Freaks (1932 film)

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Freaks
FreaksPoster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTod Browning
Produced byTod Browning
Harry Rapf (uncredited)
Irving Thalberg (uncredited)
Screenplay byWillis Goldbeck
Leon Gordon
Based on"Spurs"
1923 short story
by Tod Robbins
StarringWallace Ford
Leila Hyams
Olga Baclanova
Roscoe Ates
CinematographyMerritt B. Gerstad
Edited byBasil Wrangell
Production
company
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • February 20, 1932 (1932-02-20)
Running time
90 minutes (Original cut)
64 minutes[1] (Edited cut)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
German
French
Budget$316,000[2] or $350,000[3]
Colorized publicity shot featuring Wallace Ford and Leila Hyams.

Freaks is a 1932 American pre-Code horror film produced and directed by Tod Browning. The original version of the film, running 90 minutes, was considered too shocking to be released, so several scenes were cut, resulting in an abridged runtime of 64 minutes; the original version no longer exists.

The film is based on elements from the short story "Spurs" by Tod Robbins; the eponymous characters were played by people who worked as carnival sideshow performers and had real deformities. The film stars Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova and Roscoe Ates. Among the deformed cast were dwarf siblings Harry and Daisy Earles, Johnny Eck who had sacral agenenis, the conjoined twin sisters Daisy and Violet Hilton, and Schlitzie.

Freaks has been described as standing alone in a subgenre of one.[4][5]

Plot[edit]

The film opens with a sideshow barker drawing customers to visit the sideshow. A woman looks into a box to view a hidden occupant and screams; the barker explains that the horror in the box was once a beautiful and talented trapeze artist. The central story is of this conniving trapeze artist named Cleopatra, who seduces and marries the sideshow midget Hans after learning of his large inheritance. Cleopatra conspires with circus strongman Hercules to kill Hans and inherit his wealth. At their wedding reception, Cleopatra begins poisoning Hans' wine but drunkenly kisses Hercules in front of Hans, revealing her affair. Oblivious, the other "freaks" announce that they accept Cleopatra in spite of her being a "normal" outsider: they hold an initiation ceremony in which they pass a loving cup around the table while chanting, "We accept her, we accept her. One of us, one of us. Gooba-gobble, gooba-gobble". Cleopatra's mean-spirited amusement at this ceremony turns to fear and anger after Hercules jokes that the freaks plan to turn her into one of them, she mocks the freaks, tosses the wine in their faces and drives them away before berating Hans and drunkenly parading him around on her shoulders like a child. The humiliated Hans realizes that he has been played for a fool and rejects Cleopatra's attempts to apologize, but then he falls ill from the poison.

While bedridden, Hans pretends to apologize to Cleopatra and also pretends to take the poisoned medicine that she is giving him, but he secretly plots with the other freaks to strike back at Cleopatra and Hercules. In the film's climax, Hans confronts Cleopatra with three of his freaks as backup thugs; however Hans' circus wagon is overturned in a storm, giving Cleopatra the chance to escape into the forest, closely pursued by the freaks. At the same time Hercules goes to kill seal trainer Venus for knowing about the plot. Venus's boyfriend, Phroso, attempts to stop Hercules but is nearly killed before the freaks intervene and injure Hercules, saving Phroso; the freaks pursue an injured Hercules, who is not seen again (the film's original ending had the freaks castrating him: the audience see him later singing in falsetto). As for Cleopatra, she has become a grotesque, squawking "human duck"; the flesh of her hands has been melted and deformed to look like duck feet, her legs have been cut off and what is left of her torso has been permanently tarred and feathered. She is the opening scene's cause for alarm.

In a final scene MGM inserted later for a happier ending, Hans is living a millionaire's life in a mansion. Venus and Phroso visit, bringing Frieda, to whom Hans had been engaged before meeting Cleopatra. Hans refuses to see them, but they force their way past his servant. Frieda assures Hans that she knows he tried to stop the others from exacting revenge. Phroso and Venus leave as Frieda comforts Hans when he starts to cry.

Johnny Eck as Half-Boy and Angelo Rossitto as Angeleno

Subplots[edit]

Interspersed between segments of the main narrative is a variety of "slice of life" segments detailing the romance between Venus and Phroso, as well as the lives of the sideshow performers, including:

  • The Bearded Lady, who loves the Human Skeleton, gives birth to their daughter. The news is spread among the freak friends by the Stork Woman.
  • Violet, a conjoined twin whose sister Daisy is married to Roscoe, the stuttering circus clown, becomes engaged to the circus's owner. The sisters appear able to experience each other's physical sensations: Daisy appears to react with romantic arousal when Violet's fiancé kisses her, and a closed-eyed Violet knows when Daisy's shoulder has been pinched; the sisters were played by the real-life conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. Violet often clashes with Roscoe throughout the film, but they set aside their dislike for each other when one of the circus member's life is in danger.
  • Frances O'Connor, the armless wonder, demonstrates how she performs everyday activities using feet instead of arms.

