***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** (Version I saw was the 60-min. showing on WDR on July 28, 2001.)
Seen as a melodrama, the "Freaks" story is simple by nature: pure love between two circus performers (Wallace Ford and Leila Hyams) is displayed against the affair that the show's trapezist (Olga Baclanova) is having with one of the midgets (Harry Earles), her only aim being to marry and afterwards kill him with help from her secret lover, a strongman (Henry Victor), for his inheritance. The story is classical, but hardly suffices to fill the film's full hour length, although it starts with all the details on one evening: Baclanova tempting Earles, Hyams leaving Victor, Victor being seduced by Baclanova, antics between Ford and Hyams, jealousy of Earles' small fiancée (Daisy Earles). Simple so far.
But there are more characters in this movie and they are the real stars: so-called "freaks", a circus number. The first time the "freaks" enter, remarkably, it's within an idyllic scenery, disturbed only by the appearance of a squire and a man is his pay (Albert Conti and Michael Visaroff). The squire's decision of letting the disabled frolic on his land expresses the film's general attitude: they are no freaks. This is again contrasted with the behaviour of their fellow performers, the Rollo Brothers (Matt McHugh and Ed Brophy) who spit at the child-like people when they return to the circus.
Strictly seen, only the last eight minutes of the film are horror. The disabled therefore are not at all the scare in this film and that's what makes it so unique, while most horror pics just vary the same story. Only the "normal" have frightening features and they deviously turn against those who are supposed to supply atrocious terror. Instead, they lead normal lives. Only when the freaks' code is broken by Baclanova in the masterly banquet scene with familiar face Angelo Rossitto (a fine performance), and Rossitto witnesses her bad deeds, the "dirty, slimy freaks" become what Baclanova accused them to be in the first place.
The (intentional?) stage-like overacting by villains Baclanova and Victor doesn't damage the excellent overall impression, nor do the comic relief scenes between the Siamese sisters and a stutterer (Roscoe Ates, as usual) who is married to one of them.
"Freaks" has very intensive acting from Harry and Daisy Earles, as from all circus performers (who play themselves, if you will). Although there's very little music and quite a lot dialogue in the film, the atmosphere is always gripping. Whatever MGM took away from Browning's film or induced him to change (the ending is obviously a concession), there's still a perfect, uncopyable thrill left. The rainstorm night (5:26 mins.) certainly has its unforgettable share in horror film history.
One of my all-time favorites, a clear 10 out of 10.
(Been looking for him all over the film, but can somebody please tell me where Tom London is?)
Seen as a melodrama, the "Freaks" story is simple by nature: pure love between two circus performers (Wallace Ford and Leila Hyams) is displayed against the affair that the show's trapezist (Olga Baclanova) is having with one of the midgets (Harry Earles), her only aim being to marry and afterwards kill him with help from her secret lover, a strongman (Henry Victor), for his inheritance. The story is classical, but hardly suffices to fill the film's full hour length, although it starts with all the details on one evening: Baclanova tempting Earles, Hyams leaving Victor, Victor being seduced by Baclanova, antics between Ford and Hyams, jealousy of Earles' small fiancée (Daisy Earles). Simple so far.
But there are more characters in this movie and they are the real stars: so-called "freaks", a circus number. The first time the "freaks" enter, remarkably, it's within an idyllic scenery, disturbed only by the appearance of a squire and a man is his pay (Albert Conti and Michael Visaroff). The squire's decision of letting the disabled frolic on his land expresses the film's general attitude: they are no freaks. This is again contrasted with the behaviour of their fellow performers, the Rollo Brothers (Matt McHugh and Ed Brophy) who spit at the child-like people when they return to the circus.
Strictly seen, only the last eight minutes of the film are horror. The disabled therefore are not at all the scare in this film and that's what makes it so unique, while most horror pics just vary the same story. Only the "normal" have frightening features and they deviously turn against those who are supposed to supply atrocious terror. Instead, they lead normal lives. Only when the freaks' code is broken by Baclanova in the masterly banquet scene with familiar face Angelo Rossitto (a fine performance), and Rossitto witnesses her bad deeds, the "dirty, slimy freaks" become what Baclanova accused them to be in the first place.
The (intentional?) stage-like overacting by villains Baclanova and Victor doesn't damage the excellent overall impression, nor do the comic relief scenes between the Siamese sisters and a stutterer (Roscoe Ates, as usual) who is married to one of them.
"Freaks" has very intensive acting from Harry and Daisy Earles, as from all circus performers (who play themselves, if you will). Although there's very little music and quite a lot dialogue in the film, the atmosphere is always gripping. Whatever MGM took away from Browning's film or induced him to change (the ending is obviously a concession), there's still a perfect, uncopyable thrill left. The rainstorm night (5:26 mins.) certainly has its unforgettable share in horror film history.
One of my all-time favorites, a clear 10 out of 10.
(Been looking for him all over the film, but can somebody please tell me where Tom London is?)