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Freaks

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Tod Browning's Freaks is a prime example of what films used to be and a sad reminder that they will never quite be like this again. Based on the short story 'Spurs' by Tod Robbins, the movie tells the story of a circus midget who falls in love with a beautiful, 'normal' trapeze artist. When she and her strongman lover try to poison him for his money, the 'freaks' exact their revenge on them. Browning, a former circus performer himself, treats his unusual cast of real-life circus freaks with genuine sympathy. They are the true human element of the film. In most ways this is the first truely compassionate horror film ever made. But upon it's release, censors flipped, audiences ran in horror, and the film was yanked from the screen and banned in Europe for 40 years. A shame, indeed, as the film is a true triumph for Browning. A film that makes a convincing argument about our expectations of beauty and humanity. Sure, it's creepy and frightening. But it's also very sad. It shows you that it's not what we look like that makes us human or that we don't have to be beautiful to be respected. A strange argument for a 'horror' film to make. The only downside to this long-lost and vastly underappreciated film is that the sound can sometimes be rather muffled and a few of the actors have thick accents that sometimes make understanding the dialogue a chore. But it's a minor complaint and doesn't really distract from the wonder up on the screen. If you're in the mood for something a little... uh... different... definitely check this one out. You will be thankful you did.

For years I had heard about the legendary Tod Browning film "Freaks" that so upset audiences it was banned in Boston and Great Britain. I had read the short story "Spurs" on which it was based and when the film was finally screened on campus I talked my roommate into going with me. Most of the people sitting around us knew nothing about the film and when I told them about it everybody started to get nervous. Then the film began...and we all loved it! My roommate and I both had crushes on Daisy Earles who plays Frieda in the film, opposite her husband Harry as Hans. The story is quite simple: Hans and Frieda are a pair of midgets in love, but Hans thinks that Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) the bareback rider is beautiful. Cleopatra plays with Hans' affections until she learns he has money. Over the objections of her boyfriend, Hercules (Henry Victor) the freak show strongman, she accepts Hans' proposal. During the wedding feast when the freaks accept her into their ranks, she makes it clear how much she despises them all. But when Hans starts to become ill because of the poison she is feeding him, the freaks decide it is time to take matters into their own hands. The film's climax, when the freaks chase Cleopatra and Hercules during a rainstorm, is truly chilling, although Cleopatra's final fate is as unreal as it is ironic.

All Browning really did to terrify audience was to include real freaks in his film, such as Daisy and Violet Hilton the Siamese Twins, Schlitze the Pinhead Girl, Josephine Joseph the Half-Woman/Half-Man, Johnny Eck the Half Boy, Frances O'Connor the Turtle Girl, Peter Robinson the Living Human Skeleton, Olga Roderick the Bearded Lady, Koo Koo the Bird Girl, Martha Morris the Armless Wonder, and Randion the Living Torso (who rolls his own cigarettes despite having neither arms nor legs). However, the film clearly portrays the "freaks" with dignity. As Madame Tetrallini (Rose Dione) tells someone, "These are all God's children." The true monsters in this film are the "normal" human beings, who receive their just desserts (supposedly a scene in which Hercules is castrated was cut from the film). This is Browning's best film, not "Dracula." It is not even close. You might screen this film for the first time because of its reputation, but you will watch it again because it is a good film.

