The Big Picture: ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt!

Published 2022-04-29; 1:08:24 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “The Big Picture (The Ringer)” and the episode “'Nightmare Alley' and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt!”.

Hosts: Sean Fennessey. Guests: Patton Oswalt.

Subject films: Nightmare Alley (2021).

On the transcript: No speaker labels; the show is a solo-host interview here, so most lines are either Sean (questions) or Patton (answers) and some are inferred. Amanda Dobbins does not appear; the host introduces himself as Sean and a producer, Bobby Wagner, is thanked at the end. Ad reads at 0:00-0:02, 0:30-0:40 and 1:09-1:10 were skipped.

Films that came up

subject (1)

Nightmare Alley

passing (13)

The Shape of Water · Pan's Labyrinth · The Devil's Backbone · Hellboy (Del Toro films) · Purple Rain · Sign o' the Times · A Star Is Born · Saturday Night Fever · Star Wars · Smokey and the Bandit · The Killers · Sin City · Doctor Dolittle

compared (6)

Nightmare Alley · Cronos · A Face in the Crowd · Goodfellas · Sorcerer · All the President's Men

anecdote (5)

Hellboy II · Nutty Professor II: The Klumps · Jaws · Whisper of Panic · The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

recommended (28)

The Prowler · I Wake Up Screaming · On Dangerous Ground · Phantom Lady · Impact · T-Men · Crime Wave · Pharos of Chaos · Bad Day at Black Rock · Violent Saturday · Kiss Me Deadly · Blast of Silence · Brighton Rock · These Are the Damned · The Long Goodbye · Night Moves · Chinatown · Hickey & Boggs · The Nickel Ride · Save the Tiger · The Late Show · The Last Seduction · Body Heat · Bound · The Big Combo · Gilda · Crossfire · Under the Silver Lake

Claims (41)

