Tod Browning dares to answer the
question: Can a full grown woman truly love a MIDGET ?
by portraying the story of the love life of the sideshow in FREAKS. A truly
bizzare film made in 1932 and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (also known
as MGM). The films is in black and white (the video box has been colorized)
running time is approximately 65 minutes and it is unrated (well it is from
1932 what did you expect).
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Among classic horror films, FREAKS
stands alone as one of the most grotesque and the most controversial. Rarely
seen since its 1932 release, and banned in Britain for thirty years, it has
achieved cult status as the masterpiece of the macabre.
The film features a cast of actual sideshow freaks, human-beings of every conceivable physical aberration. yet the film soon reveals that the normal members of the traveling carnival are the true monsters; pitiless, conniving and murderous! When one beautiful trapeze artist discovers one of the freaks has a small fortune, she lures him into marriage. But when she and her strongman lover plot to kill him after the wedding, the enraged freaks defend their friend and take revenge on their betrayers, transforming the aerialist into the most hideous side-show attractions of all.
From the acclaimed director of the original DRACULA, Tod Browning, FREAKS is a fascinating drama of prejudice and injustice with a provactive and timeless moral. ~ from the back of the video box
Directed/Produced by Tod Browning
Cast
Wallace Ford .... Phroso
Leila Hyams .... Venus
Olga
Baclanova .... Cleopatra
Roscoe Ates .... Roscoe
Henry Victor .... Hercules
Harry Earles .... Hans
Daisy Earles .... Frieda
Rose Dione .... Madame Tetrallini
Daisy Hilton .... Daisy a Siamese
Twin
Violet Hilton .... Violet a Siamese Twin
Schlitze .... Herself (Pinhead Girl)
Josephine Joseph .... Half-Woman, Half Man
Johnny Eck .... Johnny the Half Boy
Frances O'Connor (I) .... Frances the Turtle Girl
Peter Robinson (I) .... Living Human Skeleton
Olga Roderick .... Bearded Lady
Koo Koo .... Bird Girl
Randion .... The Living Torso
Martha Morris .... Armless Wonder
Elvira Snow .... Zip the Pinhead (as Zip)
Jenny Lee Snow .... Pip the Pinhead (as Pip)
Elizabeth Green (I) .... Bird Girl
Angelo Rossitto .... Angeleno
Edward Brophy .... Rollo Brother
Matt McHugh .... Rollo Brother
Also Known As: Forbidden Love, The Monster Show, Nature's Mistakes, Barnum.
Story
was suggested by Tod Robbins' story SPURS.
Screenplay written by Willis Goldbeck and Leon Gordon
The Strangest... The Most Startling
Human Story Ever Screened...
Are You Afraid To Believe What Your Eyes See?
"We'll Make Her One of Us!" from
the gibbering mouths of these weird creatures
came this frenzied cry... no wonder she cringed in horror... this beautiful
woman who dared toy with the love of one of them!
From
Amazon.com ~ Tod Browning, who directed Bela Lugosi in the original
Dracula, stepped into even eerier territory with this 1932 story of betrayal
and retribution in the circus. Evil trapeze artist Olga Baclanova seduces and
marries a midget in the circus sideshow, hoping to inherit his wealth. But in
doing so, she has crossed the wrong folks: the tightly knit group of nature's
aberrations, who stick together like family--and who set out to avenge their
little pal. Browning brought in some of the most famous sideshow attractions
of the era, include Siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton and Johnny Eck the
Legless Boy, as well as Zip and Pip, microcephalics whose appearance in this
film inspired cartoonist Bill Griffith to create his comic strip, "Zippy the
Pinhead." So disturbing that it was banned for 30 years in Great Britain.
--Marshall Fine
From Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide ~ A unique movie about a traveling sideshow and the camaraderie of its unusual performers, goaded to vengeance by cruel trapeze star Baclanova. Horror-film master Tod Browning gathered an incredible cast of real-life sideshow freaks for this bizarre and fascinating film. Severely cut in U. S. during release and banned in the U. K. for 30 years, some reissue prints are missing brief epilogue; aka NATURE'S MISTAKES.
The video is available in VHS format and has been digitally remastered for stereo.
The film poster seen above is available through Allposters.com
Some related books include:
Freaks : We Who Are Not As Others
Freak Show : Presenting Human Oddities...
Freakery : Cultural Spectacles of the...
Weird & Wonderful : The Dime Museum in...
The End.
Tod Browning has also directed the following movies:
Devil
Doll (1936) Starring: Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan Director: Tod
Browning *
Mark
of the Vampire (1935) Starring: Lionel Barrymore, Bela Lugosi Director:
Tod Browning *
Freaks
(1932) Starring: Wallace Ford, Olga Baclanova Director: Tod Browning *
Dracula
(1931) Starring: Bela Lugosi, Helen Chandler Director: Tod Browning *
The Unknown (1927) Starring: Lon Chaney Sr., Norman Kerry Director: Tod Browning
The Unholy Three (1925) Starring: Lon Chaney Sr., Mae Busch Director: Tod Browning
Outside the Law (1920) Starring: Lon Chaney Sr., Priscilla Dean Director: Tod
Browning
* Available on VHS or DVD
For more weirdness check The Back Door to the Morgue (It Is Always Open)