Nightmare Alley (1947) Film Noir – Forget About the Remake! (A)

Director Edmund Goulding’s crowning achievement is “Nightmare Alley” (1947), a dark, psychologically driven film noir that explores ambition, deception, and downfall in the worlds of carnival and spiritualism. Working with cinematographer Lee Garmes, Goulding produced one of the GREAT film noirs, a genre he had never worked in before and would never work in again.

Tyrone Power, wishing to expand beyond the romantic and swashbuckler roles that brought him to fame, requested that 20th Century Fox’s studio chief, Darryl F. Zanuck, buy the rights to the novel by William Lindsay Gresham so he could star as the unsavory lead, Stanton, a scheming carnival barker. Charismatic but morally ambiguous, Stanton becomes obsessed with climbing the social ladder. He begins by learning mentalist tricks from aging performer Zeena (played by Joan Blondell) and her alcoholic husband, eventually stealing their act and striking out on his own.

MISTER, I WAS MADE FOR IT

The Great Stanton (Tyrone Power)

As Stanton reinvents himself as “The Great Stanton,” a spiritualist catering to wealthy elites, his manipulations grow more elaborate and dangerous. He employs cold reading and coded signals to convince his audience of his psychic powers, thereby gaining fame and fortune. He exploits several women, including Zeena, his innocent wife, Molly (played by Coleen Gray), and the cunning psychologist Lilith Ritter (played by Helen Walker), who ultimately betrays him. His hubris leads him to attempt a high-stakes con involving a grieving tycoon, which backfires disastrously. Lilith exposes him, and Stanton loses everything. Destitute and broken, he returns to the carnival world, where he’s offered a job as a “geek”—a grotesque sideshow act that eats live animals. In a chilling moment of acceptance, he replies, “Mister, I was made for it.

Although not a financial success upon its original release, it is now regarded as a film noir classic and a triumph for Goulding. The movie boasted career-best performances from Power, Gray and Blondell, as well as a memorable one from Walker. A car crash and the accompanying scandal ended Walker’s career two years later.

Forget about the tepid Guillermo del Toro remake and see this far-superior original.

TCF

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The Films of Edmund Goulding – TheBrownees

Classic Film Noir At Twentieth Century Fox – TheBrownees

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