mind reader Zeena (Joan Blondell), he displays uncanny skill at "reading" the susceptible rubes, including a tough sheriff who turns to jelly after Stan psychs him out. Once Stan's mastered the intricate code used in Zeena's act, he's set to dump her for the younger, sexier Molly (Coleen Gray) and go bigtime as nightclub psychic "Stanton the Great." After that, it's only a blasphemous bank shot to superstardom as a miracle worker with his own tabernacle and radio show.

Amazon.com

The long-awaited emergence of Nightmare Alley into the light of DVD should achieve two things: make a legendary film noir available to a new generation, and restore the horrific charge to the lately watered-down term geek, a concept that once had the power to give people very bad dreams indeed.

Few '40s films ventured as deeply into cynicism as Nightmare Alley, or dealt so frankly with sexuality (with ripplings of polymorphous perversity yet) and power-tripping. The movie's rhythm is uncertain and Jules Furthman's screenplay telegraphs things, but the overall tone is remarkable, as are individual sequences: the freaky forced marriage of Stan and Molly in accordance with carny morality, and a creepy night scene in a park when Stanton the Great raises a ghost for a high-society client. Cinematographer Lee Garmes's chiaroscuro creates a relief map of the carnival world and what passes for life there. As for the geek... well, you'll find out what geek means. Stan does. --Richard T. Jameson

Description

In this engaging melodrama, Stanton Carlisle (Tyrone Power) is a lowlife working in a carnival. Knowing a good con when he sees one, he learns the tricks of a mind-reading act from Zeena (Joan Blondell), then tosses her aside. In time, he becomes ?The Great Stanton,? star attraction of swanky nightclubs and the darling of society. But with all his notoriety built on lies, it?s only a matter of time before exposure brings Stanton?s world crashing down around him.

Customer Reviews:

AND NOW, IT'S FEEDIN' TIME..............2007-06-30

Somehow I saw this film when I was 8 years old and it scared the hell out of me. I have never forgotten it and was very glad when the DVD was released.
Now that I am 51 years old, and know the subtle pleasures of the noir genre, I can only say that this movie has improved like a fine wine: not the rotgut swill that The Stanton the Great eventually accepts as his pay. Tyrone Power is at his best, Joan Blondell is a perfectly bitchy carny queen, and all the rest are equally terrific.
Without adding any spoilers, I'll just say that this movie explores a side of human depravity rarely seen in the majority of films---today or during the forties.
It is ironic to me that I accepted a position as Executive Chef for Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus from 1998 to 2001. No, we did not have any carnival geeks, but we had many, many crackhead zombies in the lower unskilled crews. Who else is going to stand behind an elephant with a shovel?
And believe it or not, you can still catch a carnival geek performance in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia!

One of the Film Noir Greats.......2007-02-01

"Nightmare Alley" was released by Twentieth-Century Fox in 1947, the same year that another film noir classic, "Out of the Past", was released by RKO. Neither film touched off the kind of immediate box office sparks that each movie deserved, but in the manner of classics, it often takes time to appreciate these rare gems but as time elapses the positive responses multiply.

An old personal friend, Mike Mazurki, experienced some of his proudest moments of his career in "Nightmare Alley" along with another noir favorite of his from the same period in which he appeared, "Murder, My Sweet." Mike, who was juggling his acting career alongside headlining wrestling cards in the Los Angeles area in arenas such as Olympic Auditorium, Hollywood Legion Stadium, and Ocean Park Arena, had mixed feelings when he retrospectively looked back on working alongside Tyrone Power in "Nightmare Alley."

Mazurki was delighted to be in the film, and happy that this time he was not playing a ruthless criminal, even though he acknowledged that he had no complaints playing Moose Malloy in "Murder, My Sweet" opposite Dick Powell and Claire Trevor. While he remained forever proud of "Nightmare Alley" as a great film, one memory about the film saddened him.

"Ty Power was so great in `Nightmare Alley,'" Mike exclaimed, "but he never even got an Oscar nomination after turning in such a great performance. Edmund Goulding did a great job in directing Ty and all of us."

