Freaks

Freaks is a 1932 horror film about sideshow performers directed by Tod Browning.

Related Topics:
1932 - Horror film - Tod Browning

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The movie was adapted by Al Boasberg, Willis Goldbeck, Leon Gordon, and Edgar Allan Woolf from the short story Spurs by Tod Robbins. Browning, famed at the time for directing Bela Lugosi in Dracula (1931), took the exceptional step of casting real people with deformities as the eponymous sideshow "freaks", rather than using costumes and makeup. Director Browning had been a member of a travelling circus in his early years, and much of the film was drawn from his personal experiences. He intended to portray the classic moral of how beauty on the outside does not necessarily equate to beauty on the inside. In the film, the physically deformed "freaks" are inherently trusting and honorable people, while the real monsters are two of the "normal" members of the circus who conspire to murder Hans in order to obtain his large inheritance.

Related Topics:
Al Boasberg - Willis Goldbeck - Leon Gordon - Edgar Allan Woolf - Tod Robbins - Bela Lugosi - Dracula - 1931

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Reaction to this film was so intense that Browning had trouble finding work afterwards, and this in effect brought his career to an early close. The movie was banned in the United Kingdom for thirty years.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Related Topics:
United States - National Film Registry

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~