I rented an excellent noir from the local library, “Nightmare Alley,” (1947), starring Tyrone Power. Just the title is enough to provoke images of dark corridors and scary back alleys. And, the title never disappoints, even though there are no alleys or thugs with knifes in the film. In this absorbing story, based on the novel by William Lindsey Gresham, we have Tyrone Power playing Stanton Carlisle a huckster working in the carnival. He learns the tricks of mind reading from Zeena (Joan Blondell) and then dumps her. He then leaves the carnival and begins working in ritzy nightclubs as “The Great Stanton.” But his elevated status as the darling of society doesn’t last forever as his infamy, built on lies, begins to collapse.

Directed by Edmund Goulding, with the screenplay written by Jules Furthman, this excellent noir is great at portraying both the carnies and high society as corrupt. We see both as Stanton moves into the upper classes. He begins seeing a psychiatrist, Lillith played by Helen Walker who plays a femme fatal who is both unethical and dishonest.

There is a wonderful scene where Stanton visits the psychiatrist in her office and the lighting fixtures cast dark lines on the walls symbolizing a spider web and the Doctor as a spider woman trapping Stanton in her web of deceit.

Tyrone’s character is both conniving and greedy but still likeable perhaps because he’s not malicious. He is a flawed character whose pride prevents him from avoiding his downfall. His enterprise is doomed to failure as he refuses to listen to those who care about him. When Zeena looks to her Tarot cards to predict Stanton’s future she turns up both the Hanged Man and the Death Card. He blows her off exclaiming the cards are for suckers.

As great as Stanton is at his con his game can’t last forever and exposure eventually sends his world crumbling down around him. And, that possibly is the overall theme of this superb film noir: one can easily fall apart and wind up in despair. Perhaps no one is too far from being the Geek in the carnival.

There are three beautiful women in the film (Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, and Helen Walker), each with significant roles. Each one gets involved with Stanton but the romance is never smarmy or gooey sweet like so many female roles back in the day. And,Tyrone Power as Stanton is great as a greedy big shoot who puts on a melodramtic flair to convince his clients that his mind-reading act is for real.

This is one of the best noirs I've seen lately and I highly recommend it.