Mazurki knew how the business operated. Twentieth was placing its promotional dollars and emphasis elsewhere and as a result Power did not receive the kind of build-up deemed essential to gain recognition in the competitive Academy Awards sweepstakes.

One year earlier, in 1946, Power appeared in "The Razor's Edge," an adaptation of a Somerset Maugham novel, which Edmund Goulding also directed. The British director, who began as an actor in silent films, provided the kind of attentive care to Power and other performers in "Nightmare Alley" to produce a milestone film. Twentieth-Century Fox boss Darryl Zanuck put more money into promoting "The Razor's Edge" and Anne Baxter walked off with a Best Supporting Actress statuette on Oscar night.

Power, as one of the screen's matinee idols, fought to overcome an unfair "pretty boy" tag when he was far more than a handsome face and proved when given the chance to be an accomplished actor. "Nightmare Alley" provided him with such a chance as he performs with virtuoso skill in a challenging role of a con artist and glib pitch man along the order of Burt Lancaster in "Elmer Gantry," for which the muscular Hollywood veteran received a Best Actor Oscar.

While Mazurki attempts to warn young and vulnerable Coleen Gray about linking her heart to Power, a man he sees as flaw-ridden, the opportunistic con man finds more common ground with the more experienced Helen Walker. When Power cuts loose with his routine audiences get the chance to see a screen craftsman on display.

As a superb dramatic vehicle for Tyrone Power, "Nightmare Alley" stands alongside Rouben Mamoulian's bullfighting gem "Blood and Sand," when the actor teamed up with Twentieth beauties Rita Hayworth and Linda Darnell, and "Alexander's Ragtime Band," where he played opposite the studio's stunning blonde box office champ, Alice Faye.

Zanuck knew the value of Tyrone Power. He apparently erred, however, in not marshalling more publicity effort into "Nightmare Alley." This is truly convincing film noir at its peak and this DVD comes along at a time when the genre is riding high.

A Geek through A Glass Darkly.......2006-10-18

I don't know how I got through life without seeing this one before. Ty Power is a fledgling carny barker. He sets up the mind-reading performance of Zeena (Joan Blondell), who is married to a drunk, named Pete, who used to do a mentalist act in Vaudeville with her. A sophisticated code was used which allowed the mentalist to 'read' people's minds.

The carny atmosphere adds to the seediness of it all. Ty is a heel and a cad. He thinks of no one but himself. He wants that code so he and Blondell can be headliners again.

Mike Mazurski is the Carny strongman Bruno, who is jealous of his girl Molly's attentions to Stan (Tyrone Power). There are all kinds of female diversions around for Stan, but he is intent upon getting the code that kept Blondell and her hubby aloft in vaudeville.

Thematically at the center of the story is a horrendous, half animal human being called the Geek. He's the headliner of the sideshow. He's not actually shown at this juncture. Another practiced carny barker with a straw boater and a bamboo cane touts his qualities to an audience while tossing the Geek two live chickens to gobble.

Stan accidentally kills Pete by grabbing a bottle of wood alcohol from the prop trunk, which he thought was the bottle of moonshine he had bought from the Carny bootlegger. He is mortified to learn he is responsible for Pete's death, but he takes the trouble to retrieve the moonshine bottle still in the prop trunk and hide it.

Stan is soon caught by Zeena and Bruno romancing Molly, Bruno's girl, and somehow the two of them leave the circus and take a mentalist show onto the nightclub circuit.

Zeena has read Stan's fate in her Tarot cards. It is the same as her husband Pete's fate. Stan keeps struggling with this.

Its a thoroughly interesting movie, better than most produced today. The hallmark of a good movie is that it keeps you guessing about what's going to happen next.

Fox has polished this one up and served it as an example of Film Noir. Noir is so hot on DVD that every black and white drama before 1959 is being considered for the noir treatment. But this one doesn't qualify even if it is a good film.

