Nightmare Alley (1947) Carney/Spook Racket Noir Masterpiece
"How can a guy sink so low?
He reached too high..." Another Classic Film Noir that's today highly regarded. Nightmare Alley is based on the 1946 novel of the same title, written by William Lindsay Gresham. Gresham has stated that the genesis of Nightmare Alley started with his early fascination with the sideshow attractions he found at Coney Island. And later with stories he swapped with a former sideshow employee, Joseph Daniel "Doc" Halliday, during the Spanish Civil War. He wrote the novel while working as a true crime editor for Fawcett Publications most likely Daring Detective or Dynamic Detective. Gresham also penned a nonfiction book about carnies entitled Monster Midway.
A movie rights dispute had kept this masterpiece out of the public eye for quite awhile. It was finally resolved back in the early 2000s and was brought out on DVD in Fox Home Entertainment's Film Noir DVD series.
A real "Debbie Downer" of a film that was released just after the end of WWII. Possibly the general public was craving mindless sugar coated pap after the long dreary war years.
Directed by Edmund Goulding and written by Jules Furthman. The films exquisite cinematography was by Lee Garmes (Scarface (1932), Shanghai Express (1932), Caught(1949) among others).
Nightmare Alley is one of a handful of Films Noir based in part on carnivals or have extended scenes occuring in amusement parks and other attractions, others are Girl On The Run, Strangers on a Train, Man in The Dark, Shanghai Express, Ministry of Fear, and Gun Crazy. There are probably more, I even remember a good French Noir, its title escapes me, that has a fiery end at a gypsy type trailer at a Paris street carnival.
Carnivals popup overnight on the edge of nice little towns like toadstools on a lawn.... Nightmare Alley in a way has a circular story line. Stanton "Stan" Carlisle (Tyrone Power) is a barker at a traveling carnival who loves the life of a carny. He works gathering up a crowd of rubes for Mademoiselle Zeena, a sideshow mentalist attraction. Zeena works with her alkie husband Pete. They were once in the big time.
Stan Carlisle (Tyrone Power)
Zeena (Joan Blondell)
Pete (Ian Keith)
They had a headlining vaudeville act and traveled the country. Zeena and Pete had a secret code that they used between them Pete was able to pass relevant info to Zeena. However Zeena was quite the beauty and attracted men. Zeena's flirting with them drove Pete to hit the bottle hard. The act deteriorated due to Pete's alcoholism to what it was now, a sort of simple switcheroo.
Stan collected the audiences questions which they wrote on note paper. The pieces of note paper that Stan collected were then placed in a bowl with an open bottom This hole fed them to Pete sitting under the table where Zeena performed. To the audience it appeared that the collected notes were still in the bowl which Stan then set a fire with wood alcohol. Pete would read the notes and write the questions on a chalkboard. When Zeena looked down at her crystal ball she could see what Pete had written on the chalkboard. The info would astound the audience.
At an incident where a county sheriff is about to close down the carnival Stan beautifully cons the sheriff by quoting scripture and giving the sheriff a cold reading. Stan talks him into letting the show go on.
Molly: You ought to have heard Stan spout the gospel to that old hypocrite. It was like being in Sunday school. Zeena Krumbein: You must have been raised pretty religious. Stanton Carlisle: Yeah, in a county orphanage. Molly: Didn't you have any folks? Stanton Carlisle: If I did, they weren't much interested. Zeena Krumbein: Where'd you learn all this gospel? Stanton Carlisle: In the orphanage. That's what they used to give us on Sunday after beating us black-and-blue all week. Then when I ran away, they threw me in the reform school. But that's where I got wise to myself. I let the chaplain save me, and got a parole in no time. Boy, how I went for salvation! Comes in kind of handy when you're in a jam. Many's a judge I've talked right out of his shirt.
Stan begins to get chummy with Zeena and Pete. Zeena tells him about their stories of past glories and she also reveals that there are many showbiz acts still wanting to buy the code. Zeena is sort of holding on to it as Zeena and Pete's piggy bank. After Stan accidentally gives Pete a bottle of wood alcohol and he drinks it and dies, Zeena to keep her act going starts teaching Stan the code.
