Nightmare Alley: the two versions

Nightmare Alley, Guillermo del Toro’s new film, is a noir that pays tribute to the 1947 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham. It has an all star cast in Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, and Rooney Mara. I’d been anticipating this film and was lucky to discover that the original Nightmare Alley, Edmund Goulding’s 1947 film starring Tyrone Power, was available on the Criterion Channel. I watched that film first and then saw the current release yesterday. How do the two

compare? Del Toro’s film is lush, stylistic, moody and very atmospheric, brilliantly so.  Goulding’s version is sparer if I can use that term. Both films are set among seedy carnivals and ethically compromised carnies. But Goulding’s film is straightforward with a story that grips from the first scene. Del Toro’s may be “prettier” in its gruesomeness, but the storyline goes missing from time to time; several times I found my mind wandering. Bradley Cooper as lead Stanton Carlisle has the perfect brooding profile but in an effort at authenticity his voice is garbled at times, and it can be all effect and lacking substance. In the 1947 version we can understand everything Power as Carlisle says, and he indeed says more so we can better follow the plot. Meanwhile, in the new version, Willem Defoe is typically nefariously great as barker Clem Hoately. But as much as I like Toni Collette, I preferred Joan Blondell as Zeena Krumbein in the 1947 film. Maybe it’s just “dames” from that period but her physical fulsomeness matched her off the cuff demeanor as a show performer and plausible Carlisle romantic interest. The other problem with the current film is Blanchett. I can’t believe I’m saying this since I’m a huge fan of the multi-talented Blanchett but here she disappoints. Perhaps it’s the script. When Carlisle falls in love with this big city psychologist and the two become thicker than thieves, there’s a near final scene where Blanchett as Lilith Ritter is forced to deliver one or two-word answers that seem so formulated they’re almost laughable to hear. Perhaps if I hadn’t seen the 1947 movie I’d be more impressed with del Toro’s version. After all, the movie is searingly atmospheric and richly depicts a mid-20th century netherworld beloved of noir addicts. One of Canada’s top film critics was so duly impressed. But the current version, while brilliantly executed in terms of sets, costumes and even score, is just too contrived and even pretentious, especially after seeing the leaner but more straightforward and ultimately gripping late Forties flick.