Freaks 73494 224618156 2008-07-09T18:00:52Z 132.177.117.100 Disguised 'in popular culture' section... with only one entry. Irrelevant. {{otheruses|Freak (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox Film | name = Freaks | image = FreaksPoster.jpg | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = [[Tod Browning]] | producer = [[Tod Browning]] | writer = [[Tod Robbins]] | starring = [[Wallace Ford]]<br>[[Leila Hyams]]<br>[[Olga Baclanova]] | music = | cinematography = [[Merritt B. Gerstad]] | editing = Basil Wrangell | distributor = [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] | released = [[February 20]], [[1932 in film|1932]] | runtime = 64 min. | country = {{flagicon|USA}} [[United States]] | language = [[English language|English]]<br>[[German language|German]] | budget = $310,607 (estimated) | gross = | amg_id = 1:18519 | imdb_id = 0022913 }} '''''Freaks''''' is a [[1932 in film|1932]] [[horror film]] about [[sideshow]] performers, directed and produced by [[Tod Browning]]. This film was based on [[Tod Robbins]]' short story ''[[Spurs (short story)|Spurs]]''. Director Tod Browning took the exceptional step of casting real people with deformities as the eponymous sideshow "freaks," rather than using costumes and makeup. Browning had been a member of a traveling [[circus]] in his early years, and much of the film was drawn from his personal experiences. He intended to portray the classic [[moral]] of how outer beauty does not necessarily equate to [[inner beauty]]. In the film, the physically deformed "freaks" are inherently trusting and honorable people, while the real monsters are two of the "normal" members of the circus who conspire to murder one of the performers to obtain his large inheritance. Reaction to the film was so intense that the studio was forced to cut it from a length of approximately ninety minutes to just over an hour.<ref>[http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=460&mainArticleId=183490 ''Freaks'' at Turner Classic Movies, by Jeff Stafford]</ref> Today, the parts that were removed from it are considered [[lost film|lost]]. Browning, famed at the time for his collaborations with [[Lon Chaney, Sr.|Lon Chaney]] and for directing [[Bela Lugosi]] in ''[[Dracula (1931 film)|Dracula]]'' ([[1931 in film|1931]]) had trouble finding work afterwards, and this in effect brought his career to an early close. Because its deformed cast was shocking to moviegoers of the time, the film was banned in the [[United Kingdom]] for thirty years. Beginning in the early 1960s, ''Freaks'' was rediscovered as a [[counterculture]] [[cult film]]; throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the film was regularly shown at [[midnight movie]] screenings at several movie theaters in the United States.<ref>{{cite web | last = Patterson | first = John | title = "The weirdo element" | publisher = ''[[The Guardian]]'' | date = 2007-03-02 | url = http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2024235,00.html | accessdate = 2008-03-05 }} </ref> In [[1994]], ''Freaks'' was selected for preservation in the [[United States]] [[National Film Registry]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It was ranked 15th on [[Bravo (television network)|Bravo TV]]'s list of the [[100 Scariest Movie Moments]]. ==Plot== The central story is of a self-serving [[trapeze]] artist named Cleopatra ([[Olga Baclanova]]) who seduces and eventually marries a [[sideshow]] [[midget]], Hans ([[The Doll Family|Harry Earles]]), after learning of his large inheritance. At their wedding reception, the other "freaks" resolve that they will accept Cleopatra in spite of her being a "normal" outsider, and hold an initiation ceremony, wherein they pass a massive [[goblet]] of [[wine]] around the table while chanting, "We accept her! We accept her! One of us! One of us! Gooble gobble, gooble gobble! One of us! One of us!" The ceremony frightens the drunken Cleopatra, who accidentally reveals that she has been having an affair with Hercules ([[Henry Victor]]), the strong man; she mocks the freaks, tosses the wine in their faces and drives them away. Despite being humiliated, Hans remains with Cleopatra. Shortly thereafter, Hans is taken ill (presumably from having too much to drink at the wedding feast, but actually from poison that Cleopatra slipped him) and Cleopatra begins slipping [[poison]] into Hans' medicine to kill him so that she can inherit his money and run away with Hercules. One of the circus performers overhears Cleopatra talking