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NIGHTMARE ALLEY [1947]

WATCH ONLINE >> Nightmare Alley [1947] www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F9A4C226B31C2373 ****

Nightmare Alley [1947] @ American Film Institute Production Date: 19 May–late Jul 1947; addl scenes early Oct 1947 Premiere Information: New York opening: 9 Oct 1947 >> DETAILED NOTES SECTION >> EXTENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=… *************************************************************************************

NIGHTMARE ALLEY By WILLIAM LINDSAY GRESHAM New York: Rinehart, 1946 MOVIE Tie-In Edition: Triangle Books, 1947 N.Y.: Signet Books, 1949 #738 – Cover By James Avati N.Y.R.B.: 2110

*ALL* Editions – Including KINDLE www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Alley-William-Lindsay-Gresham/dp… AND www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Gresham&tn=… AND www.goodreads.com/book/show/548019.Nightmare_Alley *************

MOVIE Tie-In Edition: Triangle Books, 1947 www.amazon.com/Nightmare-alley-William-Lindsay-Gresham/dp… ****

NEW Edition (New York Review Books, 2110): Nightmare Alley By William Lindsay Gresham, introduction by Nick Tosches – *Links* to buy www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/nightmare-alley/ AND www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781590173480 ****

Cult classic ‘Nightmare Alley’ resurfaces more macabre than ever Baltimore-born writer William Lindsay Gresham could be seen as an heir to Edgar Allan Poe By Michael Sragow, The Baltimore Sun – [email protected] articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-04-16/services/bs-ae-night…

" It’s time for Baltimore to claim William Lindsay Gresham as one of the city’s literary native sons and a proper heir to Edgar Allan Poe — and not just because he was born here in 1909. He fits the funk-art aspect of this town as well as James M. Cain or John Waters…

…"Nightmare Alley" is about a geek — but the word means something vastly different in the carnival of this novel than it does in teen comedies, where it serves as a synonym for "nerd. " For the denizens of Gresham’s not-so-greatest show on earth, the geek is, in Tosches’ words, "a drunkard driven so low that he would bite the heads off chickens and snakes just to get the booze he needed."

Gresham first heard about this kind of geek when he was 29 years old, waiting to return to the U.S. after defending the Republic in the Spanish civil war. The story connected so deeply with Gresham’s internal agony that he said, "to get rid of it, I had to write it out."…

He later described the novel’s gestation as "years of analysis, editorial work, and the strain of children in small rooms." He alleviated anxieties with liquor — and became an alcoholic. In the middle of this chaos, he wrote a fictional chart of the lowest depths of drunkenness that also included, in Tosches’ estimation, "the most viciously evil psychologist in the history of literature." Along the way, Gresham managed to debunk feel-good spiritualism and pseudo-paranormal trickery. But the book isn’t an Upton Sinclair-like expose. It’s a lowdown American tragedy…

Tosches, who has been researching Gresham’s life on and off for ten years, says over the phone from New York that he’s clearer on the novel’s roots than he is on Gresham’s. He hasn’t located a marriage certificate for Gresham’s mother and father, "and the Maryland State Archives has stated categorically there isn’t one for them." He knows Gresham was born on McCulloh Street and that his family moved to Fall River, Mass., when he was 7, and then to New York City. "But even though he left Baltimore at an early age, he claimed that the strongest influence on his life was his mother’s mother, Amanda, whose family, the Lindsays, came from Snow Hill, and who embodied, at least to him, the spirit of the antebellum South," says Tosches. (The Greshams came from the Piney Neck area of Kent County.)..

Everything in the book emerges from observation and authentic obsession. "He had a wonderfully perverse mind," recalls his last agent, the legendary Carl Brandt. "I remember with great fondness and amusement that he took me out to lunch once with the Witch Doctor’s Club, a group of magicians who would meet, as I remember, monthly, in a hardly glamorous restaurant." Brandt’s father had been Gresham’s magazine agent, and Brandt thinks the drying-up of the once-lucrative magazine-fiction market partly contributed to Gresham’s growing despair.

