Probably my favourite work by Todd Browning, ‘Freaks’ is frankly revolutionary for the time it came out. A sympathetic drama with horror elements portraying actual disabled people in a way that (until the end at least) doesnt monster them or pity them. It plays them as real people, finding family and community within there small travelling roadshow, and protecting each other from the real ‘Freaks’ the people who bully them just for being different.
The plot revolves mainly around a dwarf named ‘Hans’ who slowly begins to fall in love with a radient trapeze artist called ‘Cleopatra’ who’s in a toxic relationship with the strong man ‘Hercules’. The problem? Hans is married and in a loving relationship with another woman called ‘Frieda’. Cleo picks up that Hans is interested, and decides to ‘date’ him as a cruel joke. But on getting to know him better, she finds out that he’s in fact an incredibly wealthy man. And so, working with Hercules; the pair decide to try and coerce Hans into leaving his wife, marrying Cleo, where Cleo and Hercules will then kill him via poisoning and claim his wealth. All the while Frieda confides in the other circus dwellers trying to find a way to get her husband back. And while all THIS is going on we’re treated to a whirlwind look at the life of these people as they face prejudice and ridicule simply for who they want to be.
Honestly? I love this film, its so bittersweet and sincere (for the most part) that its kind of mind blowing to me that something so progressive and unflinching could be made as early as 1932. But in the same breath, thats also probably the one thing that stops it from being truely perfect.
Because, at this time, the censoship boards were running rife over media in the US, and ‘Freaks’ is a VERY heavily hit victim of this era. with several key and important scenes cut from the film for being ‘obscene’ in the 30s and some final cuts being cut by as much as 30 minutes. You dont need a guide to see whats missing from ‘Freaks’ the blunt and sudden jumpcuts do that for you. These missing scenes added key additional information and helped to slow the narrative pacing a bit to let the characters breath and give them more depth and complexity. I consider this film in the same way that I considered ‘Metropolis’ in the sense that it feels like so much is missing thats critical to really getting under the skin of this piece. As such, whats left feels rushed and sporadic. the tones are a little all over the place and the grand ending (which revolted audiences in the 30s) has been reduced to scraps essentially.
I can only judge whats here, but what IS here is an incredible work for 1930 that feels naturalistic and compassionate in an era that most wouldnt typically associate with it. the pacings solid, the dialogue is fantastic (though, the fact the main character frequently drift in and out of german combined with some less than brilliant audio recording did stump me the first time I watched this) and the character feel deep, rich and lived in. I can only imagine a complete cut of this would make me love it even more.
The direction is superb, no notes from me its a slightly grimey, but creative work that has some absolutely unreal creative choices, particularly in the 3rd act. Which wouldnt be commonplace till the late 50s. Letalone the early 30s.
Cast directions a little flat at times, but I can forgive it that given the limitations of the cast, and the medium at this point in history.
The cine is rich and gorgeous, Its such a shame there isnt a better quality print of this film out there, as the one used for the criterion master is EASILY the best this films ever looked, but it still looks a bit soft and rough around the edges and the jarring jump edits really dont help matters either. Nontheless the scene structuring is sublime with some wonderful composition choices and astounding for the time lighting decisions. I really love the look of this film
Performance wise? Both Harry and Daisy Earles astound here as Hans and Frieda brining genuine sorrow and regret to the screen. I think they give energetic and brilliant performances where I always find some new layer to their performances every time I watch this.
Olga Baclanova and Henry Victor are ASTOUNDINGLY evil as Cleo and Hercules. bringing some genuine menace and discomfort to the roles alongside a genuine venemous streak that flirts with campy, but never fully commits to it.
The rest of the cast are all equally delightful and help really bring the picture together, its rare that I get to the end of a movie and really wish we’d just spent more time with the characters being who they are. But this film manages it.
And probably the weakest element of this whole production for me is the soundtrack, its largely diagetic sound, which is fine. But the one or two music cues in this film are VERY bombastic carnival pieces, and I feel that…while relevent to the location, they feel VERY out of place in all of this bleak drama works. That combined with the quality of the dialogue recording (which I know wasnt the best in the early 30s, and has seemingly degraded further over time) AND the constant shifting of languages with NO subtitles for those segments, made it kind of hard for me to keep up with exactly what was going on. I watched with subtitles this time around, but I think i’d have struggled in a non home viewing environment.
I love ‘Freaks’, I watched it for the first time over a decade ago and, like ‘Metropolis’ it still absolutely blows my mind that this film was made when it was, it was absolutely ahead of its time, and even today holds up remarkably well. I live in hope that one day the censor cuts may be found to truely restore this film. But for now, it’ll just have to settle as being ‘Remarkable’ and definitely worth checking out.
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