Nightmare Alley (1947)

Country: US
Technical: bw 112m
Director: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Tyrone Power, Coleen Gray, Joan Blondell, Helen Walker

Synopsis:

A hustler who works as assistant to a mentalist husband and wife act, as part of a travelling carnival, has ambitions to make the act his own and swindle large sums of money by taking it to high society.

Review:

Recalling the bitter comeuppance for the main character's hubris in Freaks years beforehand, this unusual film deliberately sullies Power's squeaky clean image and conveys a chilling picture of life during the Depression. The image of the downtrodden common man from 30s films, ennobled by suffering, is replaced with the cynicism of post-war film noir. The exploitation and promiscuity of a fairground sideshow existence were felt to be too dark in the source material, and instead of meeting a gangster's fate, on Zanuck's insistence the antihero is graced with a moll's redemption. For several of its cast, as well as the director, the movie's tarot card narrative proved chillingly prophetic and for years it was a 'film maudit', ultimately re-emerging as a Channel Four (or BBC TWO?) late night special.