  1. lineage (remake): Nightmare Alley → Nightmare Alley. The 1947 film is a neutered version given 1940s moviemaking; the new one is bigger, bolder and better.
    “It's an interesting movie, a neutered version of the story, I would say, given the circumstances of movie making back in the 40s.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:03:35 · Sean Fennessey (0.95 sure it was them)
  2. unmapped (ending): Nightmare Alley → Nightmare Alley. The new film keeps the novel's bleak ending, where the Tyrone Power version tacks on a happy Hollywood one.
    “there's the perfect ending, end it right here, and then you get that tacked on Hollywood ending where things are really, really happy.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:10:12 · Patton Oswalt (0.95 sure it was them)
  3. contrast (visual contrast): Nightmare Alley → Nightmare Alley. The 1947 film has great chiaroscuro photography but does not show how enticing a carnival is the way Del Toro does.
    “He's able to show you Del Toro is able to show you how enticing, um, a carnival is, no matter how evil”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:11:05 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  4. contrast (same filmmaker, tonal opposite): Nightmare Alley → The Shape of Water. Both are Del Toro and Kim Morgan scripts, but this one has no way out where the earlier films stay hopeful.
    “Yeah, they're often pretty hopeful and they often look on the bright side, ultimately, and they often feature children kind of emerging from traumatic circumstances.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:11:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  5. unmapped (same filmmaker, tonal kin): Nightmare Alley → Cronos. Cronos is the only earlier Del Toro film where there is no way out.
    “this is really the 1st Del Toro, except maybe Kronos, where he started where there is no way out.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:12:01 · Patton Oswalt (0.85 sure it was them)
  6. contrast (tonal opposite): Nightmare Alley → Pan's Labyrinth. In Del Toro's other films a pure and hopeful heart defangs the monsters; the protagonist here has no such heart.
    “if you butt up against them with, I think, more pure and hopeful heart, they aren't monsters anymore.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:12:27 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  7. people (writer's worldview): Kim Morgan → Nightmare Alley. Morgan, a leading writer on classic noir, made this a dream project and the film realizes her worldview.
    “It's such a realization of Kim's worldview, um, and then, of course, meeting the vision of Guillermo del Toro.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:13:26 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  8. programming (double feature): Nightmare Alley → A Face in the Crowd. Pairing them would nail the American sickness of the con man and his admirers.
    “this movie and a face in the crowd would be an amazing double feature for nailing exactly what's wrong.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:27:29 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  9. contrast (pacing contrast): Nightmare Alley → Goodfellas. Goodfellas is propulsive because its hero builds an empire; Nightmare Alley needs the slow seductive absorption that kills Carlisle.
    “unlike a movie like Goodfellas, which is the definition of propulsive”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:33:54 · Patton Oswalt (0.85 sure it was them)
  10. verdict (underrated by consistency): Gene Hackman → Guillermo del Toro. Both are so reliably amazing that nobody is surprised, so they are under-rewarded.
    “Gene Hackman didn't get the amount of Oscar nominations that he deserved only because he because he was always amazing.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:35:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  11. verdict (underrated by consistency): Purple Rain → Sign o' the Times. Prince's other films are being reassessed because Purple Rain's achievement overshadowed them.
    “Now people are reassessing sign of the times and realizing, oh, that was even better.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:35:53 · Patton Oswalt (0.80 sure it was them)
  12. career (career risk): Bradley Cooper → Roy Scheider. Cooper taking this dark role after A Star Is Born is a 1970s-style star move like Scheider in Sorcerer.
    “it reminded me of what Roy Schneider did in Sorcerer, which is another movie that came out”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:37:28 · Patton Oswalt (0.50 sure it was them)
  13. lineage (remake of a 40s/50s film): Sorcerer → Nightmare Alley. Both are remakes of films from earlier decades.
    “Also a remake of a film from the 40s and 50s.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:38:01 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)
  14. industry (box-office flop, future reassessment): Nightmare Alley → Sorcerer. Both bombed on release, Sorcerer under the summer of Star Wars, and Nightmare Alley will be reassessed the same way.
    “So this is going to be one of those movies that will be reassessed, I think, in the exact same way.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:38:05 · Patton Oswalt (0.70 sure it was them)
  15. people (unrecognized acting under prosthetics): Ron Perlman → Eddie Murphy. Both did Oscar-worthy acting under heavy makeup that went unnominated.
    “Perlman should have gotten an Academy Award nomination for Hellboy because he was emoting under the thickest latex”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:38:59 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  16. lineage (origin of the project): Ron Perlman → Nightmare Alley. Perlman reportedly put the Gresham book in Del Toro's hands in the mid 90s, so he is why the film exists.
    “he's the person, I believe, who, uh, who put the book in Del Toro's hands, I think in the mid 90s.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:39:39 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  17. unmapped (noir definition): Nightmare Alley → Nightmare Alley. Patton doubts it is a true noir because the carnival is honest about its ugliness; the corrupt veneer lives in the penthouses.
    “I don't really know that this is a true noir only because the world of this movie doesn't pretend like it's anything”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:41:41 · Patton Oswalt (0.95 sure it was them)
  18. theme (shared theme): The Prowler → I Wake Up Screaming. Both are 40s noirs about corrupt, damaged psychological cops, telling audiences not to trust authority.
    “movies and especially, 40s movies like the Prowler and I wake up screaming, um, which are about corrupt damaged psychological cops”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:48:34 · Patton Oswalt (0.95 sure it was them)
  19. theme (shared theme): On Dangerous Ground → The Prowler. Another noir where the cop is the most dangerous person; Robert Ryan frightens even as the hero.
    “Robert Ryan is the scariest thing in that movie.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:49:40 · Patton Oswalt (0.95 sure it was them)
  20. craft (craft): John Alton → Phantom Lady. Naming John Alton as a favorite noir cinematographer, the speaker places him on T-Men and tentatively on Phantom Lady.
