r/filmnoir • u/Whole_Kale_4349 • 1d ago
Nightmare Alley (1947) Is One of the Greatest Films Ever Made. Underrated Masterpiece.
I recently discovered this movie, and I’m not sure if it just spoke to me for some reason and I’m alone on this, but I think this is one of the best film noirs ever made and on par with the likes of Double Indemnity. I’m not sure if that’s a controversial take or how well regarded this film is, but I can’t find any reason not to call it a masterpiece. This is such a unique and creative film. I haven’t really seen anything like it. I think it’s one of the best embodiments of the film noir genre despite forgoing the traditional detective crime angle.
If you read the description for this film, you probably wouldn’t watch it or expect much, but the film is incredible. Nightmare Alley is the story of Stan Carlisle, a man who takes part in carnival performances involving mind reading tricks and other schemes to scam people out of money. We witness his rise to stardom and then his epic fall from grace in a tragic twist that is set up at the beginning of the movie.
What makes this film so unique is that there are so many different plot devices happening at the same time, but it never feels overdone or convoluted. Everything ties together perfectly. The film constantly subverts your expectations and never leads where you think it’s going, in the best way possible.
Tyrone Power, as Stan Carlisle, delivers a masterful performance. In particular, his interactions with a psychiatrist played by Helen Walker are incredible and had me questioning my own sanity. It reminded me a bit of parts of Shutter Island, where we as the audience question whether DiCaprio's character is actually sane or insane.
Nightmare Alley is a story of ambition, greed, immorality, and deception. The ending is somehow both tragically bleak and somewhat hopeful, depending on how you look at it. I have accidentally become the film’s biggest advocate, and I’m not sure why it is not discussed more often.
For those who have seen the film, please share your thoughts. For those who haven’t, please watch it. You will not be disappointed.
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u/SHUB_7ate9 1d ago
You should read the book it's great, totally depressing
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u/Glad_Salamander7720 1d ago
I never think to look for a used copy somewhere. All the copies currently in print have Bradley Cooper’s dumb looking face on them. And I say that having generally liked the remake. But I’m no big fan of movie tie-in editions.
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u/kefestvog 1d ago
Get the Library of America- American Noir of the 1930s & 1940s. It has this and an incredible collection of some of the best noir if all time (The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Big Clock, They Shoot Horses Don't They, Thieves Like Us).
Even with this stacked lineup- Nightmare Alley and I Married a Dead Man stood out.
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u/Glad_Salamander7720 1d ago
Funny you should mention that; I picked it up from the library on Thursday.
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u/bngoc3r0 1d ago
This is a great collection! I also loved The Postman Always Rings Twice and The Big Clock.
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u/suburban_ennui75 1d ago
I watched this a few years ago. It was really good. The 2021 remake was pretty good, albeit overly long.
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u/theeversocharming 1d ago
I saw the restored Film at Noir City, Portland in 2015. Eddie Muller’s Film Noir Foundation Restoration Premiere that year. This Print would eventually become the Print Criterion uses.
I read the source Material and it is such a bleak piece of a Literature.
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u/Walter_Burns_1940 1d ago
It’s definitely not an underrated movie; it’s a well-known classic. TCM has a film noir series called "Nightmare Alley," hosted by Eddie Muller.
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u/christo749 1d ago
It’s not underrated, we’ve all seen it. You want underrated, have you heard of Double Indemnity?
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u/salamanderXIII 1d ago
Are you suggesting that Nightmare Alley garners more attention and acclaim than Double Indemnity?
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u/Invisible_Mikey 1d ago
Probably less discussed because it was remade in 2021, directed by Guillermo del Toro with current stars like Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett, and it flopped. But then so did the original, which I agree is the better film.
Quality doesn't translate to profit automatically. It's a brutal, downbeat, cynical story that's hard for typical audiences to accept, and starring handsome, romantic lead actors as Stan both times was probably a mistake, though both Tyrone Power and Bradley Cooper tried hard.
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u/ir1379 1d ago
Tyrone Power said it was his best movie.
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u/Invisible_Mikey 1d ago
He is very good in it. I guess audiences preferred him playing non-modern characters.
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u/Brackens_World 1d ago
One thing I like about this movie is that it not only gets excellent work out of Power, but its three leading ladies (Blondell, Gray, and Walker) get to really go to town here, as does Mazurki. The director, Edmund Goulding, did The Razor's Edge with Power right before this one, and brought out depths from the actor others did not, and after George Cukor, was likely the most sympathetic director of actresses in his time.
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u/feathery55 1d ago
Power always had impressive acting chops and was sought after to play Ashley Wilkes in GWTW, Joe Bonaparte in Golden Boy and Parris Mitchell in Kings Row but his boss, Darryl Zanuck, refused to lend him out to other studios.
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u/celisraspberry 22h ago
Couldn't agree more. It seems funny to say, since I had already seen Gold Diggers of 1933 and Blondell has a stand out number in it, but this was the movie that really opened my eyes to beautiful she was and what a compelling performer she was.
It is my huge problem with the GDT remake that somehow by fleshing out the relationship with Madam Zeena and her husband, they become so much less interesting as characters and the dynamic with Stanton when they go to see him gets kind of blurred.
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u/justusethatname 1d ago
Glad to see this movie getting mentioned here. I am going to watch it again today. Wasn’t crazy about the remake in 2021 by del Toro.
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u/jerrymarver 1d ago
If you want to understand people like you and me, watch the 1947 Nightmare Alley. Of course, we are all different, but we are all in the same kettle of fish. Our desires, our ambitions, our failures and regrets are all wrapped up in this movie. Everyone has a story to tell, and this movie tells it!
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u/External-Emotion8050 1d ago
It may have not been a commercial success but I enjoyed the new version too. The setting and cast was terrific.
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u/DanielMcLaury 1d ago
I watched the remake with Bradley Cooper without initially realizing it was a remake, but after a bit something clicked and I said "this must be a remake of a black-and-white era film," and then each scene I saw I could sort of visualize what the original scene must have looked like and in most cases my imaginary version was an improvement. People just don't know how to play these kinds of characters any more.
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u/PeripateticUrbanist 1d ago
Far superior to the remake, which felt the need to tack on a backstory explaining why the guy was so screwed up.
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u/michaelswank246 23h ago
Sorry not under rated. It's a top 10 noir..but not the best. (But it certainly can be your favorite ).👍
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u/sloth0623 10h ago
I had no idea this even existed...so DelToro's film was a remake.
I ordered it: very curious to watch it, reviews are raving.
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u/Glum-Ad-4557 1h ago
It’s my personal favorite movie… I don’t pretend to be qualified to rank films as the best. The book is worth reading
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u/BrandNewOriginal 1d ago
I think it is pretty highly regarded by movie critics in general and by film noir critics in particular. For instance, Eddie Muller puts it at #7 in his top 25 noir films (see link below). Me, I remember liking it a lot, but now I really want to watch it again! Thanks for sharing. 😄
https://eddiemuller.com/top25noir.html