Which 1947 film noir stars Tyrone Power as carnival con man Stanton Carlisle?

The 1947 film noir starring Tyrone Power as carnival con man Stanton Carlisle is Nightmare Alley.

Directed by Edmund Goulding, Nightmare Alley adapts William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel of the same name. Tyrone Power plays Stanton “Stan” Carlisle, an ambitious carnival worker who learns the techniques of mentalism and deception, then uses them to pursue wealth and social status.

Power actively sought the project because he wanted to move beyond the romantic and swashbuckling roles that had made him famous. The casting gave him a darker, morally compromised part and became one of the most striking performances of his career. Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, and Helen Walker appear in major supporting roles.

The production pursued unusual realism for a studio film. 20th Century-Fox built a working carnival on ten acres of its back lot and hired more than 100 sideshow performers and carnival workers. The film premiered in New York on October 9, 1947, and was later reassessed as a noir classic. It is sometimes confused with Guillermo del Toro’s 2021 adaptation, which tells the same basic story but is a separate film.