Circuses and traveling carnivals always make fascinating settings for films but it isn’t often that you find a film noir taking place in that milieu with the exception of Nightmare Alley, both the 1947 version directed by Edmund Goulding and the 2021 remake from Guillermo del Toro. If you take into account film noirs from other countries outside the U.S., you might find a few more such as Jusqu’au Dernier (English title: Until the Last One aka Until the Last Man, 1957), an obscure French entry from Pierre Billon featuring an early role for Jeanne Moreau as a femme fatale. It might not be quite as lurid or disturbing as Nightmare Alley but this is the sort of noir where almost every major character is either a thief, con artist, devious double crosser or some kind of desperate character willing to do almost anything for money. There are only two or three relatively sympathetic characters in the lot and they don’t figure prominently in the main story. And there is something so satisfying about seeing a bunch of despicable people get their just deserts as they all vie for a hidden suitcase full of stolen money.
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Cinema Sojourns 