Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Nightmare Alley / USA / 1947

This film was a total (and most pleasant) surprise. Not being an especially avid watcher of Tyrone Power movies I was taken by his smooth talking/tough guy screen persona. It’s a distinctive spark that only a few golden-era Hollywood movie stars are able to emit to my eyes. In this film, he’s compelling throughout, except perhaps, near the end when he starts acting. He stars as a carnival veteran, Stanton Carlisle, who has an act with a phony mentalist, Zeena, played by a plucky Joan Blondell (I had never seen her in anything but Grease!, much to my shame). Well, The Great Stanton (the monkier Carlisle eventually dons) gets prety ambitious, and after ditching Zeena, marrying an adoring young carny blonde, played admiringly well by Coleen Gray, he makes his way to the very big time. And as bad karma has it, Stanton falls, a victim of his own blind ambition and lack of respect for human dignity.

The screenplay is adroitly written; including a nifty foreshadowing figure, Pete Krumbein played by Ian Keith, who’s travelled Stanton’s road. It includes dialogue and visual passages that more-or-less bookend the narrative. Despite the black and white stock, the loud and oft-repeated musical crescendoes typical in a film noir score, I think the genre shows itself, mostly, in the sometimes melodramatic playing and staginess in blocking. But it’s really a bit more than the genre allows, thank goodness. And it’s especially due to the handling of the material. The central theme of the entire film is the question of how far one can take the psych game. Stanton is able to hustle just about anyone until he runs into a woman (naturally), a psychoanalyst, who attempts to show him how he has turned the game on himself. Then he’s not sure if it’s all a game or if he’s gone, in fact, clinically insane. The film starts to skate the edge of implausibility when the subject of Stanton, the great con-man, defying God rears it’s head. Luckily it’s not persued with any seriousness.

I suppose other noir films have covered this ground before but seldom are they executed with such finesse.

Here’s a full blown review of the film (that I just discovered) by Tom.

by Marlin Tyree | Source: 20th Century Fox DVD
05 Jul 2007 12:01 PM | Comments (2)

Comments / 2 total / Submit Comment

1. Maria / 5 July 2007 / 2:22 PM

   Hi, thanks for a great review of one of my favorite films. Not sure who you’re thinking of, but Joan Blondell died in 1979 and was not in Grease.

   Tyrone Power gave many excellent performances when given an opportunity, including his last film, Witness for the Prosecution, and also This Above All, The Rains Came, and The Mark of Zorro.

2. Tyree / 6 July 2007 / 2:24 PM

   Thanks for the review compliment, though it was mainly meant a buzz-word for a old classic. After I’ve watched this film about a hundred times I suppose I’ll realize that it’s one of my favorites as well.

   Joan Blondell played Vi, the drug store waitress, in Grease (1978). It’s the only other thing I’ve seen her in (and I particularly remember her commenting on the buns of one of the mooning dorks). Gool ‘ol earthy Joan. Didn’t know she died a year after the release, however. I’ve got to watch out for more of her work.