Freaks
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Movie Reviews of Freaks
Movie Review: In the distance, isolated from the rest of the carny
Summary: 5 Stars
The treacly sugary sweet sentimental background music is
gone! It's amazing what a good film "Freaks" is without it.
The music was so cloying that if you could eat it, it would
have given you diabetes. You can hear a sample on the
prologue added when the film was tossed onto the
exploitation market. Without this to distract, Tod
Browning's film is so oddly objective. Documentary like.
Quite modern actually. As is said on the DVD extra that
includes fascinating interviews, thoughtful insights, BIOS
of the actors and the reaction to and aftermath of the film,
we see it really without shock, reality knocked that away
long ago for most of us, but with an awareness of
ourselves--how do we interpret? Do we mentally turn
away? Do we admit to being uncomfortable? Do we see
beneath the deformities to the person themselves?
We see them as freaks, then, still and all? Is that it then?
What we see and how we manage to be selfish about it?
Putting us onto the composite THEM and thus making
ourselves feel noble and non-judgmental? In a splendid
book "Carnival" by Arthur Lewis, published in the early
seventies, he writes about a season he toured with several
carnivals, seeing what it was like. He writes that with
modern medicine, and safer childbirths, better diets,
prosthetics, corrective surgery, etc., freaks are becoming
an anomaly, and are a thing of the past, and as such are
becoming nostalgia, warmly tinted.
Sometime after this movie, we were becoming aware of
what causes deformities, of the burden born by people who
have them, and the saw dust aroma and hot sweaty tent
closeness and sickly cotton candy taste of watching them
was beginning gradually to sour. Yet, as some of the
historians on the documentary say, freaks is a word that is
honest. We do find discomfort in seeing people different
from us. Look at our country and many others right now in
the broader context.
No warmly tinted nostalgia here though. It is about a
grubby life. It is about camaraderie. It is about being
different in a world of ennui, when after a time, being
different has no meaning, and perhaps one wonders why
one is being looked at all. Beauty? Sameness? Oddity? Or
one just wishes one were looked at, please. Which world
do we live in at the moment? But it's also possible,
opposite from cruelty, we are still drawn to this film, or
still see the rare side shows, because we want to see over
the next horizon, to see something so alien to us, no matter
how profoundly or superficially, as the bearded lady in the
documentary says, that it causes conflicts in us. That we
somehow want to be that, at least for a time. Because it is
new and not us.
That, juxtaposed from this, we want to see beings from
another planet, we want to look before we began, or we
want to stand and look over the rim of death, to see what if
anything is there, without having to die to do it. Or to look
toward the sky and truly find the face of God. Beauty?
Hideousness? Always difference. Always needing that next
conquest. Perhaps. If the writer Carson McCullers found
herself from an early age entranced by freak shows, and if
many of us as children in our own territories were also
attracted to them, even those of us who only bravely stood
outside the tent, looking at the horrible images on the
canvass, then is it some impulse atavistic that can come
from a better place in ourselves, and say, these people just
may have the solution we are looking for. As one of the
commentators alludes.
I do put myself on them. I hope I do not condescend. I
fear I do. I see them as movie images of people long time
gone. And if one is drawn to this film, and all of the Lon
Chaney films, especially "The Unknown" and the whole
oeuvre of Browning-Chaney work, then it might not be
morbid curiosity at all, it might be a community we are
forming, for the heart and mind are restless things; we do
not become bored as easily as we desire to be unnerved,
frighteningly excited, and yet...would we care about these
characters at all without their deformities? Do we fool
ourselves? And how about in our own real world? Walk
past. Not stare. Feel good we were so "sensitive"?
We find our better selves reflected in Wallace Ford's
character. He is the clown with the nice smile and the
friendly face who seems to have been working with freaks
forever and treats them like--surprise--real people. Would
that then disappoint us, instead as we take off our egg
shells, and find ourselves real too?, that freakishness
involves inside also, and thoughts and ideas and loves and
hopes can be so classed, then we can at least stop being
condescending to ourselves. And even learn how to do that
with others. Just thoughts. A thoughtful film. A well made
film. Something to debate. Amazing how music and lack of
music, of all types and timbres, can change the
interpretation of things.
