#Tarot #Noir: William Lindsay Gresham’s Nightmare Alley – MARCH 2

TAROT NOIR: WILLIAM LINDSAY GRESHAM’S NIGHTMARE ALLEY (This time for sure!) It’s no surprise that Guillermo del Toro sought for years to make his own neo-noir version of Gresham’s novel. The heady combination of the occult, tarot, the carnival and grifters in the ‘spook racket’ made the original novel a bestseller and led matinee idol…

#Tarot #Noir: William Lindsay Gresham’s Nightmare Alley – Rescheduled!

TAROT NOIR: WILLIAM LINDSAY GRESHAM’S NIGHTMARE ALLEY rescheduled 2 Mar 2023! It’s no surprise that Guillermo del Toro sought for years to make his own neo-noir version of Gresham’s novel. The heady combination of the occult, tarot, the carnival and grifters in the ‘spook racket’ made the original novel a bestseller and led matinee idol…

#Tarot #Noir: William Lindsay Gresham’s Nightmare Alley – Jan 25

TAROT NOIR: WILLIAM LINDSAY GRESHAM’S NIGHTMARE ALLEY It’s no surprise that Guillermo del Toro sought for years to make his own neo-noir version of Gresham’s novel. The heady combination of the occult, tarot, the carnival and grifters in the ‘spook racket’ made the original novel a bestseller and led matinee idol Tyrone Power to risk…

Saturday Matinee: The Clairvoyant (1935)

Apropos for Derby Day (no, the other one, my American friends) I can recommend the early Gainsborough film starring Claude Rains, Fay Wray and Jane Baxter. Rains and Baxter are music hall performers with a mind reader act very familiar to Nightmare Alley fans. It’s a family tradition and they seem happy on the circuit…

Film Noir Friday: Fallen Angel (1945)

FALLEN ANGEL (1945) Dir Otto Preminger Attempting to capture the magic of Laura the year before, Preminger got Dana Andrews back into a fedora and Joseph LaShelle lensing but no Gene Tierney, alas. Instead we have a ripe Linda Darnell as the bad girl Stella (she shines at night of course) and Alice Faye as…

TAROT IN GRESHAM’S NIGHTMARE ALLEY

[N.B. Written when I first heard that GDT was remaking it] When I showed Nightmare Alley to the students in my noir film course, one came up at the end to complain that the tarot readings were way off. I agreed and encouraged him to pick up Gresham’s novel. I assured him that the author cared a…

Gresham’s Guide to Tarot

I seem to have neglected to update the blog with my post over at Punk Noir Magazine about William Lindsay ‘Nightmare Alley’ Gresham writing about Tarot. I realise now it was because I reblogged it not here but over at Graham Wynd‘s blog. I attended a talk on tarot in fantasy fiction and learned more…