In the end, Gresham shared Stan Carlisle’s nightmare vision of life as a dark alley, "the buildings vacant and menacing on either side," and a light he couldn’t reach at the end of it, with "something behind him, close behind him, getting closer until he woke up trembling." Tosches found "a bizarre letter" Gresham wrote a few years before his suicide. "In it he wrote: ‘Stan is the author.’ "… articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-04-16/services/bs-ae-night… ****

REVIEW By Michael Dirda @ washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/12/…

" While I’ve known for a long time that William Lindsay Gresham’s "Nightmare Alley" (1946) was an established classic of noir fiction, I was utterly unprepared for its raw, Dostoevskian power. Why isn’t this book on reading lists with Nathanael West’s "Miss Lonelyhearts" and Albert Camus’ "The Stranger"? It’s not often that a novel leaves a weathered and jaded reviewer like myself utterly flattened, but this one did…

In the opening pages, set in the dilapidated Ten-in-One "carny," handsome blond Stan Carlisle stares at a geek, a supposed wild man who bites the heads off live chickens and drinks their blood. Stan, we soon learn, has been working as a magician and sleight-of-hand artist, but he’s got dreams about the big time…

Throughout these early pages, the carny atmosphere is redolent of sweat, dust, alcohol and pent-up desire. While sex in "Nightmare Alley" is never graphically described, it is always strikingly perverse or distinctly sadomasochistic…

Like many good artists (and con artists), Gresham isn’t locked into a single style: He can swiftly modulate from the colorfully vulgar conversation of the carnies to their smooth, stage-show patter, from the professional lingo of sheriffs, psychologists and wealthy businessmen to a drunk’s hallucinatory stream of consciousness…

Gresham lived a colorful if troubled life. According to the biographical note to this edition, he "lost himself in a maze of what proved to be dead-ends for him, from Marxism to psychoanalysis to Christianity to Alcoholics Anonymous to Rinzai Zen Buddhism." All these contribute to the earthy richness of "Nightmare Alley." ..

Certainly, Gresham’s book chronicles a truly horrific descent into the abyss. Yet it’s more than just a steamy noir classic. As a portrait of the human condition, "Nightmare Alley" is a creepy, all-too-harrowing masterpiece…" www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/12/…

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The Book You Have to Read: “Nightmare Alley,” by William Lindsay Gresham The Rap Sheet

" If noir is the stuff of nightmares–you know what I mean, the kind in which (according to the popular conference definition of the genre) you’re fucked from page one–then a one-off, nearly forgotten classic called Nightmare Alley is surely the biggest freak show of them all…

…Gresham’s book is sumptuous, rich, redolent, and literary. Fused with a classically tragic structure, the plot and characters roil and roll in your head, guests who will never leave. In some ways, it’s a bitter, cynical take on the Horatio Alger myth, a commentary on the Americans America left behind…

…In 1947, Nightmare Alley was fortunate enough to be made into one of the greatest of all film noirs. Starring a terrific Tyrone Power (if you don’t think he could act, you’re in for a surprise) and a strong supporting cast which included the lovely ingénue Colleen Gray, Joan Blondell, and noir stalwarts Mike Mazurki and Helen Walker, the movie is available on DVD. Rent it soon and often, or better yet buy a copy. With a crackling good script by Jules Furthman (The Shanghai Gesture, The Big Sleep), and atmospherically directed by Edmund Goulding (Grand Hotel, The Old Maid–we can only wish he’d been given more crime films), Nightmare Alley is a rare example of a movie almost as good as its source material…" therapsheet.blogspot.com/2009/11/book-you-have-to-read-ni… *************************************************

Carnival of lost souls: Nightmare Alley REVIEW By JB @ thephantomcountry

Nightmare Alley covers a lot of territory, both psychologically and geographically, crossing the US by truck, train, car, and on foot until Stan’s world seems not larger but smaller, shrinking to a blackened point. His carnival experience comes full circle, like the embrace of a family whose door always remains forbiddingly open, and some of Gresham’s finest passages evoke for us this family on the move, seductive and grotesque and leaving only cavities in its wake: “It came like a pillar of fire by night, bringing excitement and new things into the drowsy towns—lights and noise and a chance to win an Indian blanket, to ride on the ferris wheel, to see the wild-man who fondles those rep-tiles as a mother would fondle her babes. Then it vanished in the night, leaving the trodden grass of the field and the debris of popcorn boxes and rusting tin ice-cream spoons to show where it had been.” thephantomcountry.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html

