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 riff-raff—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. The story, a reworking of 1937's Kid Galahad, is a superb example of how studio-system filmmakers kept successful plotlines rolling.

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.

Bogart's career was finally kicking into high gear as his next film—The Maltese Falcon—would make him an undisputed star, followed a year later by the immortal Casablanca.