#1078: GOULDING, Edmund: Nightmare Alley (1947)

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GOULDING, Edmund
Nightmare Alley (1947)
Spine #1078
Blu-ray


Darkness lurks behind the bright lights of a traveling carnival in one of the most haunting and perverse film noirs of the 1940s. Adapted from the scandalous best seller by William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley gave Tyrone Power a chance to subvert his matinee-idol image with a ruthless performance as Stan Carlisle, a small-time carny whose unctuous charm propels him to fame as a charlatan spiritualist, but whose unchecked ambition leads him down a path of moral degradation and self-destruction. Although its strange, sordid atmosphere shocked contemporary audiences, this long difficult-to-see reflection of postwar angst has now taken its place as one of the defining noirs of its era -- a fate-fueled downward slide into existential oblivion.

111 minutes
Black and White
Monaural
1:37:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2021
Director/Writers

Goulding (left)

Based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham.
Screenplay by Jules Furthman.
Edmund Goulding was 56 when he directed Nightmare Alley.

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by film writer and screenwriter Kim Morgan.

Commentary

From 2005 featuring film historians James Ursini and Alain Silver.

Interview 1

With critic Imogen Sara Smith.

Interview 2

With performer and historian Todd Robbins.

Interview 3

From 2007 with actor Gray.

Audio excerpt

From a 1971 interview with Henry King in which the filmmaker discusses actor Power.

Trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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