• Nightmare Alley was as well known for being taken out of circulation for a long time (and being difficult for cinephiles to locate) as anything else. It was largely unavailable for most of the second half of the twentieth century and not exactly easy to track down until very recently either.
  • Director Edmund Goulding is best known for Grand Hotel (1932) but this is his best little stretch of work here post World War II with The Razor’s Edge in 1946 and Nightmare Alley in 1947. Both The Razor’s Edge and Nightmare Alley feature Tyrone Power- better known as a handsome Hollywood star than a great actor.
  • The story is based on William Lindsay Gresham’s novel- one about manipulation and power. It is set in the seedy carnival underworld. It is a world where greed thrives and characters often suffer from alcoholism and wield sex like a weapon. Tyrone Power’s Stanton Carlisle absolutely loves it. He is at home in it.
  • It does not have the urban setting- but it its dark fatalism certainly feels like noir. And the lights on the big top tent at night with the ropes holding them make for a decent substitute for the city alleyways.
  • When the carnival is at risk of being shut down by the law- there is a strong scene of Carlisle sweet talking his way around the marshal. The writing is dazzling- this is Jules Furthman (screenwriter of Morocco, To Have and Have Not, Rio Bravo) adapting the novel. This scene forecasts his future occupation (and graduation from the carnival life) to a conniving mentalist.
  • Lee Garmes is the cinematographer (MoroccoShanghai ExpressScarface, Duel in the Sun).
  • It was rare to see a handsome protagonist in Hollywood play a character this enterprising – or “ruthless” as used in the text. So though he is not a talented actor- kudos to Power for challenging himself with this great role/character.
  • It is an extremely engaging (albeit depressing) moral tale: tarot cards, Coleen Gray as Molly- posing as a figure to swindle money.
  • “Who are you calling a freak?”- this is most definitely one of the bleakest of films made in Hollywood during this era. One could pair it with Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem For a Dream (2000).
  • Shares the same dark carnival setting with Tod Browning’s 1932 film Freaks
  • The “geek”- defeatism- “mister, I was made for it”- a wallop of a resolution. – it would be better to end it there- not the uplifting reunion of sorts with Molly.
  • Recommend/Highly Recommend