The rise and fall of Stanton Carlisle, a mentalist whose lies and deceit prove to be his downfall.The rise and fall of Stanton Carlisle, a mentalist whose lies and deceit prove to be his downfall.The rise and fall of Stanton Carlisle, a mentalist whose lies and deceit prove to be his downfall.
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
13K
YOUR RATING
- Jules Furthman(screen play)
- William Lindsay Gresham(novel)
- Stars
Florence Auer
- Jane
- (uncredited)
Bonnie Bannon
- Knife Thrower's Assistant
- (uncredited)
George Beranger
- The Geek
- (uncredited)
Oliver Blake
- Hobo
- (uncredited)
June Bolyn
- Maid in Grindle House
- (uncredited)
Paul Bradley
- Man in Spode Room
- (uncredited)
Chet Brandenburg
- Carnival Patron
- (uncredited)
James Burke
- Rural Marshal
- (uncredited)
George Chandler
- Hobo at Stan's Left Hand
- (uncredited)
Harry Cheshire
- Mr. Prescott
- (uncredited)
Edward Clark
- J.E. Giles
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation, charlatans and grifters in the new age/mystic con would use the phrase "Are you a friend of Stan Carlisle?", or a variation of it, to confirm that the person they were talking to was in the same line of business.
- GoofsThe recording machine that creates a major plot point is a Wilcox-Gay disc cutter that could record at 78 or 33 rpm on a maximum disk size of ten inches. It cut at a fixed 96 lines per inch. Unfortunatly those specs limited recording time to about 3 minutes at 78 rpm and only a bit more at 33. A real professional would have used something like a Presto which cut 12-inch discs or a broadcasting machine like a Scully that could cut 16-inch disks. Even the FBI used disk cutters in pairs so one could begin recording when the others had used up all their blank disk surface. A much more likely device would have been a wire recorder which despite its limited fidelity could record speech for an hour. These units were not cheap but Dr. Ritter was obviously wealthy. Her Wilcox-Gay recorder had a retail price at that time of about $100.00 and was among the lowest-priced recorders sold.
- Quotes
McGraw: Wait. I just happened to think of something. I might have a job you can take a crack at. Course it isn't much and I'm not begging you to take it, but it's a job.
Stanton Carlisle: That's all I want.
McGraw: And we'll keep you in coffee and cake. Bottle every day, place to sleep it off in. What do you say? Anyway, it's only temporary, just until we can get a real geek.
Stanton Carlisle: Geek?
McGraw: You know what a geek is, don't you?
Stanton Carlisle: Yeah. Sure, I... I know what a geek is.
McGraw: Do you think you can handle it?
Stanton Carlisle: Mister, I was made for it.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years (1997)
- SoundtracksSobre las olas (Over the Waves)
(uncredited)
Music by Juventino Rosas
Played during the opening carnival scene
Review
Featured review
Nightmare Alley
Nightmare Alley is a remarkable film- it hardly blinks in showing a cynical, scheming "preacher" doing his thing.Given the norms of Hollywood at the time, or almost at any time,it does give you a lot to consider.Tyrone Power is brilliant, and the movie is actually quite close to the powerful (hard to find!) novel.In the best tradition of a movie that examines the dark side of society in an effectively muckraking way, it is a rare gem. I found the movie all the more effective for the fact that while Tyrone Power is in a quite uncharacteristic role. It is obvious he is strongly committed to the film and delivers a chilling, scary, thought provoking performance. The glimpses of the brutality of contemporary circus/side show life are in themselves interesting and disquieting. It is a rare film and even rarer book, but really worth the time.
helpful•6812
- larry-319
- Dec 21, 2004
Details
- 1 hour 50 minutes
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
