Double Freaks
February 14, 2022 9:11 PM Subscribe
Tod Browning's 1932 cinematic masterpiece Freaks (video: Part 1 - Part 2) tells the story of a close-knit group of circus sideshow workers who are wronged and take revenge. The film's use of real-life freaks so disturbed audiences that some ran screaming from theaters, distributors refused to handle the film, and it was banned in Britain for over 30 years.
Audience feedback at preview screenings and changes demanded by censors meant that 30 minutes of "repulsive elements" in the original cut were removed or replaced. A lengthy text prologue warning moviegoers about the forthcoming "startling horror story of the ABNORMAL and THE UNWANTED" was hastily added and at least three different endings were tried, none completely satisfactory. Even with these changes, all designed to minimize the grotesque and disturbing impact of the film, audiences of the day did not accept it. MGM finally withdrew it at a loss of some $164,000.
Today, critics are more likely to praise the audacious aesthetic and philosophical lengths to which Browning goes to challenge the way we define beauty and abnormality or even parse it as a distorted symbol of the capitalist Hollywood studio system Browning worked under.
Freaks was (loosely) based on the short story Spurs by Tod Robbins.
Full movie: Daily Motion (part 1 - part 2 - highest quality free version I found as of 2022) - Archive.org (incl post-1932 text prologue) - Rent on Vudu - Rent/Buy on Amazon - View w/HBOMax subscription - Buy/rent on Youtube
Notable excerpts: Trailer - Prince Randian lights a cigarette with his lips - dancing in the forest - Schlitzie - wedding banquet - one of us - chase scene
Miscellaneous: Analysis - documents and photos - review1 (The Missing Link) - review2 (Horror Talk) - Johnny Eck (Phreeque/Tripod) - Schlitzie (Human Marvels) - IMDB - posters (Quasi-Modo.net) - Zippy the Pinhead connection (Bill Griffith talk @ 2003 UF Comics Conference) - previously (Sideshow Freaks - Oct 2005 post by mischief)
2022 Updates:
Audience feedback at preview screenings and changes demanded by censors meant that 30 minutes of "repulsive elements" in the original cut were removed or replaced. A lengthy text prologue warning moviegoers about the forthcoming "startling horror story of the ABNORMAL and THE UNWANTED" was hastily added and at least three different endings were tried, none completely satisfactory. Even with these changes, all designed to minimize the grotesque and disturbing impact of the film, audiences of the day did not accept it. MGM finally withdrew it at a loss of some $164,000.
Today, critics are more likely to praise the audacious aesthetic and philosophical lengths to which Browning goes to challenge the way we define beauty and abnormality or even parse it as a distorted symbol of the capitalist Hollywood studio system Browning worked under.
Freaks was (loosely) based on the short story Spurs by Tod Robbins.
Full movie: Daily Motion (part 1 - part 2 - highest quality free version I found as of 2022) - Archive.org (incl post-1932 text prologue) - Rent on Vudu - Rent/Buy on Amazon - View w/HBOMax subscription - Buy/rent on Youtube
Notable excerpts: Trailer - Prince Randian lights a cigarette with his lips - dancing in the forest - Schlitzie - wedding banquet - one of us - chase scene
Miscellaneous: Analysis - documents and photos - review1 (The Missing Link) - review2 (Horror Talk) - Johnny Eck (Phreeque/Tripod) - Schlitzie (Human Marvels) - IMDB - posters (Quasi-Modo.net) - Zippy the Pinhead connection (Bill Griffith talk @ 2003 UF Comics Conference) - previously (Sideshow Freaks - Oct 2005 post by mischief)
2022 Updates:
- The Making of Freaks (essay by Elias Savada, Photon #23)
- Production notes and analysis (Bright Lights Films)
- Book length analysis (ebook by Jack Hunter)
- For extra shock/horror value: Colorized excerpts (Rumble Dog Pictures)
- Freaks Isn't a Horror Film (nice 43 min video essay on Freaks by Cold Crash Pictures)
- Tod Browning and the Road to Freaks (19 min. video documentary by History of Horror - excellent history and context)
- Previously (Freaks - Jul 2008 post by flug)
After a long career as a silent director, and just coming off a great success with the classic Bela Lugosi film adaptation of Dracula, it is fascinating that director Tod Browning chose Freaks as his next project.
Freaks was perhaps if anything, too unsettlingly freak-positive for its time, but today remains a must-see cinema classic almost a century later.
posted by fairmettle at 11:32 PM on February 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
Freaks was perhaps if anything, too unsettlingly freak-positive for its time, but today remains a must-see cinema classic almost a century later.
posted by fairmettle at 11:32 PM on February 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
Great movie - far more positive towards its characters than you might imagine - and inspiration for the Ramones' "Gabba Gabba Hey" onstage chant, of course.
There's a great story about Johnny Eck, the "half boy" who's one of Freaks' stars. It concerns a stage act Johnny used to do with his able-bodied brother Robert, and I'm quoting this account from The Apothetae website:
In 1937, Eck and Robert were recruited by the illusionist and hypnotist, Rajah Raboid, for his "Miracles of 1937" show. In it they performed a magic feat that amazed audiences. Raboid performed the traditional sawing-a-man-in-half illusion, except with an unexpected twist.
