The traditional stylization of classical Hollywood cinema was dominated by the desire to present a carefully crafted appearance of reality. This photographic presentation of reality was achieved using an elaborate arsenal of optical illusions, beguiling the viewer into accepting the cinematic image as an accurate vision of the real world. This form of pseudo-realism remains one of the major legacies of the American cinema.
Not all American films, however, worked within that stylistic vein. The unreal subject matter of horror films allowed for a variety of styles which created a world more akin to a nightmare than to reality. The film noir genre also allowed an entire generation of filmmakers to create bleak and expressive films which presented a dissonant view of the turmoil and contradictions present in the American society of the post-World War Two era. Many of these "non-classical" Hollywood films were also strongly influenced by European film movements such as the German Expressionists.
The 1955 production of The Night of the Hunter was Charles Lauqhton's only work as a film director. Though he had worked extensively on stage as both an actor and director, the box office failure of The Night of Hunter abruptly ended Laughton's attempt to make more films. This was extremely unfortunate as Laughton displayed both a highly developed visual sensibility and an audacious gift for narrative in this film.
The screenplay for The Night of the Hunter, adapted by James Agee from a novel by David Grubbs, was largely ignored by Laughton who actually wrote the final shooting script himself. Therefore, the idiosyncratic quality of The Night of the Hunter is probably an accurate reflection of Laughton's own temperament.
Designed as a combination of morality play and modern fairy tale, The Night of the Hunter contained one of the most memorably deranged characters of the 1950s, Robert Mitchum's "preacher." Most importantly this character is the personification of the film's central theme: morality can exist only within the context of the never ending struggle between good and evil. The words "love" and "hate" tattooed on each of the Mitchum character's hands express this dichotomy.
A pair of hands are also of great importance in the 1935 film Mad Love, directed by Karl Freund. The film suggests the possibility that one's hands can control a person's character -- a bizarre premise that nonetheless becomes frighteningly logical within the nightmare world of the film.
Mad Love (USA 1935) was originally intended to be a remake of the 1924 German Expressionist film The Hands of Orlac by Robert Wiene. While Mad Love used this earlier film as its primary inspiration, the themes of the narrative were developed to a more excessive conclusion. The influence of the German Expressionist cinema is overtly evident in the film and derived not only from the mvoie's original source but also from the photographic skills of director Freund. Though he only directed a few films during his career, Freund was one of the greatest cinematographers of the period; some of his earliest photographic credits include such German films as The Last Laugh (1924) and Metropolis (1926).
Mad Love also marked Peter Lorre's American screen debut. Lorre had gained critical attention for his portrayal of the murderer in Fritz Lang's M (1931) and as the spy in Alfred Hitchcock's original English production of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). He was able to convert this screen notoriety into a Hollywood film career which allowed him to leave Germany and Europe where his name was on a Nazi death list.
Perhaps the most peculiar film in the program is Nightmare Alley (USA 1947). How this film was produced by a major Hollywood studio during a time when caution and compromise were major considerations in the making of so-called "Grade-A" films, remains something of a mystery to film critics and historians. Its bleak and caustic view of American society seem excessive even for the film noir genre of the late 1940s. The film's narrative, in which a cynical con-artist manipulates his way through an even more cynical society, was totally contrary to the mainstream cinematic mood of the time.
The oddity of Nightmare Alley becomes even more obvious when one considers those who made it. The film was produced by George Jesse, who had previously produced only a few musicals, and directed by Edmund Goulding, a "prestige" director best known for such high-class dramas as Grand Hotel (USA 1932) and The Razor's Edge (USA 1946). It is most likely that the caustic sensibilities of Nightmare Alley can be attributed to the film's scriptwriter, Jules Furthman. It is also possible that Furthman was one of the few people involved in the film who actually grasped the unusual nature of Nightmare Alley.
In retrospect, some critics now feel that the film is more indicative of its time that was realized upon its original release. In the aftermath of World War Two, many American films attempted to create an artificial sense of normalcy. In rejecting this, Nightmare Alley offered a powerful antithesis, presenting the dark underside of that period's culture.
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