FILM RADAR: NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947) with Tyrone Power

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Wednesday, April 6th, 2005

NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947) with Tyrone Power

NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947) I’ve been dying to see this film so many times and every time it has played at the Egyptian I’ve been out of town or somehow unavailable. This film is not at this moment available on DVD or VHS except in really bad bootleg copies. For me the chance to finally see this film on the big screen in nitrate was a real treat. The storyline is about a man who works in the carnival and he decides to join forces with a crooked psychiatrist to con his way to the top of the “spook racket” by speaking to the dead. He gleefully rips people off until he himself gets taken sending his life until a downward spiral.

By this point in his career, Tyrone Power has grown tired of playing swashbuckling heroes and romantic leads. He wanted to stretch as an actor and he lobbied studio chief Darryl Zanuck to let him make this film. To me, Tyrone Power has always been underrated as an actor. He was so handsome and his looks limited in him many ways. By the end of this film, he almost looks like an entirely different person. He had much more power and depth as an actor than he was ever really given credit for. The print of this film looked so beautiful and dreamy and harsh all at the same time. It was absolutely terrific and it reminded me in many ways of why I love movies so much to begin with.

Written by Karie (site owner) on 04/06 at 11:43 PM