The story isn't much. Beautiful woman marries a rich man for his money, all the while carrying on with another man behind his back. The rich man, of course, is the only one blind to the beautiful woman's duplicity, and when he finally finds out there's all heck to pay.
This time around, though, the woman is a towering 5'4", the man is a midget and his friends include the Human Torso, the Human Skeleton, and an assortment of microcephali (a.k.a. `pinheads'). Tod Browning's FREAKS (1932) started its career as a critical and box-office disaster, was resurrected in the 1960s and by the 1990s was added to the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board in 1994. Very few movies start out so despised and end up so revered. But then, FREAKS is like no other movie ever made.
Even today, with my senses dulled beyond repair from years of exposure to outrageous special effects and incredible cgi animation - even though I've seen this movie three or four times over the years - it still seems shocking and unsettling. The special hour long `making of' special included on the disk, featuring David Skal and a host of circus side-show historians, provides plenty of background on many of the `freaks' in the movie. Skal also provides a commentary track, in which he discusses the many hurdles FREAKS had to overcome during its troubled early history. Better yet, he provides the viewer with information on the many deleted and edited scenes.
On one level, FREAKS isn't a very good movie. Some of the acting is terribly wooden, the A-List original cast (Myrna Loy, Victor McLaglen, Jean Harlow) begged off the project and considering their replacements and the film's short running time of 62 minutes it's obvious that MGM quickly decided that this was a b-picture. On another level, because it so humanizes those we usually avoid (and thus in a sense deprive of humanity), and because it does so without resorting to optical tricks, FREAKS is a movie like no other, before or since.

The story is simple as was noted by another viewer, but this movie doesn't need anything more. It is the chance to see some of history's famous sideshow "freaks", though I would just call them physically different. Featured are the beautiful sisters who are joined at the hip ("siamese twins"); the amazing and arresting Johnny Eck--who has no legs but who gracefully runs around on his hands and is outgoing and quite handsome; the trio of "pinheads," who were displayed as "sisters" although they were boys in dresses--they were mentally disabled and not actually related; the "human torso" who had no arms or legs but was quite happy enough and could move around by inching himself along on a surface; a bearded lady, a giant, a super skinny guy, a fat lady, and "miniature" folks as well. (I may have missed a couple!) Such a group of people could never be seen today and it wasn't long after this movie was made that sideshows (specifically: showing off physically different people for a profit) were made illegal. The sad thing is these people were able to make a decent living from sideshows and the people in it were all a tight-knit family--taking away the sideshow meant the loss of any ability to make money for the majority of these folks, and it desolved the sideshow families. Most people don't realize that the majority of the stars of side shows worked there by their own CHOICE!

"Freaks" is a very special film and shows many very special people. I only hope that viewers will appreciate how unique and individually wonderful each of these people were. I don't think we will ever see such a group of people like this in one setting ever again. The director didn't make fun of any of the people and showed them for what they were: folks just like you and me, except for being physically different. (Excluding the very happy, but truthfully mentally disabled "pinheads.")

It's a great movie! END

This is a marvelous movie, but it has had a hard time really gaining true respect because it did what so few films really did - removed the safety net from viewers. In every horror film, the movie goers had that "net" of saying to themselves, no matter how horrific the film was, "this is only make-believe". One loses that in the provoking film by Tod Browning (who directed Lugosi in the original Dracula). This is really uncharted territory, (though Nightmare Alley with Tyron Power, 1947 walked into this realm very effectively), the lives of the Circus Freaks. By today's standard it's still having a hard time gaining respect in the politically correct consciousness where we would blanche at calling any human a freak.

Still, Browning's tale is haunting, mermerizing. It's a story of love, betrayal and the ultimate retribution acted out by the circus freaks themselves in an eye for an eye justice. Evil trapeze artist, Olga Baclanova deliberately sets out to seduce and marry a midget in the circus sideshow, with a wicked eye on getting his money. However, the perfectly gorgeous Olga has crossed the line with the tightly knit community of the very human and compassionate - just different - sideshow artists. These people use their "differences" to make a living in the world. They endure the harsh treatment and laughter at their expense, but they have a very supportive code amongst themselves. And for Olga to see the little man as an easy target and cause his death, it is beyond the pale to them. The sideshow people are a family, a clan, and when you do something to one of them, you do it to all of them.

