“GEEK LOVE”

By Raymond Benson

One of the more unique entries in the film noir movement of the 1940s and 50s is the 1947 melodrama, Nightmare Alley. Based on a novel by William Lindsay Gresham, the picture was made only because Tyrone Power expressed the desire to star in it after reading the grim tale of a carnival barker who rises to the top of the charlatan world, only to ultimately fall hard to rock bottom.

While classified as film noir, the picture has little of the usual trappings of the movement. There is no central crime in the story, there are no cynical detectives, and one can argue that there are no femmes fatale. It is only in the visual presentation that one can consider Nightmare Alley an item of film noir—the high contrast black and white photography (by the great Lee Garmes, who had photographed several of the early 30s Josef von Sternberg pictures starring Marlene Dietrich), the heavy light and shadows, and the dark, pessimistic themes in the story. Interestingly, the author of the screenplay is John Furthman, who also worked with von Sternberg and penned such titles as Shanghai Express and Blonde Venus—but he also wrote or co-wrote such fare as the 1935 Mutiny on the Bounty, Only Angels Have Wings, To Have and Have Not, and The Big Sleep. Director Edmund Goulding had a long career starting in the silent era. He helmed Grand Hotel, The Dawn Patrol, Dark Victory, and The Razor’s Edge, to name a few of his classics.

Add the casting of Power and Joan Blondell as the top-billed stars, plus the charismatic Coleen Gray and Helen Walker, and you have a smorgasbord of talent involved in the production. It was indeed a different kind of role for Tyrone Power, who shed his matinee idol persona to play a flawed character. The result? Nightmare Alley is an intelligent, seriously played, and strikingly original B-movie that deals with the sleazy underbelly of the carnival circuit, mediums and hocus pocus (the “spook racket”), and con artists. It’s no wonder that a big-budget remake by Guillermo Del Toro is due for a December 2021 release starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Willem Dafoe, and Toni Collette.

Stanton Carlisle (Power) works as a barker in a traveling carnival and is fascinated by the “Geek” attraction, which is billed as a “missing link” between man and beast. The Geek is really a down-on-his-luck alcoholic bum who willingly degrades himself to bite the heads off live chickens in exchange for a little pay and a bottle of booze. Stan is sweet on Molly (Gray), the young and attractive girl-of-all-trades in the sideshow, but she is attached to Bruno the strongman (Mike Mazurki). Stan then makes a play for Zeena (Blondell), the mentalist who is married to another alcoholic, Pete (Ian Keith). Zeena still loves Pete, although she sees the opportunity to better her situation with Stan. She teaches Stan her tricks so that he can take over Pete’s part in the act. After Stan unwittingly causes Pete’s death, the dynamics between the characters shift. Stan and Molly are forced into marriage after a behind-the-scenes tryst, and then they run away to become a big act in Chicago using Zeena and Pete’s methods. But their fortunes turn, of course, especially after Stan meets beautiful psychiatrist Lilith (Walker). To reveal more would be unfair, but it is not a spoiler to say that the Geek plays a bigger role in the yarn than we first thought.

While Nightmare Alley is a terrific character study of an overly ambitious man, it is really a cautionary picture about alcoholism. The Lost Weekend had been a critical and popular success only two years earlier, so the producer (George Jessel) and the studio must have thought Nightmare Alley would fly—but it proved to be much too bleak, even for film noir. It was a box office flop, despite some good reviews and the admirable quality of the filmmaking. However, the movie gained a following over the decades and earned a reputation as a dark classic that was little seen until home video and runs on TCM.

The Criterion Collection has now issued a superb Blu-ray presentation of Nightmare Alley, an upgrade from Fox’s previous DVD release. The new 4K digital restoration looks sharp and glorious, and it comes with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack. There is an audio commentary from 2005 by film historians James Ursini and Alain Silver. The supplements include an informative interview about the film by critic Imogen Sara Smith; a truly excellent interview about the history of the carny life by sideshow performer and historian Todd Robbins; an interview from 2007 with actress Coleen Gray; an audio excerpt from a 1971 interview with filmmaker Henry King, who discusses Tyrone Power; and the theatrical trailer. The booklet contains an essay by film writer and screenwriter Kim Morgan. Bonus!—there are a handful of nifty tie-in Tarot cards to play with!

Nightmare Alley is a fascinating gem from the darker side of film noir, which was already pretty dark to begin with! Highly recommended.

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