The Wagons Roll At Night

The tents are leaky. The troupers are weary. The carnival limps into town and sets up for another show. To the public, the carnival means exciting performers. To Nick Coster, those performers are "mugs and grifters and riffraff -- all under one tent." Nick should know. He puts the show together. Humphrey Bogart plays Nick, bringing crisp authority to a movie whose midway atmosphere is so alive you can almost taste the caramel corn. Sylvia Sidney, Eddie Albert and Joan Leslie join Bogart in this tale centered on Nick and an up-and-coming lion tamer (Albert) he discovers. The story, a reworking of 1937's Kid Galahad, is a superb example of how studio-system filmmakers kept successful plotlines rolling. Bogart's career was finally rolling, too. His next film would make him an undisputed star. The title: The Maltese Falcon.