One of my favorite novels of the golden age of noir is William Lindsay Gresham’s Nightmare Alley. Gresham, like many mystery writers of the time, was magic adjacent. He was one of the many authors to write a biography of Houdini. His was published in 1959. Additionally he published a clever torn and restored tarot card in the November 1946 issue of the Phoenix (#119). However his fame is due to his novel, Nightmare Alley.
The tale is one of the seedy world of the carnival where a young drifter becomes a ten-in-one performer with a magic act. His drive for success and fame leads to deceit, deception, murder, and eventually his downfall. The novel is very well written and engages the reader in a world that is no more.
The book was filmed twice. The first was in 1947 shortly after the book was published. It starred Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Colleen Grey, and Helen Walker. Filmed in black and white, it captures the essence of the story well, but the film is Hollywoodized and given a more uplifting ending.
The second time was in 2021 by Guillermo del Toro with Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, and Rooney Mara. While in many respects this version is closer to the novel, it’s not without its flaws. Due to the pandemic, the filming was halted midway through. It feels like two movies stitched together: the carnival story and then the vaudeville/spook show story. With his love of the strange, del Toro spends a lot of time in the carnival setting, leaving the second section more plodding and less fully developed.
Both films are recommended however I would strongly encourage reading the novel first. It’s quite amazing.
