Nightmare Alley

NIGHTMARE ALLEY | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures
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Nightmare Alley is a modern remake of the 1947 film of the same name. It's a lush picture, every scene is like an old master's painting, full of color and detail. It's the story of a man who joins a carnival during the depression just as WW2 breaks out. It's not really a carnival, it's more a collection of sideshows featuring acts like a strong man, a contortionist, and a 'geek' who eats live chickens. He starts as a roustabout, loading trucks, setting up tents, the hard work involved in tearing down and setting up the show when they move to the next town. He soon moves up the ranks offering suggestions to improve some of the acts. He shows himself to be a true carny, totally committed to the game of fleecing the marks that walk through their gates.

As an aside, that word 'carny' has an interesting etymology. Note the boldface text:

Carny is thought to have become popularized around 1931 in North America, when it was first colloquially used to describe one who works at a carnival. The word carnival, originally meaning a "time of merrymaking before Lent" and referring to a time denoted by lawlessness (often ritualised under a lord of misrule figure and intended to show the consequences of social chaos), came into use around 1549. - Wikipedia

Think we could use a little of that? Of course that presumes that people can learn anything at all. Sometimes only being hit over the head with a two-by-four will dissuade them from their headlong plunge into idiocy, but we're getting sidetracked here. 

Back to the movie. He falls under the tutelage of an old man who used to be a successful performer but has since succumbed to demon alcohol. He has a meticulous notebook of verbal codes used with his assistant in his mentalist act. Stan, our not-a-hero, studies the book assiduously and with a doll from the carnival starts up his own mentalist act and soon becomes a sensation in the big city, traveling around the country, living in fancy hotels, living the high life.

Now he starts to encounter some high rollers, and this is where it starts to get weird. A mentalist act can be very entertaining, much like a magic act, but some people take it seriously. Add in obsessive grief or guilt and a conniving mentalist, such as our boy, and we can see an opportunity to make off with a boatload of moola. Remember, too, this in the 1930's, the height of the depression, and people's fascination with all forms of the occult was rampant.

The psychiatrist gets involved, big money changes hands and then disaster strikes and everything collapses.

The movie tells a story, and while the scenes on the screen are glorious, the story and the characters are just rough sketches. That might be due to the dialog, which was full of odd phrases and pronouncements. People would say things and my brain would say 'what?', but the story is moving along. It was kind of like watching John Belushi's Samurai character from SNL making a sketch, big slashing motions accompanied by incomprehensible yelling.

Now the cast, that was interesting. Bunch of people I had seen before but didn't know their names. IMDB provide us with a page of stars:

Nightmare Alley Cast

Some notes about the characters:

P.S. I posted some photos of Kate's fabulous office.