Molly (Coleen Gray)
While all this has been going on Stan has been romancing Molly (Coleen Gray) the electric girl. When the two become an item the carnies find out about it they force them to marry.
Stan and Molly leave the carnival and use the code to start their own act, "the Great Stanton." Molly works the crowd while Stan plays the mentalist. They are a hit working Chicago nightclubs.
It all starts to go Noirsville when Stan gets conned by a bigger con psychologist Lilith Ritter (Helen Walker) into working the Spook Racket.
Lilith Ritter (Helen Walker)
Stanton Carlisle: "The Spook Racket, I was made for it!"
Lilith has made secret recordings of all of her sessions and has a treasure trove of personal information on many wealthy patients that can be used by Stan in pretending to communicate with their dearly departed. The big fish, Ezra Grindle, is guilt ridden over the death of his college sweetheart Dorrie.
Dorrie
She died of complications during a back alley abortion that Grindle wanted her to have. Stan plays on that guilt by bringing the spirit of Dorrie to Grindle in a series of seances. When the final seance goes bad unexpectedly it sends Stan and Molly on the run.
Noirsville
Electra/Molly ()
Ezra Grindle (Taylor Holmes)
Tyrone Power played against type. I wonder if audiences reacted back then the same way as my friends and I did when, as kids, we watched arch Western villain Lee Van Cleef emerge as the good guy in Leone's For A Few Dollars More, or gasped when we saw Henry Fonda as a child killer in Once Upon A Time In The West.
It's fascinating to watch Power's evangelistic like performance, he's in top form, and you marvel at how there is not much difference in the lingo, speech cadences, and **** between the two (siratulists and evangelists). There must be a reason "con" is a part of the word congregation. Power sells his part with zeal.
The Legion of Decency and Motion Picture Production Code combating objectionable content in motion pictures of course mandated that a horrendous avengement will be the inevitable repercussion for those who would mockingly attempt to play God, however notice that quack psychologist Lilith Ritter gets away scot free. Just like in today's world some televangelists, doctors, and now billionaires if they belong to one particular tribe seem to be above the law.
Joan Blondell as carny mentalist Zeena Krumbein is convincing as the reflective sideshow performer and caretaker for Ian Keith her drunkard once top billed headliner husband. Keith's performance is also quite compelling. Coleen Gray as Molly, plays a waifish sideshow attraction billed as "Electra," who Stan woos on the side while cosying up to Zeena. Mike Mazurki is strongman act Bruno, he runs around sporting a blond pompadour and a leopard skin costume. Helen Walker is phoney psychiatrist Lilith Ritter she plays Ritter cold and heartless. Taylor Holmes plays a wealthy industrialist Ezra Grindel who is duped into thinking he's communicating with a long lost love from beyond the grave.
It's interesting to note that the novel is quite vividly lurid and a bit salacious.
<spoilers>
For example in the film Stan convinces Molly to impersonate Ezra's lost love Dorrie. They do this in a darkened grove on Ezra's estate. Stan is with Ezra. They are gazing down two parallel rows of trees towards a distant fountain. Molly appears wearing a glowing costume of turn of the century clothing complete with floradora hat and a parasol. Ezra is beside himself with joy. When Molly gets closer to Ezra, he begins to lose control spouting religious phrases that makes her feel sacrilegious and it freaks Molly out. She breaks character, and tells Stan that she can't do it. Outraged, Ezra grabs at Stan. Stan punches him and Molly and Stan escape.
In the novel....
First edition 1946 l book jacket
1949 paperback cover
it goes down like this.....
When night had come there was a tap on the door and Carlisle entered carrying in both hands a votive candle in a cup of red ruby glass. "lets go to the chapel."
Grindle had never seen that room before.... the entire room was hung in folds of dark drapery. If there were any windows they were covered.
The clergyman led his disciple to the divian; taking his hand he pressed him back against the cushions. "You are at peace. Rest, rest."
Grindle felt foggy and vague. The bowl of jasmine tea which he had been given for supper had seemed bitter. Now his head was swimming lightly and reality retreated to arm's length.....
