- The rise and fall of Stanton Carlisle, a mentalist whose lies and deceit prove to be his downfall.
- Mesmerised by the dark allure of the carnival world, rapaciously ambitious opportunist Stanton clings to supposed prophetess Mademoiselle Zeena to learn the tricks of the trade. And then, a catastrophic accident and pure chance favour Stanton. As a result, the unscrupulous, fake mind-reader starts using and abusing every woman who crosses paths with him, bent on greasing his path to stardom as a spiritual advisor. Now, Chicago's gullible rich swear by the Great Stanton's unsurpassed psychic powers. However, when deceit, lies, and hubris pave the way to success, who can deny that there's no place to go but down?—Nick Riganas
- Stanton Carlisle, having grown up without a family in a Christian orphanage, is fascinated by the acts in the traveling carnival in which he works, especially in how most of them, with some truly logical explanation, are deemed fantastical by the carnival-goers who easily buy into the illusion without much thought. While he too is caught up by the Geek show but solely in wondering how a person ends up so low as to be a geek, he is most taken by Zeena's mind-reading show - he often her audience assistant - in how she so easily dupes the crowd. When he learns that Zeena and her behind-the-scenes assistant, her alcoholic husband Pete, once had one of the best acts on the nightclub circuit - far more polished than what they now do in that it was all out in the open, the "mind-reading" done by code - Stan believes that learning the code is his ticket to bigger and better things away from the seedy carnival life. As such, he tries to use his masculine charms on Zeena to ingratiate himself more fully into the act, while he, with an eye for the young women, is truly more enamored with Molly, strongman Bruno's assistant, such not sitting well with Bruno. Out of circumstance, Stan not only learns the code from Zeena, but perfects the art of the "sell" i.e. the smooth talk to pull the wool over people's eyes in such an act as Zeena's, largely using what he learned of religion solely through osmosis while he was growing up. Out of further circumstance, he, with Molly by his side, strikes out away from the carnival with his new mentalist act, "The Great Stanton". In meeting Lilith Ritter, a "psychologist" in the audience one evening, he believes he has found a way to parlay the act into substantial money by swindling the wealthy out of their fortunes solely by telling them what they want to hear. But in Lilith, he has also found another in his ilk, someone not averse to larceny if it reaches her end goal of her own wealth and comfort at anyone's expense.—Huggo
- Stanton Carlisle is an ambitious carnie who plays scams alongside phony mentalist Zeena and her alcoholic husband Pete, working the crowd as Zeena pretends to read their minds. But Stan has no intention of staying with the carnival; he has his heart set on an upscale night club act.—ASCPL
- Stanton Carlisle (Tyrone Power) raised in an orphanage and reform school is a drifter who works as a barker in a carnival. He is fascinated by the Geek side show in which a crazy man performs by biting heads off of live chickens and is paid off with a bottle of rotgut and a cot to sleep. Charming and good-looking, Stanton spends much of his time casually romancing Zeena (Joan Blondell) the second half of a mentalist act she works with her husband, alcoholic Pete (Ian Keith). Most of Stantons other affections are directed toward Molly (Coleen Gray) whose boyfriend Bruno (Mike Mazurki) jealously tries to interrupt whenever Stanton is nearby. When Stanton learns of a former mind-reading act that Zeena and Pete had before they joined the carnival he approaches them with the idea of reviving it but is rebuffed with the excuse from Zeena that the couple are saving the act to sell as money for their retirement, and also Pete is too drunk to perform it. One night Stanton accidentally gives Pete wood alcohol to drink killing the older man leaving the younger man with a lingering sense of guilt. Needing to find a new act Stanton convinces Zeena to start up the old act and they do so at great success. Stanton and Molly fall in love and are reviled by Bruno and Zeena and kicked out of the Carnival so Stanton takes the mind-reading act on the road with Molly with even greater success than before. Once in the limelight Stanton realizes something that Pete had told him years earlier that the audience wants to be duped because it gives them a sense of hope, and this small truth empowers Stanton to develop his performance skills to even greater heights. With the aid of a beautiful society psychiatrist Dr. Lilith Ritter (Helen Walker) Stanton starts up an act in which he channels the dead relatives of high-class socialites. When one of his scams backfires Stanton finds that his alliances have fled so he sends Molly away to the carnival and he leaves alone, soon becoming a hobo with many other forgotten men and then an anonymous bum, who wanders into a carnival taking the only job offered him, that of a Geek, which he gladly accepts.
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