Browning set out with a very provocative premise - frankly, I am still amazed after all these years the film was made - because Browning did not go for the more "acceptable" sideshow denizens, he went for the most famous of the era. It was a move that very nearly cost him his career. And that is where the viewer loses the safety net. This is real people displaying their sad and strange peculiarities. This film is disturbing on so many levels, holds up a mirror to the audiences faces, and possibly makes them face their own emotions with which we are not too comfortable. In Great Britain the film was banned for over 30 years.

The film is still potent, still brilliant, still holding up mirrors making us examine very uncomfortable prejudices and emotions. It's a masterpiece, everything Browning set out to make it realized. It's just moving, visionary, just often not an easy experience.

Tod Browning, in 1932, created a film that in its time was considered so repugnant that it was quickly taken off the screen. Great Britain banned its showing for over 30 years. In the United States, it was not shown until it became available in the 1960's. So why all the fuss?

To appreciate this film (and most films and most books too), you need to create a visual time machine and travel to the period when the film was made. In this case, in 1932, there was no television and there was no internet. There most certainly weren't reality shows or "talk shows" of the Jerry Springer ilk. In short, people who went out for entertainment, went to films, circuses, fairs, athletic events, etc. It was a time when the "televised news" came as "newsreels" shown before a feature film. Films such as "Frankenstein," "Dracula," etc. were considered truly horrifying. When, in 1927, "The Phantom of the Opera" was released in all its silent glory - at Lon Chaney's unmasking, women fainted in theaters with regularity. The world was a simpler place. Actual murders, mutilations, etc. weren't shown in video over the cinema screens as happened with the repugnant "Faces of Death" films. Jeffrey Dahmers and Ted Bundys didn't get worldwide press and have every disgusting detail of their crimes published.

For frights people went to the horror films or they went to the circus side show. That is when "Freaks" was made and this is the audience to whom the film was targeted. It is with this knowledge that one must have to watch this film.

"Freaks" is a short film, coming in at just over an hour. It would have been considered a "short" and shown on a double bill with another film.

The premise of the film is that the denizens of a circus' sideshow encounter a possible murderer in their midst and they have a suspiscion of just who it is - the non-freak Olga, the trapeze artist - who has been seducing the resident male midget (who just happens to be from quite a wealthy European family). She wants to get his money and to do so must convince him to drop the woman who truly loves him - and marry her.

The plot is thin and the acting is marginal, at best. However, what Browning was really doing was...yes, in part, exploiting the "freaks"...showcasing real circus side show freaks. You have a man born with no legs, who walks on his hands. A man born with no arms, legs, shoulders, or hips (who is showcased as he demonstrates how he lights his own cigarettes). There's the bearded lady, the pin heads, the strong man, the half man-half woman (who were in reality were hermaphrodites made up in halves for the general public, but for an extra amount would show you their privates to really demonstrate their uniqueness), and the aforementioned midgets to name a few. These people weren't actors - they were real, honest-to-God circus sideshow freaks. Each of these "characters" is given a brief showcase for their sideshow shtick, as it is worked into the story.

"Freaks" brought about a complete change in circuses throughout the United States. It became all but illegal to have freak shows as the public became repulsed by such shameful displays of unfortunate humanity. The feeling was that these people were not "freaks," and shouldn't be exploited. In reality, for the most part, these freaks had long ago realized their plight and decided to make a living from their disfigurement or deformity. Frankly, most made a darn good living from the guilt off the "normal" folks and when that livlihood was taken away from them, they became destitute (but at least the normal folks could feel good about themselves for "saving" the poor pitiable "freaks" - HA). It was one of the first of the ill-designed movements in the "politically correct" arena.

However, time has a way of addressing injustices - even those well intentioned ones. The circus "freaks" of the world spoke out and got angry with their livlihood having been taken away from them, without anyone asking them what they thought (When was the last time you heard of Barnum and Bailey's freak show? There hasn't been one in over 60 years, because of all this fuss). So, the public realized their concern was unnecessary and got off their high horse.