Film Noir drifted out of pulp magazines of the thirties like Black Mask, where Hammett, Chandler and James M. Cain had flourished, into movies, beginning around 1940. Some argue the Maltese Falcon of John Huston was Noir, but the French defined Noir (black). Even though Hollywood filmmakers had created Noir, it was not recognized until Jean Luc Godard and others started writing about it in the French magazine Cahiers Du Cinema in the late fifties.

The shadows, action and music accompanying the black and white cinematography of that era were what made Noir Noir. The Maltese Falcon was too static and stagy to qualify as noir. The first good example of Noir by my definition is Out of the Past with Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas and the most outlandish series of landscapes ever stuffed into a single movie. A moment in Out of the Past captures what Noir is. Mitchum's face is seen in half shadow lighting a cigarette as he turns slightly to confront something happening behind him in the half-lit darkness. All Noir has the usual poisonous darkness of the central character, but that's not really enough. Real Noir has the shadowed faces and the Noir lighting at a moment when active violence is in progress or in the offing. Its a concoction of effects that stirs the viewer to just the right level of appreciation. Its something some of the better filmmakers tried to add to what the Hard-Boiled pulp writers had created between pages.

Tyrone Power at his darkest.......2006-10-07

Produced by none other than George Jessel, "Nightmare Alley" is a bizarre trip into madness and degradation.
Ty Power gives one of his strongest performances and is backed with a strong supporting cast.
The plot has been outlined in detail by other reviewers, so I won't go into that here.
This DVD was made from a good print and the transfer is excellent. It also contains some bonus extras.
All-in-all, a "must see" for film noir fans.

A Really Creepy Film.......2006-10-05

This is one of the darkest, most depressing and creepy films I have ever seen. After watching this, I almost wanted to take the dvd outside my house and set it on fire.

However, it does seem to support very well the old (and true) saying that "Booze is the Nuclear Weapon of the Devil"

The characters portrayed in this movie are in serious need of Christ's Salvation

Average customer rating:

Film Noir Boxed Set
remember...no 16 Boomerang is still missing
better price (than list) to start your collection, but not the best deal on noir
Don't Forget This One Too.........
An indispensable series for aficionados of film noir

Film Noir Boxed Set
Starring: Gene Tierney , Dana Andrews , Clifton Webb , Vincent Price , and James Stewart
Director: Henry Hathaway , and Otto Preminger
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Crime & Criminals | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Film Noir | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Mystery & Suspense | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 2 (Born to Kill / Clash by Night / Crossfire / Dillinger (1945) / The Narrow Margin (1952))
Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 3 (Border Incident / His Kind of Woman / Lady in the Lake / On Dangerous Ground / The Racket)
Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 1 (The Asphalt Jungle / Gun Crazy / Murder My Sweet / Out of the Past / The Set-Up)
Where the Sidewalk Ends (Fox Film Noir)
The Dark Corner (Fox Film Noir)

ASIN: B000MDH6RK
Release Date: 2007-03-01

Amazon.com

This 17 film collection includes some of the best in film noir from 1944 - 1955, with 12 Oscar nominations between them. These are the films that defined the genre and the style of film-making. Mystery, Suspense, Murder, this collection has it all! Films Included: Call Northside 777, Laura, Panic in the Streets, House of Bamboo, Nightmare Alley, Street with no Name, House on 92nd Street, Somewhere in the Night, Whirlpool, Dark Corner, Kiss of Death, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Fallen Angel, The House on Telegraph Road, No Way Out, I Wake Up Screaming and House of Strangers

Customer Reviews:

Film Noir Boxed Set.......2007-03-28

I have watched about half of these movies & so far all of them have been very good, in fact, much better than I expected. I find Dana Andrews to be a very compelling leading man & the actresses in all of these are superb as well. I hope Fox will resolve their issues with "Boomerang" which is #16 in the set, (which is not included with your purchase) so that I can add this one to the collection. My only complaint is that this collection is not really a boxed set. It is simply 17 great film noir DVD's shrink-wrapped together. However, this is a great value & lots of these titles are being released for the first time in this set. Highly recommended for those who like the genre.

