Nightmare Alley: Film Noir and the American Dream

by Mark Osteen

Desperate young lovers on the lam ( They Live by Night ), a cynical con man making a fortune as a mentalist ( Nightmare Alley ), a penniless pregnant girl mistaken for a wealthy heiress ( No Man of Her Own ), a wounded veteran who has forgotten his own name ( Somewhere in the Night )—this gallery of film noir characters challenges the stereotypes of the wise-cracking detective and the alluring femme fatale. Despite their differences, they all have something in a belief in self-reinvention. Nightmare Alley is a thorough examination of how film noir disputes this notion at the heart of the American Dream.

Central to many of these films, Mark Osteen argues, is the story of an individual trying, by dint of hard work and perseverance, to overcome his origins and achieve material success. In the wake of World War II, the noir genre tested the dream of upward mobility and the ideas of individualism, liberty, equality, and free enterprise that accompany it.

Employing an impressive array of theoretical perspectives (including psychoanalysis, art history, feminism, and music theory) and combining close reading with original primary source research, Nightmare Alley proves both the diversity of classic noir and its potency. This provocative and wide-ranging study revises and refreshes our understanding of noir's characters, themes, and cultural significance.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

Unknown Binding

First published November 29, 2012

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiny print and dense analysis made for slow, thoughtful, reading. 104 movies discussed. 314 works other than movies cited. 294 footnotes running to 28 pages. Great stuff in the footnotes, too. Osteen sums up the general argument of all that analysis in the concluding chapter:

For the majority of noir's characters, however, the American Dream is a chimera. The noir canon shows that the American ideals of individual liberty and self-invention are often at odds with true community . . . In general, noir's ordinary citizens are at the mercy of powerful forces they have no chance resisting.

Osteen casts a wide net when it comes to including films in the noir canon so a side benefit is being introduced to a lot of new material. Definitely some new perspectives in this one, even if we do have to read a lot of film summary sometimes to get to the point.

[Shant · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm definitely in the wrong audience for this book because I only have watched Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce, and have heard of Gilda through browsing TCM. That said, this book became skimming territory for me because I was reading it during lunch breaks and plot synopses about crime/mystery movies with alter egos, mistaken identities, and repressed memories were too much to keep up with for me. I've read other books where I haven't watched/listened/read each thing the book is about, but at least I was more interested in pursuing those shows/movies/albums/books after reading the book.
I was hoping for more 'meta' content, such as production history, initial reactions, and when these movies would start to have their new legacies. I liked the women in film noir chapter, and the Red Scare chapter started out well, but was too little, too late. The veteran chapter was okay.
If nothing else, at least I learned of Ida Lupino from this book.

[OpenBookSociety.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

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Brought to you by guest reviewer JoAnne

nitially I was drawn to this book because I love classic movies. I really love classic movies, and especially film noir. Not only have I seen 98% of the movies listed in this book, it has given me a completely different take on them. Where I enjoyed them before, I never looked at what Dr. Osteen describes as “hidden meanings” in the films. To be honest, I will probably not parse them any more than I ever have, and just enjoy them for what they are – great films from an era never to be seen again.

Whether or not the directors of these films ever wanted anyone to see a ‘hidden agenda’ remains an enigma in itself. Whether or not they knew – or cared – that anyone would see anything other than what the film is – a vehicle of entertainment, of escape, as it were – we may never know. But Dr. Osteen has definitely brought up interesting points, and logical ones, in that these films have deeper meanings. After all, isn’t it called ‘noir’ for a reason?

I would suggest, though, that if you have not seen the films listed that you watch them first, because he gives you pretty much the entire film in all key points, including the ending. And just like books, many people do not like spoilers. Also, this book is not a ‘bedside companion,’ which you need to help enjoyment of the films; rather it is a dissection of them, and you may not look upon them the same again.

Hopefully, though, for those of you who enjoy classic movies and the genre of noir itself, you will appreciate this book for what it is and read it.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would recommend this book to anyone who knows very little about film noir and wants a decent primer. However, be forewarned that some of the plot summaries are dense. The best chapters, by far, are the last two - which are very strong, and if that were all I had read, I would rate the book 5 stars. I thought that Osteen had a lot of new insights into the role of women in films noir, and the role of the Hollywood left, as well.

Osteen's basic thesis is that films noir explored their protagonists' abilities to achieve the American Dream through a dichotomy between the ideas of Benjamin Franklin (that we can shape our destiny - self reinvention) and those of Ralph Waldo Emerson (that we are born into a particular destiny, and must figure out how to deal with it). Each chapter looks at this concept by tackling a different aspect of noir aesthetics (dreams, cars, etc). There's a lot of voluminous research on display here, both in terms of films watched by the author and other written works cited, which is very impressive. I only wish the writing were less academic and theoretical in some passages.

So I liked it (that's what 3 stars means), but found it challenging in a few places. I do think it was well worth the read, however.

[Michael Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the Depression and World War II, people of both sexes were reaching for something new and film noir, mostly a black and white medium, analyzed in a dark way what was on their minds and what was available to them This book is a summary of its most prominent proponents and how accessible or unattainable was the American Dream. At the heart of film noir and the books that became its movies was the idea that by working at it, a fellow could succeed, or for the most part would fail even trying to do so and would turn to illicit enterprises. This was a tough guy genre following on the heels of the gangster films of the ‘30s, so the period was the 40’s post war and the early 50s. Women came through as femmes fatale or murderous, scheming “dames,” rarely ever the heroines of the stories in which they did, however, play an important part.
Starting with the classic Nightmare Alley, the author discusses the concept of noir dreamscapes, missing or displaced persons, veterans returning from WWII to a peacetime world they were ill-suited for, forging new identities through need or accident, cars that were inspired purely for speed and escape, memory playing tricks, morality being played fast and loose, all to a jazz soundtrack that took us from the American Dream to the American Nightmare. This is a comprehensive survey of a genre that was unparalleled in cinema history, and according to the author and his sources it was mostly an American phenomenon. An entertaining and recommended title.

[Teresa Farquhar]

Disappointed in book; returned it to seller.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good analysis of film noir using the framework of the "American Dream" as an organizing principle. The idea of the American Dream is a contested concept, and its awkward interaction with gender, class, race, and geography all make for a lively exploration of mid-Twentieth Century America. This book deploys a variety of lenses to examine "dark cinema," from Freudian psychology to the idea of crime as the "left hand" side of social advancement. This is an excellent addition to the scholarship of film noir.

[Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, albeit not especially well-written and rather jargony, look at how film noir of the classic period (1940s-1960) reflected the strains and stresses of American society. The chapter on women in film noir (as writers, actresses, directors, and characters) was outstanding.