The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of. Or At Least Nightmares. by Dave Goode

There are certain movies that I watch at least twice a year. Nightmare Alley (1947) is one of those movies. This classic of cinema noir was based on the best selling book from 1946 written by William Lindsay Gresham. I saw the movie for the first time when I was about fourteen or fifteen. And it just blew me away.

Directed by Edmund Goulding with a screenplay by Jules Furthman  the movie
stars Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray and Helen Walker. The movie is very unsettling. But not nearly as much as Gersham's novel that doesn't have a tacked on Hollywood "happy ending". The movie tells the story of carnival conman Stanton "Stan" Carlisle and his rise and fall. Tyrone Power is great playing against type. But is he really? That roguish smile and sparkle in his eye fits the sharpshooter Carlisle as perfectly as it did his swashbuckling Diego Vega alias el Zorro, the Fox. And both characters play the people around them as marks.

The other standout to me in this film is Joan Blondell who is second-billed after Power. She plays Zeena, the fortune teller one of the women Carlisle uses on his climb to the top. Forty-One at the time of the film. She brings an earthy sensuality to the role. Coleen Gray, one of my favorite actresses has little to do here but play naively innocent. She is the most moral person in this film. And she's always nice to look. Helen Walker is also nice to look at as Lilith Walker , woman he's unable to use. A classic noir femme fatale who causes Carlisle's fall.

Also good in a small role is former pro wrestler turned actor Mike Mazurki. He
plays Bruno , the slow-witted carnival strongman. He looks exactly what you would expect a strongman in a small time carnival to look like.

The funny thing is until I read the book I thought that the "Nightmare Alley" of the title was the midway of the second rate Ten-in-One carnival that the movie begins in. It's actually reference to a recurring nightmare Carlisle has.






Legendary underground comic book creator Spain Rodriguez produced a great graphic novel adaptation of Gresham's novel. But the artist I always imagined illustrating the story was Steve Ditko.

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BURLESQUE COMICS by Dave Goode

I've mentioned in the past that I've been a fan of old-time burlesque and striptease since I saw the movie GYPSY as a preteen back in the 1960s. In my early twenties I started collecting mags like CABARET and MODERN MAN that featured articles and pictorials on burlesque and nightclub performers. It was also about this time that I started collecting SHERRY THE SHOWGIRL and SHOWGIRLS comics from Atlas Comics in the 1950s. As most comic book fans know Atlas was the name of the company that would become Marvel Comics in the 60s. I'm sure that the target audience for these Atom Age comics were adolescent boys. I mean the stories were just flimsy excuses to draw the female characters in cheesecake poses by legendary comic book artist Dan De Carlo.De Carlo was best known for his work at Archie Comics in the 1960s. 

 

And just how many comics were there out there in the 50s had a lead character who was a cabaret performer / showgirl ? Hmm. Just what was Torchy's occupation ?

A little while back my buddy Vance Capley and I introduced a character Miss Ginger Snaps. We put her in a strip with a character we called Pharaoh Love, a black bodybuilder. We then put her in two one - pagers of her own. We then decided to build a comic around her. Below is the first page of that comic. Give us some feedback on what you think. Is the world ready for a retro cheesecake comic strip?

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Gee Mr. Weisinger... Could Superman Beat A Wrestler? by Dave Goode

When I first started watching professional wrestling in the early 1960s my favorite grappler was Antonino Rocca. A great athlete and sensational showman Rocca was one of the top box-office draws of the day. And his matches were frequently broadcast on television. But as popular as he was I never expected to see him on the cover of a Superman comic book. But there he was on the cover of Superman No.155 (August 1962) tossing the Man of Steel out of the squared circle to the shock of Lois Lane , Jimmy Olsen and an arena full of wrestling fans.

 The Downfall of Superman was a seven and a half page story written by Superman's co-creator Jerry Siegel and illustrated by the tag-team of Curt Swan (pencils) and George Klein (inks). The story begins with pro wrestling star Antonino Rocca giving a press conference before an exhibition bout that evening with Superman. He demonstrates a few wrestling holds on the Man of Steel's alter-ego Clark Kent.Kent feigns an injury so he has a reason not to be in attendance at the match when Superman wrestles Rocca.

My favorite part of the story has Rocca equipped with an aqualung pinning an octopus to the bottom of a huge water-filled tank. After that exhibition Superman flies into the ring at the Metropolis Arena for his bout with the wrestler. No one in attendance believes Rocca will last more than a second against Superman. And you have to wonder why anyone  would think this match would be competitive. So everyone is shocked when Rocca tosses Superman from the ring.

It turns out that Mr. Mxytpilk has used his magic to make Rocca stronger than Superman to annoy his old adversary. And to further prove his point the 5th dimensional imp materializes both Hercules and Samson from the past to face Rocca who pins both the famous strongmen at the same time with his pinkies. But since this is a Silver Age Superman story everything isn't quite what it appears to be.

 

Of course the coolest thing about it all was having Superman face off against the popular wrestling star. The story goes that Superman editor Mort Weisinger often asked the neighborhood kids what kind of stories they would like to read. This seems like one of those stories. " Gee Mr. Weisinger. Who would win in a fight? Superman or a wrestling champion?

My buddy Vance Capley and I paid homage to this comic several years ago when we had our masked wrestling hero Mr.Incognito take on Superiorman.

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KING OF THE GLADIATOR MOVIES by Dave Goode

After more than 60 years since HERCULES (1957) was released the actor most identified with the role is Steve (no relation to George) Reeves. Remarkably the Mr.America (1947), Mr.World (1948), and Mr.Universe (1950) winner only played the mythical muscleman in two movies HERCULES (1957) and HERCULES UNCHAINED (1959). Though he would play similar characters in other movies.

One of my favorite non-Hercules Steve Reeves' movies is GOLIATH AND THE BARBARIANS (1959) about the Lombard invasion of Italy. Reeves plays a character named Emiliano a.k.a Goliath who rages a guerilla war against the invading barbarians after his father is slain. Reeves physique never looked better on screen than it does in this flick. Especially in the scene where he is put through a trial of strength. Also appearing in this flick is sultry Chelo Alonso. If Reeves was the king of sinew & sandal flicks then Alonso was the queen.

Another favorite was THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII (1959) based loosely on
the novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. This one has Reeves playing the Roman legionnaire Glaucus returning home from war. He discovers his father has been murdered and swears vengeance on the killers. Along the way he falls in love with a Christian girl who he will end up defending in the arena.

As I grow older it becomes harder for me to remember what the first Steve Reeves movie I ever saw was. I'm going to go with THE SLAVE a.k.a THE SON OF SPARTACUS (1962). Reeves plays Randus a Roman centurion. This flick is an unofficial sequel to the Stanley Kubrick epic SPARTACUS (1960) that starred Kirk Douglas as the rebel slave leader. Randus upon learning that he is the son of the former gladiator takes up his father's battle against slavery. Interestingly enough Reeves didn't play a super-human hero in any of these films like he did in the Hercules flicks.More of a gladiator hero like the type Richard Harrison would play in later movies in the peplum cycle.

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