So, watch "Freaks" for what it is: a time capsule of a film that DOES have a very horrific scene in it (imagine yourself as a child seeing this film for the first time): the angry freaks go after the person they believe is a murderer. This takes place in the dark, during a driving rainstorm.

Rent or buy this film and enjoy it without a bit of guilt!

This movie is disturbing, surreal, and genuinely shocking at times. In places the movie seems to be following a familiar plotline, then stuns you from your lull with a shocking scene or unexpected revelation. There has been much controversy about this film due to the use of real "freaks," which has been labelled exploitation. It's shocking when you first realize you aren't looking at Hollywood special effects. But it is not just their deformities that are so hypnotic; the actor who plays Hans the dwarf's performance is bitter and chilling at times, passionate and touching at others. The menace and intensity that the freaks radiate in the final scenes is both genuine and vividly portrayed. If not for this film, we would never have seen this beautiful acting from men and women who might never have been on film otherwise. Wonderful for it's story, poignant for its acting, and frightening in its implications, "Freaks" is one of the defining movies of the horror genre.

Back in vogue after being shunned and even banned at the time of its release, Freaks is a daring look into the lives of unusual circus performers in an era 75 years lost and gone. Having been made in 1932, you won't be seeing any special effects or phenomenal feats, but what you will see is the best collection of freak show performers Hollywood could gather at the time.

The plot is fairly simple. Beautiful trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) toys with midget Hans (Harry Earles) until she discovers that Hans has a great deal of money. The gold-digging Cleopatra, together with boyfriend/strongman Hercules (Henry Victor) plots to capture Hans' little heart and steal him away from fiancé Frieda (Daisy Earles).

Cleopatra achieves her goal, capturing the sweet and gullible Hans into marriage, but at their wedding feast among the circus' more peculiar acts, Cleopatra becomes drunk and her malicious nature explodes. The freaks, alerted to Cleopatra's snaky underbelly, ally themselves with Hans who has mysteriously fallen ill.

Coming to Hans' aid, the circus freaks corner Cleopatra in her schemes, catching her red-handed with poison in her hand, and chase her out into a bitter rainstorm to her doom.

Let's face it, the real attraction to Freaks is the abnormal conformation of the human actors involved. Prince Randian, the Living Torso; Daisy and Violet Hilton, the Siamese Twins; Johnny Eck, the half-man; Frances O'Connor and Martha Morris, the armless girls; Peter Robinson, the Human Skeleton; Elvira and Jenny Lee Snow, the microcephalics, or "Pinheads"; Elizabeth Green, the Bird Girl, and of course Schlitze, the happy-go-lucky "pinhead" who lived until 80 years of age in real life.

Not being professional actors, these performances are slightly wooden, but the group works so well together that you should be able to overlook the amateur acting. For what little Browning had to work with in regards to sets, the scenery and background was carried out quite well. The photography is not top quality, even for 1932, but overall the film is more "good" than it is "bad". I feel that it is an important film, especially to anyone who enjoys modern day horror. Freaks, after all, was the birth of abnormality in horror, bringing in the human condition rather than werewolves and vampires.

Once you have watched the movie, turn to the Special Features. I do not usually tout special features on DVD's, but the ones with Freaks are must see.

First is the Special Message Prologue, that should have played before the movie also. Next, the movie with commentary by author David Skal. Third is the best feature, called Freaks: The Sideshow Cinema. This is an interview type commentary with author David Skal, Sideshow Performer/Historian/Author Todd Robbins, Sideshow Performer/Historian Johnny Meah, Actor and Little Person Mark Povinelli, and Actor and Little Person Jerry Maren. This special feature is as entertaining as the movie itself, and is a "not to be missed" feature. It includes segments revealing the private lives of some of the sideshow actors involved in the film.

As a side note, during one of the still shots, take a look at the size of that 1930's movie camera. It's the size of a compact car...almost!

