Freaks is a 1932 American pre-Code drama horror film produced and directed by Tod Browning, starring Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Roscoe Ates and Harry Earles.
1932 theatrical release poster
Critic Jon Towlson notes that the everyday interaction between the able-bodied and disabled circus performers serves to uphold an anti-eugenics sentiment.
Johnny Eck as Half-Boy and Angelo Rossitto as Angeleno
Freaks lobby card
Tod Browning was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of various genres between 1915 and 1939, but was primarily known for horror films, Browning was often cited in the trade press as "the Edgar Allan Poe of cinema."
Browning in 1921
Priscilla Dean, publicity still, Outside the Law (1920)
Outside the Law, lobby poster
The Unholy Three, publicity still. L to R: Ventriloquist dummy, Lon Chaney, Tod Browning.