At first Robert would pretend to be a member of the audience and heckle the illusionist during his routine, resulting in Robert being called on stage to be sawed in half himself. During the illusion, Robert would then be switched with his twin brother Eck, who played the top half of his body, and a dwarf, who played the bottom half, concealed in specially-built pant legs.
After being sawed in half, the legs would suddenly get up and start running away, prompting Eck to jump off the table and start chasing his legs around the stage, screaming, "Come back!" "I want my legs back!" Sometimes he even chased the legs into the audience. The subsequent reaction was amazing - people would scream and sometimes even flee the theater in terror. As Eck described it, "The men were more frightened than the women - the women couldn't move because the men were walking across their laps, headed for the exit."
The act provided the perfect jolt by frightening people at first but then caused just as much laughter and applause. The illusion would end with stage hands plucking up Eck and setting him atop his legs and then twirling him off-stage to be replaced by his twin Robert, who would then loudly threaten to sue Raboid and storm out of the theater. Their act was so popular that they played to packed audiences up and down the East coast.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:00 AM on February 15, 2022 [35 favorites]
There's a great story about Johnny Eck, the "half boy" who's one of Freaks' stars. It concerns a stage act Johnny used to do with his able-bodied brother Robert, and I'm quoting this account from The Apothetae website:
In 1937, Eck and Robert were recruited by the illusionist and hypnotist, Rajah Raboid, for his "Miracles of 1937" show. In it they performed a magic feat that amazed audiences. Raboid performed the traditional sawing-a-man-in-half illusion, except with an unexpected twist.
At first Robert would pretend to be a member of the audience and heckle the illusionist during his routine, resulting in Robert being called on stage to be sawed in half himself. During the illusion, Robert would then be switched with his twin brother Eck, who played the top half of his body, and a dwarf, who played the bottom half, concealed in specially-built pant legs.
After being sawed in half, the legs would suddenly get up and start running away, prompting Eck to jump off the table and start chasing his legs around the stage, screaming, "Come back!" "I want my legs back!" Sometimes he even chased the legs into the audience. The subsequent reaction was amazing - people would scream and sometimes even flee the theater in terror. As Eck described it, "The men were more frightened than the women - the women couldn't move because the men were walking across their laps, headed for the exit."
The act provided the perfect jolt by frightening people at first but then caused just as much laughter and applause. The illusion would end with stage hands plucking up Eck and setting him atop his legs and then twirling him off-stage to be replaced by his twin Robert, who would then loudly threaten to sue Raboid and storm out of the theater. Their act was so popular that they played to packed audiences up and down the East coast.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:00 AM on February 15, 2022 [35 favorites]
I saw this years ago and was surprised at how sympathetic and disturbing it was at the time. It also had moments of disturbing horror, was beautifully shot, and doesn't quite easily slip one's memory. A truly great horror quite singular in its achievements for the time it was made.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 12:04 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 12:04 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
I looked into the cast to see what each of them may have done with themselves after this film. A lot of them faded into obscurity, sadly, but there's one exception. Angelo Rossitto - who played Angelo, the little person holding the goblet during the "one of us" scene - had a very long film career after this, with his penultimate role coming in 1985 as the "Master" half of "Master Blaster" in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:20 AM on February 15, 2022 [13 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:20 AM on February 15, 2022 [13 favorites]
Johnny Eck, a native of Baltimore, was also an accomplished screen painter. Some of his works are on display at the American Visionary Art Museum.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:04 AM on February 15, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:04 AM on February 15, 2022 [5 favorites]
I wrote the first Wikipedia entry on Johnny Eck and in true ADHD fashion just forgot I was working on it and left in incomplete, and so for years the thing Eck was primarily known for on the site was screen painting.
posted by maxsparber at 4:39 AM on February 15, 2022 [24 favorites]
posted by maxsparber at 4:39 AM on February 15, 2022 [24 favorites]
I just read Bill Griffith’s graphic autobiography of Schlitzie (Nobody’s Fool) yesterday! The book centers on Schlitzie but there is a lot of background about Freaks and the sideshow performers involved.
It was gratifying to read that (besides for a stint in a hospital) he had a series of dedicated caregivers and that he was well liked by the communities he found himself in. He spent his retirement feeding the ducks in MacArthur Park, where the locals gave him affection nicknames and told him he was going “straight to heaven” when he died.
posted by Phyllis keeps a tight rein at 4:56 AM on February 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
It was gratifying to read that (besides for a stint in a hospital) he had a series of dedicated caregivers and that he was well liked by the communities he found himself in. He spent his retirement feeding the ducks in MacArthur Park, where the locals gave him affection nicknames and told him he was going “straight to heaven” when he died.
posted by Phyllis keeps a tight rein at 4:56 AM on February 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
The British prog-rock band Marillion included audio clips of the movie at the end of their song, Separated Out from 2001's Anoraknophobia. Am I enough of a freak?