    “I believe he did, didn't he do Phantom Lady?”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:50:20 · Patton Oswalt (0.70 sure it was them)
  21. contrast (femme fatale contrast): Ella Raines → Lauren Bacall. Raines was the true noir femme fatale, more than Bacall or Colleen Gray, and ahead of her time.
    “Ella Reigns was the noir, was the noir version of the femme fatal”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:50:32 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  22. people (actor energy): Ella Raines → Linda Fiorentino. Raines has a bit of Linda Fiorentino energy.
    “she has a little bit of a Linda Fiorentino energy.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:51:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  23. lineage (visual inspiration): Charles McGraw → Sin City. Frank Miller supposedly based Marv's face on McGraw's.
    “I think that Frank Miller based violent Marv from Sin City on his face.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:51:36 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  24. theme (shared theme): Crime Wave → On Dangerous Ground. Crime Wave is another damaged-cop movie, with Sterling Hayden.
    “crime wave, which is another great, um, damaged cop movie”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:53:51 · Patton Oswalt (0.95 sure it was them)
  25. unmapped (documentary value): Crime Wave → Crime Wave. Shot on location out of B-movie necessity, it is an accidental documentary of 1940s LA.
    “that movie is an accidental documentary of what LA looked like in the 40s.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:54:40 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  26. what-if (career what-if): Sterling Hayden → Jaws. Hayden could not take the part of Quint because he was abroad dodging back taxes.
    “he couldn't take the part of Quint in Jaws because he had he was living outside of the country”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:55:16 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  27. lineage (extreme-performer lineage): Timothy Carey → Laird Cregar. Both were actors who showed the extreme, unglamorous end of human emotion.
    “especially Timothy Carey, who was the Nicholas Cage with the 40s.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:56:25 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  28. theme (resentment theme (via Trump)): Bad Day at Black Rock → Nightmare Alley. A technicolor noir whose small-town resentment of a veteran is read as very Trump-like, echoing the Trump-as-carnival reading of the new film.
    “I mean, that is very much a Trump or movie, these, um, people that, uh, are resenting the, the Japanese guy”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:57:21 · Patton Oswalt (0.85 sure it was them)
  29. unmapped (decade/region shift): Blast of Silence → Brighton Rock. In the 60s noir moved off to Britain, where a fallen empire found a darker noir.
    “A lot of the noir kind of moved over to Great Britain, and you got, um, you know, movies like Brighton, Rock”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:58:12 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  30. theme (shared theme): The Damned → Brighton Rock. British noir-adjacent films dealing with delinquency and crime in a fallen empire.
    “These are the damned, which is ostensibly a science fiction film, but deals with juvenile delinquency and chaos”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:58:12 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  31. unmapped (decade trend): The Long Goodbye → Night Moves. 70s films that take on and almost parody the tone of old noir; cynical yet strangely pie-eyed.
    “I'm fascinated by the 70s. taking on and almost almost parodying satirizing the tonality of some of these movies.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:00:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  32. craft (craft): Richard Sylbert → Chinatown. For all its darkness Chinatown is a beautifully designed film; Sylbert's production design is why it looks gorgeous.
    “Chinatown that is a very elegant, um, beautifully designed film, Richard Silbert, um, you know, did this gorgeous looking.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:00:34 · Patton Oswalt (0.80 sure it was them)
  33. theme (shared theme): Hickey & Boggs → The Nickel Ride. Little-known 70s noirs where a private eye or small-time operator hangs on by his fingernails.
    “a private detective in the 70s, was just hanging on by his fingernails.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:00:50 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  34. theme (shared theme (men out of time)): Save the Tiger → The Long Goodbye. Lemmon and Elliott Gould play men in the wrong time; Save the Tiger is basically a noir about the garment business.
    “a prestige film like Save the Tiger is basically a film noir.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:01:23 · Patton Oswalt (0.95 sure it was them)
  35. theme (shared theme (time-warped detective)): The Late Show → The Long Goodbye. A time-warped 70s detective story; The Late Show is Sam Spade with a hearing aid and a bus pass.
    “it's Sam Spade with a hearing aid and a bus pass.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:02:09 · Patton Oswalt (0.95 sure it was them)
  36. lineage (femme fatale lineage): The Last Seduction → Body Heat. 90s-era erotic-thriller noirs push the femme fatale to an extreme; Bound completes the trio.
    “Oh, yeah, with last seduction in body heat.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:02:43 · Patton Oswalt (0.75 sure it was them)
  37. unmapped (coded queerness): The Big Combo → Gilda. Both 40s/50s noirs carried gay subtext that could not be said aloud.
    “the big combo, um, Lee Van Cleef and his partner, that's a gay couple.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:03:14 · Patton Oswalt (0.95 sure it was them)
  38. lineage (adaptation censorship): Crossfire → Crossfire. The source book's gay GI became a Jewish GI in the film, and could be told differently today.
    “the book was about a gay GI, and then they changed it in the movie to a Jewish GI”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:04:17 · Patton Oswalt (0.60 sure it was them)
  39. contrast (era contrast (conspiracy vs. open corruption)): All the President's Men → Nightmare Alley. Covert conspiracy thrillers feel quaint now, so low-budget horror has taken over noir's role as commentary.
    “A movie like all the president's men feel so quaint.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:05:39 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  40. unmapped (self-aware modern noir): Under the Silver Lake → The Long Goodbye. The modern noir with a real idea about now, self-parodying like The Long Goodbye.
    “similar to that longer buy, sort of like highly self-aware, almost self-parodying aspect, but that is really, really successful.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:06:30 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  41. unmapped (critical reassessment): The Good, the Bad and the Ugly → Roger Ebert. Ebert gave it three stars as a young critic, believing something so entertaining could not be important, then reversed.
    “something this entertaining cannot be an important film.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:08:25 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)