I sure wish someone would find that excised half hour though someday
Movie Review: 1932 Soap Opera with wicked plot and unusual cast
Summary: 5 Stars
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!
Movie Review: One of Us!
Summary: 5 Stars
"Freaks" was directed by Tod Browning, who also directed "Dracula," and both of them are included on my Top 50 list. Of all the earlier movies that I have seen, this has to be the oddest, but it is brilliant in it's own way. Had this movie been made at this point in time, the freaks would have been all made with famous actors that have had computer's affecting the way they look, to make it look odd. The beauty of watching this version, which was made in 1932, was that all of the freaks were real. I don't use the term "freaks" to be mean, but I am trying to refer to the title of the movie. On the outside, these freaks are just people to make fun of, and you could laugh or be disturbed by their appearance, but they are people too, and this movie touches the emotions of them. This movie is not made great, but it is so odd, and so fun to watch that it's hard to hate it. The acting isn't so good, but it's not supposed to be. The sound could be a little shotty at time, but that grows over time. The point is, you should see this movie to experience this odd world. It's a world unlike anything we've ever seen, because this point in life you don't know what's real or not. This is the real thing. Harry Earles plays Tiny Hans, the "main character." He doesn't have a large credit list, but was in a few silent films, and his last movie was "The Wizard of Oz." If you have that, he's one of the lollipop guys, the one in blue. He's not a great actor, as this movie could prove, but he's such a likeable guy, that you have to feel sorry for him as you watch this.
Tiny Hans in one of the circus freaks. Him and Frieda, who is played by his real life sister, are in love, and Hans claims that he will never stop loving her. That is, until a grown women by the name of Cleopatra is sweet to him, but she just has her eyes set on his fortune. She has a man in her life, and he is a normal one, and his name is Hercules. Cleopatra "flirts" with Hans, and Hans flirts with Cleopatra, until they finally end up getting married. Hans is in love, but Cleopatra is greedy. After getting married, she plans on killing him, but after she and Hercules get drunk at the wedding party, they end up embarressing him. The other freaks learn what she plans to do, so they end up hatching a plan. This plan is so violent, and horrifying, that it's just so amazing to see this.
The most amazing thing about "Freaks" is the freaks themselves. The movie is kind to the freaks, and they never make fun of them. I like how they show all of these special talents that the freaks have. There is one freaks that doesn't have any arms or legs. When he walks, he has to crawl on his mid-section. There is one scene where he lights a cigarette, and it is amazing to watch. There is a man that has no legs, and he walks on his hands. The great thing is, is that he runs on his hands faster than all of the people that I know that run on their feet. There are two women that are stuck together, and when one of them kisses his boyfriend, the other one can feel it, and she smiles in pleasure. There was a women who ate with her foot, and a half women-half man. We get to see their special talents, and it is a message to the viewer that they are peopel too. The people that try to use their odd looks to hurt them. There is such a difference in all of these characters, that it's hard to understand the cruelness of man. "Freaks" is a horror movie, that was actually banned in many countries, and still in Sweden, until recently. It's so shocking because it's different. I'm sure at the time people saw this they feared these people. Half of the freaks just had odd shaped faces, and they are extremly different. This is one of my favorite movies, and I recommend you to see it just to see these talents that many people overlook just because they look a little different.
ENJOY!
Rated NR but I would actually rate it PG-13 for Strong Thematical Elements.
Movie Review: Banned in Boston, "Freaks" is Tod Browning's best film
Summary: 5 Stars
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 brother Harry as Hans (for years I thought they were really husband and wife; my mistake).
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 and was supposed to be even worse. But the scene of Hercules singing soprano in Madame Tetralini's new sideshow because he had been castrated was found to be too intense for early audiences and was cut.
