Though "Nightmare Alley" is too long and meandering to totally work as a cohesive film, theres no doubt it has images that will stick with you none more so than its haunting final shot.

The genuine, pleasant surprise for me was discovering truly what an unabashed, all-out noir it was. Blanchett's character, the big scheme, the hubris and pushing the scheme too far, the fatalism.

The one to see is the one from 1947.

[Del Toro's] reverence for noir—and the fading idealism flickering beneath its suffocating shadow—is what makes Nightmare Alley such a bewitching experience.