Algren had his last mainstream success with the novel "A Walk on the Wild Side" (1956). He reworked some of the material from his first novel, "Somebody in Boots", as well as picking up elements from several published short stories, such as his 1947 "The Face on the Barroom Floor". The novel was about a wandering Texan adrift during the early years of the Great Depression. He said it was superior to the earlier book. It was adapted as the 1962 movie of the same name. Some critics thought the film bowdlerized the book, and it was not commercially successful.