FREAKS

Even among the myriad of 1930s horror films, perhaps no movie of the Great Depression was as bizarre or as disturbing as director Tod Browning's Freaks (1932). Browning built a noted film career during the 1920s on a series of collaborations with actor Lon Chaney, Sr., and he also ushered in the era of sound horror films with his highly successful Dracula (1931), starring Bela Lugosi. At MGM in 1932, Browning promised that he would direct the ultimate horror film: Freaks.

Based on the short story "Spurs" by Tod Robbins, Freaks offers a tale of circus and carnival performers who, despite their various physical deformities, exist within a kind of mutually caring family. When the dwarf Hans decides to marry the physically "normal" Cleopatra, the family accepts her as "one of us." But then they learn the truth: Cleopatra is plotting to poison Hans, inherit his money, and then marry the strong man Hercules. The film's epilogue shows her as a physically deformed sideshow act, the result of the "freaks'" vengeance.

Browning's cast, which included a "half boy" and "Siamese twins," was largely made up of actual sideshow performers who possessed a range of physical deformities. The emphasis on actual "freaks," as the studio called them, rather than the use of actors with makeup, created concern even before the film was released. By the time of its premiere, publicity hype around Freaks emphasized both the "real life" qualities of the players, as well as the oddity of a love affair between a dwarf and a "normal" woman.

The story of the film's release has become legendary, with historians generally claiming that MGM shelved Freaks due to audience outrage. The movie was even banned outright in England. While this is certainly true, what is often forgotten is that the film did receive some positive reviews and garnered strong box office receipts in some American cities, while being vilified in others. Many Depression-era audience members found the film to be little different from what they had actually seen at carnival sideshows. For those who were outraged, their alarm seems to have stemmed less from concerns over cast exploitation than from the shock of simply seeing them on screen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Clarens, Carlos. An Illustrated History of Horror and Science-Fiction Films: The Classic Era, 1895–1967. 1997.

Skal, David J. The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror. 1993.

Skal, David J, with Elias Savada. Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning, Hollywood's Master of the Macabre. 1995.