Product 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4727 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-06-07
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Black & White, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 111 minutes

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.

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

Customer Reviews

A Fascinating But Watered Down Version of the Shocking Gresham Novel
Published in 1946, William Lindsay Gresham's NIGHTMARE ALLEY was one of the great shockers of the era--and although hard to find today it remains a scorching expose of the carny and spiritualist scams. Typecast in pretty-boy roles, Tyrone Power was so eager to show serious acting chops that he actually bought the screen rights to the novel and prevailed upon 20th Century Fox to film the novel with him in the leading role.

Given the book's popularity and Power's pull at the box office, NIGHTMARE ALLEY was not exactly a flop--but neither was it the transforming success Power hoped it would be. Given censorship codes of the day, Gresham's novel could not be filled head-on, and no matter what Power himself might want the public wasn't wild about seeing their handsome leading man in such an unsavory role. The film gradually vanished from view and has only recently become available on DVD.

Stanton Carlisle (Tyrone Power) is a second-rate con-man working the sideshow circuit when he falls in with Zeena (Joan Blondell)--who was once a famous "psychic" until her husband's alcoholism brought her career low. Zeena's tricks of the trade are worth a fortune, but she refuses to part with them until husband Pete dies under unsavory (and ambigious) circumstances; she then teaches them to Stanton. But Stanton is less interested in Zeena than he is in her tricks and in sexy Molly (Coleen Gray.) Soon he and Molly are moving up in the world, playing to class nightclub audiences.

But the lure of easy money is too much: spurred on by Lilith (a truly slinky Helen Walker), he is soon working a seance racket, rooking clients through everything from table tappings to ghostly apparitions. But all is not quite as it seems, and after a doublecross and an exposure, Stanton is on his way down in a very major way, increasingly alcoholic, and facing the ultimate carny degredation. Things don't look good, to say the least.

Seen today, the major problem with NIGHTMARE ALLEY is the script. Given censorship issues of the day, there was no way that Hollywood could do the story justice, and the script dodges right and left in an effort to keep bluenoses at bay. The ending is particularly annoying, especially if you have read the novel. Even so, the performances are memorable, the story (or as least as much of it as they dare use) is powerful, and the look and feel of the thing is entirely unexpected. This is indeed film noir at its most edgy; fans of the genre will be fascinated.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Top notch film noir
A terrific cast and good writing lead the way with this film noir from 20th Century Fox. Tyrone Power is cast against type as a carnival shill who, through a mishap, kills another carnie and finds himself privy to a secret mentalist trick code. The code takes his act to uptown clubs where he meets assorted shady characters, which eventually leads to down fall and ultimately, redemption. Joan Blondell as the "older" woman (not THAT much older), Coleen Gray as the sweet young thing and Helen Walker as the psychologist round out cast. A fine addition to any film noir collection.

Tyrone Power's Finest Hour
This anomalous drama, light years ahead of its time in 1947 is set in a rustic time and place of American history. This is the Carnivals that once traveled from town to town where for a couple of hours the tedious routine of hard working people of the small villages and farms across the land could be shattered as a result of having their minds stretched by bizarre sideshows and their pockets emptied with fixed games of chance favoring the establishment.

By 1947 Tyrone Power---once considered one of the handsomest young men in the picture business had established himself as one of Hollywood's leading stars. However his career was now on the downhill side of the climb. Thus he needed a shot-in-the-arm powerful role. In this beguiling movie, a story of human karma he found it. The nomenclature of Geek had a far different denotation than it does today. Here we get a front seat look at the full impact of its original meaning. Nightmare Alley is the true career showcase for Power's range as an actor. He is superb in this unforgettable portrayal.