Nightmare Alley, which was made into an underrated film noir in 1947 starring Tyrone Power, is tailor-made for Guillermo del Toro. With a phenomenal cast and deliciously noirish cinematography by Dan Laustsen – who also shot Crimson Peak and The Shape of Water – it’s a knockout blend of horror and noir.
Bradley Cooper, sporting a soft Southern drawl, is charm itself as handsome drifter Stan, who – after a stunner of an opening prolog – ends up working for the circus run by Willem Dafoe’s geek handler Clem and Ron Perlman’s strongman character Bruno.
Starting off as a manual laborer, he is soon elevated to an assistant for fortune teller Madame Zeena (Toni Collette), whose “clairvoyant” tips come from her alcoholic husband, Pete (David Strathairn).
But that’s not good enough for Stan, who sees a way to adopt a more upscale version of Zeena and Pete’s act for himself and sweet circus performer Molly (Rooney Mara).
A circus and its ghoulish sideshow of human and pig fetuses is del Toro’s catnip.
Dafoe is perfect as the carny who calls the jarred specimens his “little angels” and explains how he turns desperate addicts into geeks – performers whose gruesome show is biting the heads off chickens for a horrified audience.
The film hums along nicely for the first hour, but when Cate Blanchett’s sultry psychiatrist Lilith Ritter enters, she takes the movie to an entirely different level.
At first, she tries to expose Stan and Molly as fakes at a nightclub, until Stan does a surprisingly accurate reading of her. This femme fatale is only more intrigued with Stan and suggests they team up to fleece her wealthy clients with her inside information about them.
If you’re a fan of the 1947 film, this is, as you would expect, a darker, more grotesque take on an already disturbing tale.
And even if you haven’t seen it, noir fans will drink in the exquisite lighting, especially in the charged scenes between Stan and Lilith in her sumptuous Art Deco office.
One shot in particular is almost electric, with Cooper smoking a cigarette as twilight descends over the carnival, the circus lights burning bright in the darkness of the open field.
It’s a grim story told by a note-perfect cast and a director whose obvious delight in the milieu is evident in every shot. He sinks his teeth into the twists and turns as charlatans try to out-hustle each other.
There’s something wonderfully primordial about Nightmare Alley that lingers after the end credits, the same shuddery feeling you might get after visiting a real carny sideshow, I imagine. It’s a grim entertainment, but one that’s well worth the admission fee.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
* * * * *
Produced by J. Miles Dale, Guillermo del Toro, and Bradley Cooper
Screenplay by Guillermo del Toro and Kim Morgan
Based on the novel Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette,
Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman,
David Strathairn, Mary Steenburgen, Clifton Collins Jr
