The premiere of ‘El alley of lost souls’ (Nightmare Alley, 2021) by Guillermo del Toro is a good time to review the version of Edmund Goulding, who adapted William Lindsay Gresham’s sordid crime novel in a lavish melodrama for the big screen in 1947. 75 years later, the fate of that movie is repeated at the box office, whose economic failure did not prevent it from becoming a cult classic as the public rediscovered it over the years.
The fate of Del Toro’s version remains to be seen, but despite its cinematographic quality in all aspects of billing, it loses the battle when compared to the first adaptation, a captivating character study that accompanies a man on a journey back and forth from the misery of a cheap street fair to the big city in a narrative economy that makes the story flow with its duration of less than two hours compared to the impracticable 150 minutes of the one starring Bradley Cooper.
The carnival of darkness
Unlike the new ‘The Alley of Lost Souls’ begins with Stan Carlisle already employed at the Clem Fair, with his relationship with all the other carnies formed and always looking for ways to go further, while his companions seem quite content with their quiet life. His ambitions are bigger, and when he learns of a trick from his co-worker Zeena (Joan Blondell), with his now partner Pete (Ian Keith) he learns it in unethical ways to reach an audience with more money.
The second part, when he joins the sweet and innocent Molly (Coleen Gray) to pressure the high society in nightclubs, where he claims he can read their minds and meets the psychologist Lilith Ritter (Helen Walker), with whom starts planning a scam, becomes the most important part of the play, unlike the new one, which is structured in two more differentiated parts. Released at the height of the restrictive Hays Code, the 1947 version contains much less violence and graphic imagery, but still manages to convey a lot of darkness.
In this Clem refuses to talk about the geek show, and tells how he got to that state due to excessive alcohol consumption, leaving the breath of dark destiny noted but not shown so explicitly. The first act is full of alleyways, hatches, trunks, curtains, and multi-layered images that suggest conflicting motivations, desires and truths and lies. The title is rendered literal by the setting, ultimately offered as a trapping representation of the American dream.
A scary weird noir
It also lightens Stan’s psychoanalysis sessions with Dr. Lilith Ritter and omits how Dory died and Stan’s climactic session with Ezra is much less violent and brutal. The ending, however, at the request of the studio, alters Gresham’s text when Molly finds Stan working at a fair and promises to take care of him, inferring a happy ending that breaks even the abysses of doom of the noir of that decade. The great role played by Tyrone Power is surprising at all timeswho pushed for the film to be made to prove he was a serious actor, not just a hot commodity to play bold heroes.
‘The Alley of Lost Souls’ always plays with the vision of Power as a charming and affable face which only hints at a sinister intent at key moments, allowing you to move alongside him seeing him almost as a heroic figure despite his cynicism towards the world. But his real weakness is believing himself to be smarter and more capable than others, which is why his downfall is so quick when his self-perception is shattered by events.
As for its fantastical elements, this version has something unsettling about it because does not completely rule out the existence of a mystical realm, and the supernatural element is guessed in moral punishment, almost divine and he himself believes in that possibility, despite using the belief of others for his own benefit. His use of shadows and the imagery that he deploys at the beginning also connects with the works of Tod Browning and even with some touches of Universal’s gothic.
a timeless story
Those nuances make ‘The Alley of Lost Souls’ a rarity in the film noir of the moment, in addition to offering a very different vision of the femme fatale. Stan’s downfall over Lilith has nothing to do with her sexuality. She is not the classic female and functions at all times as hers just like hers, from her masculine attire, her profession within a male-dominated field, and her connection to Stan’s plot from the beginning. .
She takes advantage of him without remorse for doing so, and that’s a fatal blow to Stan’s ego, which quickly goes into a tailspin. In fact, the film’s three female characters are strong, exceptionally well defined, and they stay true to who they are, indifferent to Stan’s fluctuating states. They come to life with three different performances but showing three faces, the most cautious of Joan Blondell, the passionate of Coleen Gray and the coldest of Helen Walker.
The themes of ‘The Alley of Lost Souls’ strike at the core of farce and the fragility of the American ideal, exploring its dark pleasures as an empty temptation with no way out. The psychological dimension of the story suggests the moral danger of giving in to desires that capitalism monetizes easily and quickly. Everything in the work suggests that sinuous idea, from the production design, photography, direction and performances.give a rich texture that explores the limits of hunger fueled by greed and deception, a human work, not as nihilistic as the modern one, but which still explains why Del Toro has chosen it to connect with these troubled times.