A "Lost" Film Reappears

[Guest]

b]Nightmare Alley[/b](1947), one of the seminal film noirs of the forties, containing what is perhaps Tyrone Power's best work, has just been announced as a release on dvd by Fox on June 7th, 2005. This very dark movie, which was shown decades ago on tv and is still memorable to me, is rumored to have been kept out of circulation by Darryl Zanuck, who loathed the Edmund Goulding film since it presented 'his' matinee idol as a thorough going low life. It was treated as a B picture upon its initial release and it hasn't been available on video for some time, and, also hasn't appeared on the tube for ages.

 

Happily, Fox will also be releasing the following gems from their vaults as follows:

 

March 15th:

Call Northside 777 (1948) w/ James Stewart & Richard Conte

--excellent, realistic film with a semi-documentary feel.

House of Bamboo(1955) w/ Robert Ryan

Panic in the Streets(1950) w/ Richard Widmark

 

June 7th

Laura(1944) w/ Gene Tierney & Clifton Webb. Can't wait to see what extras come with this one.

The Street With No Name(1948) w/ Mark Stevens, Richard Widmark and Lloyd Nolan. Never having seen this FBI story, I'm pretty intrigued.

 

Sept. 6th

The Dark Corner(1946) w/ Mark Stevens & Lucille Ball in a nifty, unpretentious detective film.

The Lodger(1944) w/ Laird Cregar & Merle Oberon. A corker about Jack the Ripper, filled w/ alot of Victorian atmosphere.

Hangover Square w/ the talented Mr. Cregar again & Linda Darnell & George Sanders. Terrific score by Bernard Herrmann too.

 

Both of the two last mentioned films were directed by the interesting John Brahm, whose work also includes the intriguingly twisted story of The Locket(1946). Alas, this film is not available on vhs or dvd. Hope Fox rectifies that situation.

[nickdimeo]

Thanks for this info, Moira. I was scratching my head wondering when LAURA was going to be released. I'm also looking forward to NIGHTMARE ALLEY. Everytime I check eBay for this movie on VHS its always fetching a $40-50.

[edgedrv]

Thanx for all the info moirafinnie144. My DVD collection keeps growing. The last I heard LAURA was due for release in March, but I guess they moved up the release date. I am really looking forward to the two Laird Cregar films. Haven't seen them for years. BTW THE LOCKET with Laraine Day and Robert Mitchum is an RKO release. Hopefully, this will be coming up in WB's film noir releases.

[Guest]

Thanx, Edgdrv, for the clarification about The Locket. I guess I got so carried away in my interest in John Brahm's work that I forgot to check on who produced that film. Wish whoever controls the rights to RKO would release it on video of some form someday.

[twtpark]

"The Locket" was such a mish-mash of flashbacks..well, it's a pity it wasn't lost!

[Guest]

I agree twtpark, but I get a kick out of the flashbacks, as well as the pseudo-psychoanalysis aspect of the story, which appears so often in movies of the 40s.

 

I think the only other movie that packed as many flashbacks into a story was perhaps Passage to Marseilles. I enjoyed that one too.

[therealfuster]

"Nightmare Alley" is, Moira!

 

I have a tv VHS tape of it, made back in the 1970's. I've had people beg to borrow it, but I will not let it leave my premises. Personally, I think it is Tyrone Power's best work.

 

From his days as the son of actor Tyrone Power Senior, as an actor at Xavier University in Cincinnati, to his early days onscreen when they ambushed his larger than life eyebrows [which met a bit in the center a la Richard Nixon] Power was somewhat wasted on only pretty boy roles like like Zorro, which he did make the most of though.

 

Thankfully the studio let his eyebrows grow back in, and then he got this meaty role in NA. His descent into the maelstrom, from a tuxedoed fake in night clubs using a code to defraud the customers to the completely revolting geek in the circus who bites off the heads of chickens, is a mighty fall from grace.

 

For anyone not familiar with the novel by William Gresham, I found it in a sceond hand shop a few years ago and it is absorbing reading and adds to one's enjoyment of the film, but is not a necessity as the film does up the story well with all the carny type trimmings.

 

Besides Power, this film stars the great Joan Blondell, being her usual lovable bleached blonde semi-floozy, and great stage and silent screen actors Taylor Holmes [father of Phillip of "An American Tragedy"] and Julia Dean who played the dowager in "Curse of the Cat People".

 

"Nightmare Alley" is true to life, gritty melodrama which transcends the story to become much more. Oddly this film was produced by vaudeville's Georgie Jessel and cinematographer, Lee Garmes who is famous not only for shooting "Shanghai Express" but for doing the cinematography on a film even more rare and strange perhaps than NA, which is "Spectre of the Rose". Ben Hecht's story, perhaps based somewhat on deranged Russian dancer Nijinsky, is certifiably strange in the best way, with people dancing off walls way, before Donald O'Connor.

 

Thanks Moira for the heads up on these upcoming releases. I've seen every one of them, but am happy to see them on dvd especially the Laird Cregar ones.

[leobertucelli]

I've been waiting so long to see 'Hangover Square' - just about gave up. I always look to see when Fox station will show it but all they aire is same flicks over & over with a few thrown in I haven't seen in long while. I wish tcm would present something NEW as well...