posted by tybstar at 5:41 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by tybstar at 5:41 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
There's a great story about Johnny Eck, the "half boy" who's one of Freaks' stars. It concerns a stage act Johnny used to do with his able-bodied brother Robert
Oh, that sounds like a fantastic act. Kill the people indeed!
posted by JanetLand at 6:53 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
Oh, that sounds like a fantastic act. Kill the people indeed!
posted by JanetLand at 6:53 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
I can’t find it in the tubes but remember a fantastic interrogation scene in the movie The Player that devolves into a “one of us” chant. Surprised there hasn’t been discussion of Nightmare Alley as apparently it mines the old carney stories quite a bit. Haven’t watched it yet so can’t comment but I’m sure someone can chime in with some thoughts.
posted by misterpatrick at 8:23 AM on February 15, 2022
posted by misterpatrick at 8:23 AM on February 15, 2022
Great post! I read that two of the people that appeared in Freaks were briefly in Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley as a tribute of sorts. I'm sorry I can't find the article now that mentions this.
posted by BeBoth at 9:34 AM on February 15, 2022
posted by BeBoth at 9:34 AM on February 15, 2022
Oh, that sounds like a fantastic act.
I just wish I'd been around back in 1937 to see it for myself. I did see the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow a few times, one night when a teenager in the audience fainted and had to be lifted out of the crowd and carried to the exit by couple of bouncers. His disgusted girlfriend had a brief struggle with her conscience - you could see the whole dilemma playing out on her face - and then reluctantly followed him outside.
posted by Paul Slade at 10:03 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
I just wish I'd been around back in 1937 to see it for myself. I did see the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow a few times, one night when a teenager in the audience fainted and had to be lifted out of the crowd and carried to the exit by couple of bouncers. His disgusted girlfriend had a brief struggle with her conscience - you could see the whole dilemma playing out on her face - and then reluctantly followed him outside.
posted by Paul Slade at 10:03 AM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
I’ve been meaning to watch this movie for years - this might prompt me to get around to it!
I ran across this fairly stunning fact about the conjoined twin actresses, Daisy and Violet Hilton, who struggled to make a living in showbusiness in the decades after this movie:
“The Hiltons' last public appearance was at a drive-in in 1961 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their tour manager abandoned them there and, with no means of transportation or income, they were forced to take a job in a nearby grocery store, where they worked for the rest of their lives.”
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:20 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
I ran across this fairly stunning fact about the conjoined twin actresses, Daisy and Violet Hilton, who struggled to make a living in showbusiness in the decades after this movie:
“The Hiltons' last public appearance was at a drive-in in 1961 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their tour manager abandoned them there and, with no means of transportation or income, they were forced to take a job in a nearby grocery store, where they worked for the rest of their lives.”
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:20 AM on February 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
They weren't in Freaks, but another fascinating pair of conjoined twins were Millie and Christine McKoy, billed in 19th Century London theatres as "the two-headed nightingale". Born as slaves in North Carolina, they travelled to England and had such a successful showbiz career there they were summoned to perform for Queen Victoria. Returning home to tour in the US, they caused a great deal of confusion to railway ticket-collectors, who struggled to decide if they should be charged for one ticket or two. I've written about their extraordinary lives in the yellow boxes here (self-link).
posted by Paul Slade at 11:52 AM on February 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 11:52 AM on February 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
The latest version of Nightmare Alley references two actors in Freaks, but they’re not the real performers.
“ When a desperate Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) visits a carnival to look for work, he passes two sideshow performers checking out a prop cannon. The one facing the camera looks just like Minnie Woolsey, a woman who suffered a variety of health and skeletal disorders and was known professionally as "Koo-Koo The Bird Girl." After passing them, Carlisle asks another sideshow performer seated in a rocking chair where he can beg for a job from the carnival's owner. The performer bears an uncanny resemblance to Schlitzie, an iconic sideshow performer who had microcephaly. ”
posted by Ideefixe at 3:10 PM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
“ When a desperate Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) visits a carnival to look for work, he passes two sideshow performers checking out a prop cannon. The one facing the camera looks just like Minnie Woolsey, a woman who suffered a variety of health and skeletal disorders and was known professionally as "Koo-Koo The Bird Girl." After passing them, Carlisle asks another sideshow performer seated in a rocking chair where he can beg for a job from the carnival's owner. The performer bears an uncanny resemblance to Schlitzie, an iconic sideshow performer who had microcephaly. ”
posted by Ideefixe at 3:10 PM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
One of the more memorable experiences of my life was attending a private screening of this film, given by Werner Herzog, in Antarctica.
posted by deadbilly at 8:14 PM on February 15, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by deadbilly at 8:14 PM on February 15, 2022 [11 favorites]
Here is one corrected link for the OP: Zippy the Pinhead connection (Bill Griffith talk @ 2003 UF Comics Conference, via ImageTexT Journal)
posted by flug at 11:24 PM on February 15, 2022
posted by flug at 11:24 PM on February 15, 2022
with no means of transportation or income, they were forced to take a job in a nearby grocery store, where they worked for the rest of their lives.
There but for the grace of Instagram, go I.
posted by bendy at 9:16 AM on February 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
There but for the grace of Instagram, go I.
posted by bendy at 9:16 AM on February 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
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