Freaks is a DVD that every horror aficionado should own, and watch more than once. The subtleties of horror are all there in their embryonic stages, made available by presenting real flesh rather than skin bondo. And yet, these people were portrayed as happy individuals, living a communal lifestyle inside the warm comfort of each other. A real community, not remotely like Hillary Clinton's "grasping at election straws" communities.

Lots to study in this piece, but lots to enjoy also. Pop some old fashioned popcorn in oil on your gas stove, get yourself a coke and put some maraschino cherries in it, then sit back and enjoy this long lost treasure. Enjoy!

I remember first watching this movie in High School English class. As expected, many of my classmates were repulsed by it and left that class with a grimaced look on their faces. And I'm sure this reaction is common for many people who see "Freaks" for the first time. But if one puts all prejudices aside and looks at the movie objectively, they will see this film for the great achievement it really is.

"Freaks" is about a group of circus sideshow performers, all of whom are aberrations of some sort. We have the human torso, siamese twins, 2 microcephalics, etc. What they all have in common (besides their oddities) is a life of abuse and exploitation from their owners. Deciding to band together as a unit, they set out to get retribution and some respect. And the final scene is truly unforgettable in its own surreal and tragic way. You will ask yourself, who are the REAL freaks?

As I said, this movie is not for everyone, but not only for the obvious reason. It forces us to look at ourselves and see our own flaws and admit that we have all rejected (and perhaps been on the receiving end of rejection) before. I doubt the movie's message is as cliche and corny as "love thy neighbor and each other," but it's something along those lines. Perhaps the true message is that when people step on those who are different, they're only projecting their own insecurities and fears. But whatever message this movie has, it's a brilliant work of art that pushes the envelope and deals with a subject that few are comfortable looking at head-on. For that reason alone it should be seen at least once, and hopefully purchased.

Finally, it's great that Warner Brothers has released this gem on DVD. I'm very impressed with the sound and audio quality. Bonus material is quite substantial considering how old this movie is. Among the features is an informative commentary by David Skal and 3 alternate endings. These other endings aren't as effective as the original IMO but are still interesting to see for novelty's sake. The only minor complaint I have is the absence of a chapter search card inside the DVD case, or at least some kind of booklet. I don't know, it makes the overall DVD presentation seem incomplete. But other than that it's a superb DVD. Give this movie a chance. Once the shock value wears off you'll appreciate its true meaning.

Freaks will always be a unique film. The film is a mix of a fictional story brought to life with real life oddities. The story takes place with a traveling Circus. The Circus people are very much their own community. The "Freaks" of the circus stand out even from the other circus folk. They are still made fun of and lied to. Olga Baclanova plays Cleopatra, an evil trapeze artist. She takes advantage of a midget named Hans, stealing him away from his fiancé and taking his money. Unfortunately she did not consider the loyalty and capabilities of these abnormal people. She and her lover pay a great price for there ignorance. The "Freaks" of the circus eventually live happy and Cleopatra the fate of those she tormented. The Director Tod Browning has brought some the most famous sideshow attractions of that time, including Frances O'Connor (armless girl), Peter Robinson (human skeleton), Daisy and Violet Hilton (siamese twins), and Johnny Eck (boy with no legs), to name only a view. He brings this incredible cast of real-life sideshow freaks for this bizarre and fascinating film. The epilogue was clearly added to the film after its creation by its conflicting words. It made points that were later proven false by the story. It said that the oddities longed to become beautiful but this was never promoted in the film. The story was well based but not acted well, possibly due to the fact most of the cast where not professional film actors. The scenes were often over acted most of the time with more then enough enthusiasm from the characters. The visual scenes themselves where quite pleasing. The sets did a good job of bring out the conditions that the circus people lived in. There was also little make-up and special effects needed to show the audience how real these people are with their genuine flaws. Overall it is a movie that must be scene at least once. It brought to film the lives of the deformed and unwanted for the first time. It has a good point of not taking advantage of those that can not help who they are and the consequences you mite face.