Cast[edit]

Leila Hyams plays Venus in Freaks

Production[edit]

Crew and original casting[edit]

Promotional poster

MGM had purchased the rights to Robbins' short story "Spurs" in the 1920s at Browning's urging. In June 1931, MGM production supervisor Irving Thalberg offered Browning the opportunity to direct Arsène Lupin with John Barrymore. Browning declined, preferring to develop Freaks, a project he had started as early as 1927. Screenwriters Willis Goldbeck and Elliott Clawson were assigned to the project at Browning's request. Leon Gordon, Edgar Allan Woolf, Al Boasberg and an uncredited Charles MacArthur would also contribute to the script; the script was shaped over five months. Little of the original story was retained beyond the marriage between a midget and an average-sized woman and their wedding feast. Victor McLaglen was considered for the role of Hercules, while Myrna Loy was initially slated to star as Cleopatra, with Jean Harlow as Venus. Ultimately, Thalberg decided not to cast any major stars in the picture.[citation needed]

Sideshow cast[edit]

Among the characters featured as "freaks" were Peter Robinson ("The Human Skeleton"); Olga Roderick ("The Bearded Lady"); Frances O'Connor and Martha Morris ("armless wonders"); and the conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. Among the microcephalics who appear in the film (and are referred to as "pinheads") were Zip and Pip (Elvira and Jenny Lee Snow) and Schlitzie, a male named Simon Metz who wore a dress, mainly due to incontinence, it has been claimed, though this is disputed; also featured were the intersex Josephine Joseph, with her left-right divided gender; Johnny Eck, the legless man; the completely limbless Prince Randian (also known as The Human Torso and miscredited as "Rardion"); Elizabeth Green the Stork Woman; and Koo-Koo the Bird Girl, who had Virchow-Seckel syndrome or bird-headed dwarfism and is most remembered for the scene wherein she dances on the table.[citation needed]

Filming and controversies[edit]

Freaks began principal photography in October 1931 and was completed in December. Following disastrous test screenings in January 1932 (one woman threatened to sue MGM, claiming the film had caused her to suffer a miscarriage),[6] the studio cut the picture down from its original 90-minute running time to just over an hour. Much of the sequence of the freaks attacking Cleopatra as she lies under a tree was removed, as well as a gruesome sequence showing Hercules being castrated, a number of comedy sequences, and most of the film's original epilogue. A new prologue featuring a carnival barker was added, as was the new epilogue featuring the reconciliation of the tiny lovers; this shortened version—now only 64 minutes long—had its premiere at the Fox Criterion in Los Angeles on February 20, 1932.[7]

Reception[edit]

Despite the extensive cuts, the film was still negatively received by audiences, recording a loss of $164,000,[2] and remained an object of extreme controversy.[8] Today, the scenes that were removed are considered lost. Browning, famed at the time for his collaborations with Lon Chaney and for directing Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931), had trouble finding work afterward and this effectively brought his career to an early close. Freaks became the only MGM film ever to be pulled from release before completing its domestic engagements;[9] because the film was thought to be overly exploitative, it was banned in the United Kingdom for 30 years.[10]

Freaks lobby card

A number of contemporary reviews were not only highly critical of the film, but expressed outrage and revulsion. Harrison's Reports wrote that "Any one who considers this entertainment should be placed in the pathological ward in some hospital."[11] In The Kansas City Star, John C. Moffitt wrote, "There is no excuse for this picture, it took a weak mind to produce it and it takes a strong stomach to look at it."[12] The Hollywood Reporter called it an "outrageous onslaught upon the feelings, the senses, the brains and the stomachs of an audience."[11]

Variety also published a negative review, writing that the film was "sumptuously produced, admirably directed, and no cost was spared, but Metro heads failed to realize that even with a different sort of offering the story is still important. Here the story is not sufficiently strong to get and hold the interest, partly because interest cannot easily be gained for too fantastic a romance." The review went on to state that the story "does not thrill and at the same time does not please, since it is impossible for the normal man or woman to sympathize with the aspiring midget. And only in such a case will the story appeal."[13]

Not all reviews were as harsh. The New York Times called it "excellent at times and horrible, in the strict meaning of the word, at others" as well as "a picture not to be easily forgotten."[14] The New York Herald Tribune wrote that it was "obviously an unhealthy and generally disagreeable work," but that "in some strange way, the picture is not only exciting, but even occasionally touching."[12]

