Tyrone
Power, Coleen Gray, Joan Blondell, Helen Walker, Taylor Holmes,
Mike Mazurki, Ian Keith, Julia Dean
Often described as the
grimmest of all Hollywood film noirs, Nightmare Alley's reputation
as a cult classic reached near-mythical status due to a decades-long
dispute between the film's producer (George Jessel) and Fox, which
prevented it being screened anywhere or even released on home video.
With the conflict now resolved, Nightmare Alley can be re-discovered
in this stunning transfer as one of the most darkly sophisticated
noirs of the period.
Tyrone Power, cast against type — at his own insistence — gives
the performance of his lifetime as handsome scumbag/carnival barker/con-man
Stanton Carlisle. He seduces fellow sideshow performer Mademoiselle
Zeena (Joan Blondell) to learn the secret of her once lucrative
mind-reading act with her alcoholic husband (Ian Keith). Carlisle,
a "born mentalist", secures the secret method and sets
off with his new carnie wife, Molly (Coleen Grey) to milk the bigtime
as a spiritualist in Chicago. As Carlisle's success grows, it's
only a matter of time before his greed — and twisted involvement
with femme fatale psychoanalyst Lilith Ritter (Helen Walker) — bring
Stanton's world crashing down around him.
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