to Hercules about the murder plot, and tells the other freaks and Hans; in the film's climax, the freaks attack Cleopatra and Hercules with guns, knives, and various edged weapons, hideously mutilating them. Though Hercules is never seen again, the original ending of the film had the freaks [[castration|castrating]] him - the audience sees him later singing in falsetto. The film concludes with a revelation of Cleopatra's fate: her tongue cut out, one eye gouged and legs hacked off, she has been reduced to performing in a sideshow as the imbecile squawking "human chicken". Spliced throughout the main narrative are a variety of "slice of life" segments detailing the lives of the [[sideshow]] performers. The vignettes, while not advancing the main narrative, drive home the point that the physically malformed freaks are just as human as the other "normal" performers: * The [[bearded woman]], who loves the human skeleton, gives birth to their daughter. * Violet, a [[conjoined twin]] whose sister Daisy is married to one of the circus clowns, herself becomes engaged to the owner of the circus. (Once, Daisy appears to react with romantic arousal when Violet is kissed by her suitor, implying that each sister can experience the other's physical sensations.) * The Human Torso, played by [[Prince Randian]], in the middle of a conversation, takes his own [[cigarette]] and lights it, using only his tongue. (In the original scene, he also rolls the cigarette, but the sequence does not appear in any commercial release.) ==Cast== *[[Wallace Ford]] - Phroso *[[Leila Hyams]] - Venus *[[Olga Baclanova]] - Cleopatra *[[Henry Victor]] - Hercules *[[Harry Earles]] - Hans *[[Daisy Earles]] - Frieda Among the characters featured as "freaks" were Peter Robinson ("the living skeleton"); [[Jane Barnell|Olga Roderick]] ("the [[bearded lady]]"); [[Frances O'Connor (performer)|Frances O'Connor]] and Martha Morris ("[[armless wonder]]s"); and the [[conjoined twins]] [[Daisy and Violet Hilton]]. Among the [[microcephaly|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]]. Also featured were the [[intersexual]] [[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 mis-credited as "Rardion"); [[Elizabeth Green the Stork Woman]]; and [[Koo-Koo the Bird Girl]], who suffered from [[Virchow-Seckel syndrome]] or bird-headed dwarfism, and is most remembered for the scene where she dances on the table). ==Production== MGM had purchased the rights to Robbins' short story ''Spurs'' in the 1920s at Browning's urging. In June 1932, MGM production supervisor [[Irving Thalberg]] offered Browning the opportunity to direct ''[[Arsène Lupin]]'' with [[John Barrymore]]. Browning declined, preferring to develop ''Freaks'', a process 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 Allen 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 midget and average sized person and the wedding feast. [[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. ''Freaks'' began filming 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]]), 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 lay under a tree was removed, as were a number of comedy sequences and most of the film's original epilogue. A new prologue featuring a [[Barker (occupation)|carnival barker]] was added, as was the new epilogue featuring the reconciliation of the tiny lovers. This shortened version had its premiere at the [[Fox Criterion]] in [[Los Angeles]] on February 10.<ref>{{cite news | last = Skal | first = David J. | coauthors = Elias Savada | title = Offend One And You Offend Them All: The Making of Tod Browning's ''Freaks'' | work = Filmfax | pages = | language = | publisher = | date = September/October 1995 | url = | accessdate = }}</ref> ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== * {{imdb title|id=0022913|title=Freaks}} * {{amg title|id=1:18519|title=Freaks}} {{Tod Browning}} [[Category:1932 films]] [[Category:1930s horror films]] [[Category:American films]] [[Category:English-language films]] [[Category:Black and white films]] [[Category:Films based on short fiction]] [[Category:Films directed by Tod Browning]] [[Category:Films made before the MPAA Production Code]] [[Category:MGM films]] [[Category:Thriller films]] [[Category:United States National Film Registry films]] [[Category:Circus films]] [[da:Freaks]] [[de:Freaks]] [[es:Freaks]] [[eo:Monstroj (filmo)]] [[fr:Freaks, la monstrueuse parade]] [[it:Freaks (film)]] [[lb:Freaks]] [[nl:Freaks]] [[ja:フリークス (映画)]] [[pl:Dziwolągi]] [[ru:Уродцы (фильм)]] [[sv:Freaks]]