remember...no 16 Boomerang is still missing.......2007-03-18

This set misses out no.16 "Boomerang". It got recalled at the eleventh hour by Fox because of a legal tangle.
You can find it on sale for $45.00 on amazon marketplace, because it was actually printed and ready to go.
Clearly a few boxes have found their way out the back door!!!!
But despite that wee dissapointment you'll love the rest.
Hopefully Fox will sort out the mess soon..... and then you can plug the gap without having to shell out silly money.

better price (than list) to start your collection, but not the best deal on noir.......2007-03-12

I haven't yet purchased these titles & was just about to, until I checked up on what's included with the current bundle (March 1 2007) that Amazon is offering. As previously mentioned, this is not a box set (misleading description from Amazon), but rather a bundle of the first 17 titles in Fox's noir series. I purchased the Warner Bros.' boxes 1-3 (and reviewed them there) which I thought were an excellent value for the money (when on sale, roughly 6 - 7$ per disc). I've held off on these since the price is higher. This bundle discounts the titles to about $8 per disc, which is better than the usual price for each, but a local retailer often sells these titles for 7.50 - 10.00 (with a buy 3 get 1 free sale). Still I would have jumped on this price had this been a bonafide box set with the slimmer DVD cases, but these regular dvd's will take up quite a bit of real estate in my storage. Moreover, the more recent titles aren't included (missing titles: Boomerang, 14 Hours, Shock, Vicki, all released last year). If Fox would release all the titles to date (plus the next releases: Hangover Square & The Lodger) in slim cases & a box at a comparable price I'll jump, otherwise I'm holding out for a better deal.

Don't Forget This One Too................2006-03-05

For some reason the Fox Noir release Dark Corner (Mark Stevens, Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix) doesn't get much coverage under the typical outlets for obtaining these Fox Noir titles, Amazon included. I didn't even know the title was even out there, but it is, and it is quite a Noir gem. I say this without hesitation because I was never a Lucy fan at all. But in this one, she's actually pretty cool. Too bad she went goofy in later life (I guess it paid the bills).
If you like the Fox Noir series and Noir in general, don't forget this one too. I got mine from Tower Records (seems hard to find for some reason). The famous "peering through the venetian blinds" scene that you see stills of all the time, that's Mark Stevens. A somewhat overlooked actor in Noir circuit, but he can hold up to any of the other more noted ones in my opinion. Check it out.

An indispensable series for aficionados of film noir.......2006-01-10

The Fox film noir collection is an "Amazon.com exclusive" consisting of 9 DVDS in their individual cases (alas including individual shrink wrap, which one tediously has to remove) presented in one blister pack. The nine titles are:
*** BATCH 1 (DVDs released 3/05): Call Northside 777 (1948); Laura (1944); Panic in the streets (1950)
*** BATCH 2 (DVDs released 6/05): House of bamboo (1955); Nightmare alley (1947); Street with no name (1948)
*** BATCH 3 (DVDs released 9/05): House on 92nd Street (1945); Somewhere in the night (1946); Whirlpool (1949)

The film restorations are superbly done. The DVD cases are in uniform format, being part of the "Fox film noir" series. Each title has a film commentary (Laura has two) plus other extras, minimally a trailer. In addition, each title has a 4-page booklet with these sections: "the lineup," "the look," "the scoop," "the story," and "scene selection."

The DVDs list for $14.95 each and currently Amazon sells them for around $10 each. Amazon sells the 9-DVD collection for $74.99, which works out to $8.33 for each DVD. Certainly, not all titles are of the caliber of Laura (1944), but this collection is a must-have for the firm-noir aficionado.

Incidentally, BATCH 4, was released 12/05 and consists of: The dark corner (1946); Kiss of death (1947); Where the sidewalk ends (1950). BATCH 5 will be released in 3/06: Fallen angel (1945); House on Telegraph Hill (1951); No way out (1950)

Alain Silver & Elizabeth Ward's "Film noir: An encyclopedic reference to the American style" (1992, 3rd ed.) lists 32 noir titles by Fox. Hence we can probably expect from Fox another 20 or so titles in the "Fox film noir" series. If these 32ish titles all materialize in this excellent series, it will be a big chunk both out of one's purse and DVD shelf space.

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