Nightmare Alley with Tyrone Power: DVD Cover

    Nightmare Alley Director: Edmund Goulding Cast: Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, Helen Walker

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    • DVD Release Date: 06/07/2005
    • Original Release: 1947
    • Rating: Not Rated
    • Sales Rank: 16,493

    Viewer Rating: (1 ratings)

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    • Overview
    • Editorial Reviews
    • Scenes
    • Customer Reviews
    • Cast & Crew
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    Features

    Closed Caption; Commentary by historians James Ursini & Alain Silver; Theatrical trailer

    Full Product Details

    Scene Index

    Side #1 --
    1. Main Titles [1:17]
    2. The Geek Freak Show [3:49]
    3. What Madame Zeena Knows [4:57]
    4. Teach Me the Code [2:50]
    5. Making the Big Time [1:40]
    6. How the Cards Fall [2:13]
    7. Visions From the Crystal Glass [4:28]
    8. The End of Pete [6:50]
    9. A Code of Success [1:25]
    10. A Carnival Engagement Party [3:05]
    11. The Great Stanton [8:52]
    12. A Scientific Explanation [1:51]
    13. Old Friends, Dangerous Predictions [5:42]
    14. Beyond the Code [3:46]
    15. From Talent to Deceit [:30]
    16. Testing God [3:46]
    17. To Bear a False Witness [3:45]
    18. Cornered [7:51]
    19. The Hanged Man [5:26]
    20. Stanton the Geek [4:15]

    Scene Index

    Editorial Reviews

    Nightmare Alley is the sordid tale of a conniving young man who, in the words of one of the film's supporting characters, ends up low because he aimed so high. Drifter Tyrone Power sweet-talks his way into a job as barker for a rundown carnival. He is fascinated by an illegal side-show attraction called "The Geek," a near-lunatic who bites the heads off live chickens and then is "paid off" with a cheap bottle of rotgut and a warm place to sleep it off. Otherwise, Power's attention is focussed on a beautiful if slightly stupid carnival performer (Coleen Gray) who works in an "electricity" act with an equally dense strongman (Mike Mazurki). Power also befriends an alcoholic mentalist (Ian Keith), who demonstrates how easy it is to fool an audience into thinking that his mind reading is genuine. When the mentalist dies after accidentally drinking wood alcohol, Power works his way into the confidence of the performer's widow (Joan Blondell), who teaches Power all the tricks and code words of the mind-reading racket. Power walks out on Blondell in favor of Cathy Downs, who marries him and becomes his partner in a classy nightclub mentalist act. But Power is dissatisfied with show business, and with the help of a beautiful but shifty psychiatrist (Helen Walker) he convinces several wealthy people that he can communicate with their dead loved ones...for a price. One elderly millionaire (Taylor Holmes) offers Power a fortune if he can conjure up the spirit of the millionaire's dead daughter. Power enlists his wife to impersonate the deceased girl, but at the crucial moment she has an attack of conscience and exposes the fraud. His career ruined, Power goes to the crooked psychiatrist for help, but she laughs in his face and calls the cops. He escapes the law by going on the bum, and before long is a drunken derelict. When he approaches a carnival for work, he is told that there is only one job open...as a "geek." When asked if he wants the job, the defeated Power replies "Mister, I was born for it." Based on a lurid bestseller by William Lindsay Gresham, Nightmare Alley was Tyrone Power's attempt to break away from romantic leads in favor of roles with more substance. The picture wasn't a success, but it proved that Power was more than just a pretty face. Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

    Customer Reviews

    • Viewer Rating:
    • Ratings: 1Reviews: 1

    Nightmare Alleyby Anonymous

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    January 19, 2006: I love actors who have the ability to reinvent themselves. To really appreciate this film, you should see some of Power's other work first. For instance, go check out the Eddie Duchin story or Zoro. See how well he plays the positive, lovable, moral character. Then, check out this film about the seedy world of carnival folk. Ty stars as Stan, an overly ambitious carnie stagehand who becomes a great nightclub mindreader. Eventually Stan's ambition overcomes his sense morality and he begins to use his "special gift" to take advantage of people, with disastrous consequences. Without giving the film away, one of my favorite lines is Ty's "Brother I was made for it" line near the end. Check it out.