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. The original short story "Spurs" by Tod Robbins had a midget falling for a bareback rider who marries him for his money and at their wedding feast puts her husband on her shoulders and boasts that she will carry him across France. With the aid of his large, angry dog he forces her to do just that. Browning's film expands the scope of the story into something more complex and much more satisfying.
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. But when "Freaks" was relased it was banned in the United Kingdom for thirty years (and is still banned in Sweden). During that period Browning was blackballed in Hollywood. He had promised MGM the ultimate scary movie and given the reaction you have to conclude that he delivered. The film was originally intended to have what we would now consider an A-List cast with Victor McLaglen as Hercules, Myrna Loy as Cleopatra, and Jean Harlow as Venus. However, all of the stars reportedly balked at the prospect being in a film with "sideshow exhibitions."
This 1932 film is clearly Browning's best film, vastly superior to the more famous "Dracula," which, after all, was basically a filmed stage play for the most part. 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 pretty good film, especially given the time at which it was made.
Movie Review: Brilliant and Daring Cinematic Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
In the early 1930s, Hollywood had discovered the monster movie and the monster movie was all the rage. Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, and many other monsters like them were huge at the box office. At the time, Tod Browning was a hugely successful silent film director who had a major film hit with DRACULA. Browning had been trying for several years to adapt a short story, Tod Robbins' "Spurs", into a feature film with Lon Chaney scheduled to appear. However, it took the success of DRACULA before Browning was finally given the go.
FREAKS was a huge success at it's initial screening in San Diego, but the movie was so unusual for its time (instead of fictional monsters the film was filled with real-life human oddities) that many found it squeamish and frightening and the studio pulled the film and had it re-edited. The movie found some critical success and was very popular in some cities, but overall the film was critically panned. Critics and many viewers found the sideshow setting of the film, with Siamese twins, armless women, pinheads, bearded ladies, dwarves, and a limbless man to be just too unnatural. It was banned in many cities across the U.S. as well as in Britain and Australia and MGM pulled the film from circulation. Fueled by a spirit of rebellion, the movie had a renaissance in the 1960s which continued for over thirty years until the film being added to the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board in 1994.
The basic plot of the film revolves around the dwarf Hans (Harry Earles) and his serious infatuation for a regular-sized female trapeze artist named Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova). Hans is engaged to a female dwarf, Frieda (Daisy Earles--Harry's sister in real life), but when Cleo joins their circus, he becomes obsessed with her beauty. Cleo encourages Hans' advances, but really just thinks of him as a toy to play with, even making fun of him with other "normal" people at the circus behind his back. Cleo's real lover is the strong man Hercules (Henry Victor), who makes his living lousing upon wealthy women. Though Cleo isn't rich, Hans treats her like a queen and when she learns that Hans has inherited a fortune she and Hercules plan a way to get all of Hans' money. She marries Hans with the intention of slowly poisoning him over time until he dies. But the "freaks" at the circus learn of Cleo and Hercules' plan and set into motion a plan of revenge of their very own.
At the time of its initial release, many people found FREAKS horrifying because of the human oddities. Some would argue that we are now too desensitized by all the graphic and horrifying things we've been exposed to over the past two generations to find the film as frightening as it once must have seen. I would like to think it's more because we've become more sensitive and compassionate about all people (of course, a movie like FREAKS would never get made today). Whatever the case, the unusual people in FREAKS aren't disturbing and shocking. With our modern lens, audiences can see beyond the "freaks" and see them as the people they really were (as they movie says, "They are all God's children) and see the movie for the excellent film it is.
The official DVD version includes an audio commentary with film historian David Skal, an almost hour-long "making-of" featurette, and alternative endings to the movie (however, the original ending of the movie that shows what happens to Hercules seems to have been lost forever). I really enjoyed all of the special features. They are filled with all kinds of information about the movie, the performers, and the history of cinema.