Nightmare Alley
Overview
This relatively little-known film is widely hailed by fans of the macabre. Truly ahead of its time, NIGHTMARE ALLEY is set in the gritty, surrealistic world of traveling carnivals, where eccentric people of all possible varieties interact on a daily basis. In a departure from his usual roles as the Hollywood leading man, handsome Tyrone Power plays a morally questionable circus apprentice determined to climb the carnival ladder no matter what the price. Powers shows immense range in what was arguably his finest role ever as the sometimes unrecognizably scruffy circus man with a liking for the bottle. Director Edmund Goulding (DARK VICTORY) gives the carnival setting a dark, somber feel that contradicts the film's more upbeat ending. In spite of this ending tacked on by the studio system, NIGHTMARE ALLEY remains with the viewer even after it's over, haunting them with its bleak images and melancholy mood.
Awards:
Main Cast & Crew:
Edmund Goulding - Director
Tyrone Power
Joan Blondell
Coleen Gray
Helen Walker
Taylor Holmes
Mike Mazurki
Ian Keith
Details
- Format: Blu-ray
- Run Time: 111
- Color Format: Color
- UPC: 715515259019
- Genre: DRAMA
- Rating: Not Rated
- Release Date: May 2021
Movie Reviews
Reviews:
"ALLEY is strong on atmosphere and performances..." - 06/10/2005 Entertainment Weekly, p.E13
"[T]he movie widely regarded as Tyrone Power's acting peak..." - 06/10/2005 USA Today, p.6E
"Director Edmund Goulding's 1947 swirl of shadows and fever is a borderline-insane entry in that strange subgenre, the carny-noir." - 01/01/2006 Uncut, p.136
"Tyrone Power excels as a cheating scoundrel....It stands up as a particularly seedy and paranoid noir." - 01/01/2006 Sight and Sound, p.90-91
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] cult post-war noir with a heart of darkness, it nukes Hollywood values from within." - 06/01/2013 Total Film
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