William Lindsay Gresham (August 20, 1909–September 14, 1962) @ Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lindsay_Gresham AND en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_Alley *******************************

Fox Studio Classics – Film Noir – Nightmare Alley – Point Of View williamlindsaygresham.com/

The film Nightmare Alley laid in copyright limbo for over fifty years, a struggle between the estates of producer George Jessel, author W.L. Gresham and the 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. In that time, its cult status continued to grow. Not just from the rarity of its screenings on television and at film festivals, but from the later suicides of the book’s author and the movie’s director, and its remarkably grim, bold, and disturbing look at hucksterism and its milieu.

It was 1946 and Tyrone Power, Fox’s leading male star, had returned from service in World War II. From an acting family and a stage background, he had grown tired of the empty “pretty boy” image that had made him a matinee idol. He wanted a different role. One that would showcase his range and depth and change the public’s (and industry’s) perception of him from a toothpaste ad to a serious actor. He had leaned toward that end with his first post-war duty role by playing Larry Darrell in Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge.

Power leveraged his past success (and the considerable money he made for the studio) to make Nightmare Alley his prestige project. Studio Head Daryl F. Zanuck was against it from the start but he owed Power gratitude and a bit of artistic license so he green-lighted the film. Ultimately, Zanuck’s instincts would prove correct (as they so often did). The film failed miserably at the box office and Power ended up returning to the adventurous, swashbuckling roles that had made him famous. Interestingly, many of 20th Century Fox’s most unique and enduring pictures were made in this vein, by a proven film artist’s passionate plea and Zanuck’s begrudging nod.

War weary audiences of the late ’40s were not ready for it. Although film noir was seeping into the mainstream, an “A” picture starring the dashing and overwhelmingly handsome Tyrone Power as a greedy, manipulative charlatan was too much for them. Adding to this shock was the story, adapted from a novel immersed in the sleazy world of carny, portraying the darker realities of alcoholism, marital infidelity, religion, spiritualism and ambition by an author who was a known communist, drunkard and wife beater. williamlindsaygresham.com/ ******************************

BOOKS INTO FILM: Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham reviewed by Jim Hitt www.booksintofilms.straitjacketsmagazine.com/support-file…

" In the world of noir novels, Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham stands apart as a totally originally and innovative piece of literature. As in most noir works, the protagonist Stan Carlisle is a flawed individual, and the world in which he lives is a dark world where predator and prey become one. But Gresham’s world is not the world of Cornell Woolrich where the events rush relentlessly toward the climax. On the contrary, the events in Nightmare Alley unfold in at a slower, more deliberate pace, and the construction of the novel is closer to William Faulkner than Cornell Woolrich…

…William Lindsay Gresham wrote only one more novel, the equally bleak Limbo Tower (1949) about Asa Kimball and other men slowly dying of fear, depression, and tuberculosis in hospital. He then fought his own battles against alcohol. His second wife Joy divorced him and taking their two sons, moved to England where she later married C. S. Lewis. Their relationship became the basis for the stage play and film Shadowlands . When in 1962 Gresham discovered he had cancer, he checked into the run-down Dixie Hotel, registering as ‘Asa Kimball,’ and took his own life…

…Just before he died, Gresham, reflecting on his life, told a fellow veteran from Spain, "I sometimes think that if I have any real talent it is not literary but is a sheer talent for survival. I have survived three busted marriages, losing my boys, war, tuberculosis, Marxism, alcoholism, neurosis and years of freelance writing. Just too mean and ornery to kill, I guess."…

…Print quality : An absolutely gorgeous print. I doubt it looked this good in the theaters when it was first released.

Sound : Sharp and clear.