Carlisle was chanting something which sounded like Sanskrit, then a brief prayer in English which reminded Grindle of the marriage service; but somehow the words refused to fit together in his mind.....
They waited.
From far away, from hundreds of miles it seemed came the sound of wind, a great rushing wind or the beating of giant wings. Then it died and there arose the soft tinkling notes of a sitar.....
Ghostly music began again. From the curtains before the alcove a light flashed, then a sinuous coil of glowing vapor poured from between them, lying in a pool of mist close to the floor. It swelled and seemed to foam from the cabinet in a cascade....
The pool of luminous matter began to take form. It swayed as a cocoon might sway from a moth's emerging. It became a cocoon holding something dark in it's center. Then it split and drew back toward the cabinet, revealing the form of a girl, lying on a bed of light, but illuminated only by the stuff around her. She was naked, her head resting on one bent arm.
Grindle sank to his knees. "Dorrie-Dorrie-"
She opened her eyes, sat up and then rose, modestly drawing a film of glowing mist over her body. The old man groped forward awkwardly, reaching up to her. As he drew near, the luminous cloud fell back and vanished. The girl stood white and tall, in the flicker of the votive candle across the room, and as she gazed down at him her hair fell over her face.
"Dorrie-my pet-my honey love-my bride..."
He picked her up in his arms, overjoyed at the complete materialization, at the lifelike smoothness of her body-she was so heartbreakingly earthly.
Inside the cabinet the Re. Carlisle was busy packing yards of luminous-painted China silk back into the hem of the curtains. Once he put his eye to the opening and his lips drew back over his teeth. Why did people look so filthy and ridiculous to anyone watching? Christ!
The second time in his life he had seen it. Filth.
The bride and bridegroom were motionless now.
It was up to Molly to break away and get back to the cabinet. Stan turned the switch and the rhythmic, pounding heartbeat filled the room, growing louder. He tossed one end of the luminous silk through the curtains.
The quiet forms on the divan stirred, and Stan could see the big man burrowing his face between Molly's breasts. "no-Dorrie-my own, my precious-I can't let you go! Take me with you, Dorrie-I don't want earth life without you..."
She struggled out of his arms; but the bridegroom seized her around the waste, rubbing his forehead against her belly.
Stan grabbed the aluminum trumpet. "Ezra-my beloved disciple-have courage. he must return to us. The force is growing weaker. In the city-"
No! Dorrie-I must-I-once more..."
This time another voice answered him. It was not a spiritual voice. It was the voice of a panicky showgirl who has more than she can handle. "Hey, quit it, for God's sake! Stan! Stan! Stan! Oh the dumb ****! The Rev. Carlisle tore the curtains apart. Molly was twisting and kicking; the old man was like one possessed. In his pent-up soul the dam had broken, and the sedative Stan had loaded into his tea had worn off.
Grindle clutch the squirming girl until she was jerked from his hands.
"Stan! For God's sake get me out of here! Get me out!" Grindle stood paralyzed. For in the dim flickering light he saw the face of his spiritual mentor, the Rev. Stanton Carlisle, it was snarling. Then a fist came up and landed on the chin of the spirit bride. She dropped to the floor, knees gaping obscenely.
Now the hideous face was shouting at Grindle himself. "You goddamned hypocrite! Forgiveness? All you wanted was a girl!" Knuckles smashed his cheekbone and Grindle bounced back on the divian.
Screencaps are from a TCM streamer. 10/10 Full review with more screencaps at Noirsville McGraw Final Carnival Owner: Wait. I just happened to think of something. I might have a job you can take a crack at. Course it isn't much and I'm not begging you to take it, but it's a job. Stanton Carlisle: That's all I want. McGraw Final Carnival Owner: And we'll keep you in coffee and cake. Bottle every day, place to sleep it off in. What do you say? Anyway, it's only temporary, just until we can get a real geek. Stanton Carlisle Geek? McGraw Final Carnival Owner: You know what a geek is, don't you? Stanton Carlisle Yeah. Sure, I... I know what a geek is. McGraw Final Carnival Owner: Do you think you can handle it? Stanton Carlisle: Mister, I was made for it.
"I was made for it!
