Movie review - "Nightmare Alley" (1947) ****

After World War Two Tyrone Power tried to get his teeth into more meaty roles with this and The Razor's Edge and he rose magnificently to the challenge - he's very impressive here as a ruthless, but likeable and charismatic (hey, it's Tyrone Power) carny who pushes his way to the top. I didn't know there was a "top" in carny land but apparently there is: he uses sex appeal to seduce Joan Blondell to giving him secret codes to help pretend to read minds, accidentally kills Blondell's husband by giving him some dodgy alcohol, becomes a nightclub psychic, gets in cahoots with a shrink to rip off rich people by exploring their past. Because this was 1947 he can't get away with it - the cops go after him, the shrink betrays him, he hits the bottle.

Colleen Grey has one of the sexiest entrances I can remember in Hollywood history, in her strapless, backless trapeze outfit - she starts as a strong character, being proud of the way Power manages to scam people, falling for him and having sex, taking part in his nightclub act - but then as it goes on she turns into the ever-loving' thing who stands by her man and her performance becomes too close to the one she gave in Kiss of Death. 

 

Superb support work from Joan Blondell as a seen-it-all carnie who nonetheless has a code of honour, and Helen Walker as the shrink (perhaps "coded" as a lesbian - she wears mannish clothes in one scene and Power and her don't have a romantic relationship), Mike Mazurki as a carny operator and Ian Keith as a drunk. Beautifully photographer.

While the ending is conventional and there are Hollywood elements (e.g. the ending) it's not hard to see why this has a cult. Some of this is remarkable: Power's character criticises religion straight out (basically calling it a con) in a way remarkable for a Hollywood film; Grey and Power have pre-marital sex; the shrink isn't punished for what she does; Power winds up biting the heads off chickens. Great stuff.