There are some movies which, for one reason or another, are truly one-of-a-kind and of the likes we will never see again. One such picture is the justifiably legendary Freaks.
This 1932 movie stars a variety of attractions from real-life freak shows. While I can’t imagine ever going to such a carnival sideshow attraction in real life, I understand there were no other opportunities for work for many of these people. Really, where in 30’s society would there be a place for Johnny Eck, “The Half Boy”, or the armless and legless Prince Randian, “The Living Torso”?
It is a testament to the film that it is performers such as these which are portrayed as good while two supposedly “perfect” people are the real monsters. One of those is Olga Baclanova. She’s supposed to be gorgeous, but I don’t think I could squint hard enough to possibly have that impression of her. She is conspiring with lover Henry Victor, the show’s strongman, to wed and then murder midget Harry Earles, who secretly inherited a fortune.
There are also two characters who are decent people but not differentially abled. Wallace Ford is Phroso the Clown and he’s in love with Leila Hyams, a woman one doesn’t have to squint at to see her appeal. These two not only make an attractive couple, but their relatability makes them the audience surrogates through which we have a gateway to the freaks, as these two interact amiably with them.
Ford seems to get along especially well with the pinheads, who I have heard were very sweet and gentle. Of the three pinheads, the real star is Schlitze, the only one with a real line, even if that is complete gibberish. She is really a he, and was the inspiration for Bill Griffith’s Zippy the Pinhead. He even wrote a graphic novel biopic of Schlitze. And that song “Pinhead” by The Ramones? You got it.
That song’s “Gabba gabba hey” would seem to be a reference to the song sang in this picture’s legendary wedding banquet scene, with its lyrics of “Gooble gobble/gooble gobble/we accept you/one of us.” The wedding is that of Earles and Baclanova, only she is appalled by the idea of being one of their kind. One thing she should have kept in mind is the code maintained by their numbers: offending one is to offend them all.
Director Tod Browning had a background in the carnival, making him a natural for this material. He seems to have a genuine affection for the actors who would otherwise be unlikely to be cast in a feature film. One of my favorite moments has the pinheads and some others taken out to the woods for a day where they can just be the children they really are. Another scene seemed remarkable only after the fact, a conversation between Hyams and Daisy Earles, a midget, which could have been between two actors of more ordinary height without changing a single word.
Alas, Browning’s career took quite a hit as result of this film. MGM had only allowed him to do this because his previous effort, Dracula, had been such a huge hit for Universal. Freaks so outraged the studio, the censors and the general public that it is amazing it exists in any form. Unfortunately, there were edits made to the original negative, excising scenes that couldn’t even be included on this Criterion Collection blu-ray.
Those censors missed some very interesting bits, especially those concerning Siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. One scene which still raises eyebrows and elicits gasps today is when one of them is kissed by her fiancée and the other obvious feels it, too. I think anybody’s imagination carries this through to its logical conclusion. The twins being married to separate men also results in a discussion that always leaves me equally amused and confused, and that is when the husband of one says to the fiancée of the other that they should come visit sometime. Nobody in this arrangement seems to find anything odd in that offer.
Although I can’t imagine a world where Freaks doesn’t exist, that doesn’t necessarily mean I regard it as a great film. But it is a very unique and critically important work, revealing people and their lives which many would want to place out of sight. If such a film was made today, it would doubtlessly be accomplished through CGI to alter physically intact actors instead of using the genuine article. And without freak shows today, where do people like the distinctive performers in this go?
Dir: Tod Browning
Starring Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova
Watched on Criterion Collection blu-ray