Fun items (22)

  1. fun, about Nightmare Alley: Host watched it four times; first lukewarm, a soft-focused noir, he came around.
    “And then I watched this movie a 4th time.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:03:01 · Sean Fennessey (0.95 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Willem Dafoe: The geek monologue, how you make someone a geek, is taken from the novel and reads like a handbook for online edge-lords.
    “that's the handbook for being a shit posting edge lord”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:23:01 · Patton Oswalt (0.85 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Hellboy II: The living forest monster's death scene is one of the most beautiful things Patton has seen on screen.
    “It is a ferocious, mindless, rampaging beast that dies so beautifully that you're almost crying.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:36:30 · Patton Oswalt (0.60 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Nightmare Alley: Leonardo DiCaprio was originally supposed to star; rumored to have passed over the dark ending and irredeemable lead.
    “this was originally supposed to be Leonardo DiCaprio.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:36:51 · Sean Fennessey (0.90 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Nutty Professor II: The Klumps: Eddie Murphy should have been nominated for playing eight characters at a dinner scene, riffing on earlier takes.
    “he's riffing on them from stuff he did earlier in the week.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:39:12 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Ron Perlman: Reportedly handed Del Toro the Gresham novel in the mid-90s, so he is why the film exists.
    “So he's the reason this movie exists.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:39:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Ron Perlman: Patton spent a long night with Perlman in Vancouver; says Perlman knows he looks like a special effect.
    “He's a special effect, basically.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:40:08 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Nightmare Alley: Patton reads Carlisle's carnival origin as like Trump rallies: a traveling apparatus that sets up and leaves.
    “he was called a carnival barker many, many times during his administration and he embraced it.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:45:30 · Sean Fennessey (0.80 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Laird Cregar: Patton says Cregar dieted himself to death because he was unhappy being a character actor.
    “a guy who basically dieted himself to death because he wasn't happy being a character actor”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:51:10 · Patton Oswalt (0.85 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Charles McGraw: Patton calls McGraw the face of noir; the T-Men scene where his face comes out of the shadows on the docks.
    “Charles McGraw is the face of noir.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:51:33 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about Early noir directors: The famous single lit desk was because they had one desk and no money; impressionism by necessity.
    “Because we had one desk.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:53:00 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Crime Wave: At a screening Andre de Toth said they shot on location because as a B movie they could not use studio sets.
    “We were the bottom of the bill.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:54:27 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about Pharos of Chaos: Host recommends the documentary about Sterling Hayden's agonized life, including HUAC testimony; Patton had not seen it.
    “there's an incredible documentary about him in his life, Pharos of Chaos”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:55:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.85 sure it was them)
  14. fun, about Sterling Hayden: Patton calls him the avatar of a bad mood, always looking like he is in the worst mood.
    “He is a, he is, um, he's the avatar of of a bad mood.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:55:48 · Patton Oswalt (0.85 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about Kiss Me Deadly: Patton's favorite noir of all time.
    “Kiss Me Deadly. is is fucking incredible.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:57:58 · Patton Oswalt (0.60 sure it was them)
  16. fun, about Blast of Silence: Allen Baron filmed the hurricane finale in a real hurricane, lying in icy water.
    “that end scene in the hurricane, which was an actual pretty brutal hurricane that hit New York that he went and filmed in”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:59:07 · Patton Oswalt (0.85 sure it was them)
  17. fun, about Whisper of Panic: In Silver Screen Fiend, Patton dreamed up a month at the New Beverly of movies never made; his entry was Whisper of Panic, a hotel detective with shrapnel in his head.
    “a hotel detective with a piece of shrapnel in his head”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 0:59:40 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  18. fun, about The Nickel Ride: Host watched it for the first time two weeks earlier and loved it.
    “Just watch this for the 1st time 2 weeks ago.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:01:17 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  19. fun, about The Late Show: One of the most underrated movies of the 70s: Sam Spade with a hearing aid and a bus pass.
    “One of the most underrated movies of the 70s, fucking brilliant.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:02:04 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  20. fun, about The Big Combo: Patton reads Lee Van Cleef and his partner as a gay couple the film could not say aloud.
    “it's too gay hitmen.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:03:23 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)
  21. fun, about Under the Silver Lake: Host champions it as the modern noir worth rescuing, with a real idea about our current condition.
    “is under the Silver Lake, that that's the one that I feel like people are really trying”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:06:10 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)
  22. fun, about The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Ebert wrote that he gave it 3 stars as a young critic because entertaining could not be important, then realized making an entertaining film is hard.
    “it's actually really hard to make an entertaining film.”
    The Big Picture · ‘Nightmare Alley’ and Our Favorite Films Noir, With Patton Oswalt! · 1:08:32 · Patton Oswalt (0.90 sure it was them)

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