Guillermo del Toro like Edmund Goulding in 1947 has adapted William Lindsay Gresham’s cynical crime novel Nightmare Alley to the silver screen. Del Toro and Kim Morgan’s screenplay follow the same core beats and arc as the 1947 film and the novel.

Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) drifts into work for Clem’s (Willem Dafoe) low-end carnival. There he learns the basic of the carny trade, how to fake mind-reading while getting a taste for
the grift. After acquiring the skills and confidence to aim higher than carny life, together with the innocent Molly (Rooney Mara) Stan leaves for bigger, brighter gigs as a nightclub act. There a chance encounter brings him to psychologist Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett) and the possibility of even greater cons and even greater dangers as Stan reaches beyond his grasp.

While following the same core acts, events, and arc of the 47 film Del Toro’s is 39 minutes longer, lingering with the world of the traveling carnival and amid the misfits that del Toro so clearly loves. If you are a fan of the Tyrone Power adaptation nothing in this one is going to come as a major surprise with the most explicit differences arising from the original film’s Production Code limitations. Molly remains virtuous, Stan remains too ambitious for his own good, while Dr. Ritter is even more icy and more calculating than before. That said del Toro has returned to the source material for the story’s final resolution which the 47 adaptation avoided leaving the audience with a colder, darker, and more cynical thematic tone.

The cinematography is this production is dark, moody, and while there is a wide color palate the colors are far from saturated giving the film’s environments a used and shabby atmosphere. Costuming is subtle and on point capturing each character without drawing over attention. the acting is mostly restrained and naturalistic save for the moments of highest emotional strain and in a small role Mary Steenburgen frightens with a smile.

It would be wrong to compare the 47 and the 2021 productions. They were made under very different restrictions and with very different intentions. I think it is possibly to embrace and love both films as they are without preferencing one over the other. Again, the most meaningful difference lay in the film’s final resolution and the very different lives ahead for Stan in each version. I am thoroughly happy that I braved the cool wet weather and three hours in a fabric mask to witness this beautiful, haunting, and frightening film.