"Nightmare Alley" Review

 

by Daniel White

*Spoilers Ahead*

Riding the subways in New York City the past few weeks I noticed a poster for the film Nightmare Alley. Could this be a remake of the classic 1947 film noir? Informed by a fellow FB film buff that it was, I decided it was time to revisit the original.

Based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham (who in true noir fashion, committed suicide in the same Manhattan hotel where he had penned portions of the book years before), the film was released by Twentieth Century Fox. Darryl Zanuck had reluctantly purchased the rights to the property for his leading male money-maker, Tyrone Power. Power had returned to the studio after seeing action in World War ll and wanted to change his swashbuckling screen image.

Directed by Edmund Goulding, the movie opens at a carnival. One of the first scenes we see is a sideshow worker feeding live chickens to the Geek, a man who has been reduced to living like an animal for the entertainment of the locals who have come to gawk. Stan Carlisle, a self-absorbed barker is fascinated by the Geek, disgusted that anybody could "get so low". An opportunist hoping to make it big, he latches on to Madame Zeena (the always terrific Joan Blondell), when he finds out she had a one-time successful act with her husband, Pete. Pete has deteriorated into a useless booze hound, a result of Zeena's unfaithfulness ("I'm about as reliable as a two-dollar cornet"), and Stan hopes to replace him and revive their routine.

It's a harsh movie set in the film-flam world of the carny. The whole premise of the carny is to mislead the yokel, fool the rube. And those who engage in such subterfuge inevitably can't be trusted. Zeena destroys Pete, Stan uses Zeena. Even the seemingly innocent Molly (Coleen Gray) is cruel to the strongman Bruno (Mike Mazurki), whose love for her borders on the obsessive.

A film noir with excellent production values, Nightmare Alley is one of the greatest flicks made in the genre. It never betrays itself, never softens in its hard core stance, never steps back with a wink to let us know it's just kidding.

Stan gets what he wants, but wants more, and aligns himself with a calculating psychologist, Lilith Ritter (the truly sinister Helen Walker), who turns out to be more ruthless than he is. Exposed as a cheat and out hustled by the conniving Lilith, Stan returns to the carnival, a stew bum like the hopeless Pete he replaced.

Tyrone Power is convincing as Stan, going from self-assured hoaxster to alcoholic has-been. Unfortunately for Power, Zanuck played him. Unwilling to help the actor alter his image, he failed to promote the movie, pulling it from circulation shortly after it's release. Power would go back to playing romantic leads in roles he had hoped to avoid, a situation that caused the actor endless frustration (not unaware of the way he was treated by the movie mogul, Power named his plane "The Geek"). Hollywood as the ultimate carnival.

Looking at a trailer for the new Nightmare Alley, it certainly is louder than the original, more colorful, seems to have more sizzle and spark. But the question remains, is it better? Did Hollywood really need to retell a story it told to near perfection back in 1947?

With Ian Keith and Taylor Holmes, Nightmare Alley is available on YouTube.