John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote a positive review, calling it "a little gem" that "stands in a class by itself, and probably won't be forgotten in a hurry by those who see it." He found its "perfectly plausible story" a key to the effectiveness of its horror, writing that "It's a chilling notion to imagine these weird beings, with their own lives and vanities and passions, all allied in a bitter enmity against us." Addressing the controversial subject matter, Mosher stated: "if the poor things themselves can be displayed in the basement of Madison Square Garden, pictures of them might as well be shown in the Rialto. They may hereafter even be regarded in the flesh with a new dread bordering on respect."[15]

Later years[edit]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Freaks holds an approval rating of 94%, based on 53 reviews, and an average rating of 8.5/10. It's consensus reads, " "Time has been kind to this horror legend: Freaks manages to frighten, shock, and even touch viewers in ways that contemporary viewers missed."[16]

Beginning in the early 1960s, Freaks was rediscovered as a counterculture cult film and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the film was regularly shown at midnight movie screenings at several theaters in the United States.[17] In 1994, Freaks was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, which preserves "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" films;[18][19] the freaks' climactic revenge was ranked 15th on Bravo TV's list of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments.[20] It is listed in the film reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, which says "No mere plot summary can do justice to this alarming yet profound movie, which truly must be seen to be believed, it is a supreme oddity (freak?) of world cinema considered by many to be the most remarkable film in the career of a director whose credits include the original version of Dracula (1931)."[21]

Legacy[edit]

In 1947 MGM sold the rights to the film to Dwain Esper for $50,000;[3] the film, especially the famous chant, "We accept her, one of us," is referenced in many works, including:

References[edit]

  1. ^ "FREAKS (12)". British Board of Film Classification. August 13, 2001. Retrieved July 19, 2013.
  2. ^ a b Scott Eyman, Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer, Robson, 2005 p 152
  3. ^ a b https://archive.org/stream/variety168-1947-10#page/n4/mode/1up
  4. ^ "Freaks". The New York Times. 1932.
  5. ^ Mark Chalon Smith (October 30, 1995). "Grotesquerie Is Merely a Sideshow in 'Freaks'". The Los Angeles Times.
  6. ^ Don Sumner. "Horror Movie Freak". Google Books.
  7. ^ Skal, David J.; Elias Savada (September – October 1995). "Offend One And You Offend Them All: The Making of Tod Browning's Freaks". Filmfax. pp. 42–9, 78–9.
  8. ^ Jeff Stafford. "Freaks". TCM.
  9. ^ Vieira, Mark A. (2003). Hollywood Horror: From Gothic to Cosmic. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. p. 49. ISBN 0-8109-4535-5.
  10. ^ Case Study: Freaks, Students' British Board of Film Classification page
  11. ^ a b Smith, Angela M. (2011). Hideous Progeny: Disability, Eugenics, and Classic Horror Cinema. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-0-231-15717-9.
  12. ^ a b Miller, Frank. "The Critic's Corner - Freaks". TCM.com. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
  13. ^ "Film Reviews". Variety. New York: Variety, Inc.: 16 July 12, 1932.
  14. ^ "Freaks". The New York Times; the New York Times Company. July 9, 1932. Retrieved June 21, 2015.
  15. ^ Mosher, John C. (July 16, 1932). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. New York: F-R Publishing Corporation: 45–46.
  16. ^ "Possum (2018) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Flixter. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
  17. ^ Patterson, John (March 2, 2007). "The weirdo element". The Guardian. Retrieved March 5, 2008.
  18. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing - National Film Preservation Board". The Library of Congress. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  19. ^ "Mission - National Film Preservation Board". The Library of Congress. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  20. ^ "100 Scariest Movie Moments (Series) - TV Tropes". tvtropes.org. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  21. ^ Scheider 2013.
  22. ^ True, Everett (2005). Hey Ho Let's Go: The Story of the Ramones. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-84449-413-2.
  23. ^ Wolf, Mary Montgomery (2007). "We Accept You, One of Us?": Punk Rock, Community, and Individualism in an Uncertain Era, 1974--1985. ProQuest. ISBN 978-0-549-32581-9.
  24. ^ Jean, Al (2001). The Simpsons season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "There's No Disgrace Like Home" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  25. ^ The Complete Guide to South Park Movie Parodies and References, Dennis Publishing
  26. ^ "The dreamers One of us.avi". Youtube.
  27. ^ The Vulgar Genius of The Wolf of Wall Street, The Atlantic
  28. ^ "The Oddities' Entrance Video". WWE.com. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  29. ^ Verbatim" September 15, 2016
  30. ^ "Schlitzie: One of Us". Denver Films Society. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  31. ^ "Ryan Murphy on 'Freak Show': 'This season, once you die, you're dead'". EW.com. Retrieved August 12, 2018.

Bibliography[edit]

  • * Scheider, Steven Jay (2013). 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Murdoch Books Pty Limited. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-7641-6613-6.

External links[edit]

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