Extras : A theatrical trailer that appears spliced together from various scenes rather than a true trailer. Also a commentary by film historians James Ursini and Alain Silver. The commentary sounds more like a conversation between two knowledgeable experts rather than a straight commentary, and this casual approach works very well. Their comments are insightful if not exactly spirited…

Summary : A terrific film noir, one of the best. Off beat in the sense that it foregoes crimes and violence, which is at the center of most noir films. The characters are full of life and always interesting. Only the part of Molly rings a bit false, especially considering the ill-advised end, which does little to affect the gritty and honest movie. Time has vindicated Tyrone Power’s faith in this material.

Grade: A- www.booksintofilms.straitjacketsmagazine.com/support-file… *********************************************************************

Nightmare Alley: Faustian Carnival Noir: The rise and fall: From Divinity to Geek REVIEW By monstergirl @ The Last Drive In MANY Dozens of Screencaps monstergirl.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/nightmare-alleyfaust… *****************

Nightmare Alley (film and stage musical) Understanding Screenwriting #46 BY TOM STEMPEL @ slantmagazine.com

The best article on Nightmare Alley is by Clive T. Miller and appears in the 1975 book "Kings of the Bs: Working Within the Hollywood System"… www.slantmagazine.com/house/2010/05/understanding-screenw… ************************************************************

Mister, I was made for it A region 2 DVD review of NIGHTMARE ALLEY by Slarek www.dvdoutsider.co.uk/dvd/reviews/n/nightmare_alley.html

SUMMARY Let’s not sod about, Nightmare Alley is a terrific film noir, a joyously dark story of a destructive and ultimately self-destructive ambition in which just about everyone is attempting to manipulate others for their own ends. It’s cult status was built in part on its long term unavailability, but can now continue on the back of the film’s cinematic strengths, which are considerable.

Eureka’s Masters of Cinema label does the film proud, with a superb transfer and some very worthwhile extras. Noir fans should run to get their hands on it. " www.dvdoutsider.co.uk/dvd/reviews/n/nightmare_alley.html ******************************************************

William Lindsay Gresham’s Nightmare Alley Tarot: Carnival Trumps Tarot Hermeneutics: Exploring How We Create Meaning with Tarot

William Lindsay Gresham, Joy Davidman Gresham (poetry pseudonym: "Joy Brown"), and C.S. Lewis

***UNUSUAL***, Detailed, Worthwhile tarothermeneutics.com/tarotliterature/nightmarealley.html *****************************************************

LISTEN >> Naxos Audiobooks "Nightmare Alley" Read by : Adam Sims ISBN: 1843794829 ISBN-13: 9781843794820 Format: CD – Search for other formats www.audiobooksdirect.com.au/William-Lindsay-Gresham/Night… ***********************************************

GRAPHIC NOVEL [= Comic Books for Literary types] Nightmare Alley: Spain Hernandez’s graphic adaptation of the William Lindsay Gresham novel *Links* to Buy >> www.indiebound.org/book/9781560975113?aff=sfnybal

"…Spain Hernandez’s graphic adaptation of Nightmare Alley is at least as successful as its predecessor versions. The artwork is black and white; sometimes cartoony, sometimes realistic. Close-up character studies alternate with splash pages and occasional landscape shots so well done that they resemble woodcuts. Hernandez’s story-line follows Gresham’s novel closely; I don’t recall any major scenes or sequences being left out. He does not stint on quoting Gresham’s dialogue; his word balloons are as packed as any I have ever seen. The story of Stan Carlyle’s rise and fall is as compelling in graphic novel form as it was in earlier versions.

Nightmare Alley is an important work of American crime fiction; it is perhaps unique in that memorable versions of the story are now available in three different media." www.crimeculture.com/21stC/fried.html **************************************

Gresham, William Lindsay (1909-1962) | Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections archon.wheaton.edu/index.php?p=creators/creator&id=77

Location: Archon Send Email | Wheaton College Archives & Special Collections archon.wheaton.edu/index.php?p=core/contact&f=email&a… ****************************************************

Posted by mhdantholz on 2011-02-20 12:09:24

Tagged: , NIGHTMARE , ALLEY , [1947]

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