Tod Browning

Charles Albert Browning, Jr. (July 12, 1880 - October 5, 1962), better known as Tod Browning, was an American film actor and director whose career spanned the silent and talkie eras. Best known as the director of Dracula (1931) with Bela Lugosi and the cult classic Freaks (1932), he directed many movies in a wide range of genres.

Silent feature films

Browning's feature film debut was Jim Bludso (1917), about a riverboat captain who sacrifices himself to save his passengers from a fire. It was well-received.

Related Topics:
Jim Bludso - 1917 - Riverboat

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Browning moved back to New York in 1917. He directed two films for Metro Studios: Peggy, the Will o' the Wisp and The Jury of Fate, both starring Mabel Taliaferro, the latter in a dual role achieved with double exposure techniques that were groundbreaking for the time. He moved back to California in 1918 and produced two more films for Metro: The Eyes of Mystery and Revenge.

Related Topics:
1917 - Mabel Taliaferro - Double exposure - 1918

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In the spring of 1918 he left Metro and joined Bluebird Productions, a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, where he met Irving Thalberg. Thalberg paired Browning with Lon Chaney, Sr. for the first time for the film The Wicked Darling (1919), a melodrama in which Chaney played a thief who forces a poor girl from the slums into a life of crime.

Related Topics:
Universal Pictures - Irving Thalberg - Lon Chaney, Sr. - The Wicked Darling

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The death of his father sent Browning into a depression that led to alcoholism. He was laid off by Universal and his wife left him. However, he recovered, reconciled with his wife, and got a one-picture contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer. The film he produced for MGM, The Day of Faith, was a moderate success, putting his career back on track.

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Thalberg reunited Browning with Lon Chaney for The Unholy Three (1925), the story of three circus performers who concoct a scheme to con and steal jewels from rich people using disguises. Browning's circus experience shows in his sympathetic portrayal of the antiheroes. The film was a resounding success, so much so that it was later remade in 1930 as Lon Chaney's first (and only) talkie. Browning and Chaney embarked on a series of popular collaborations, including The Blackbird and The Road to Mandalay. The Unknown (1927), originally titled Alonzo the Armless, can be considered a precursor to Freaks in that it concerns a love triangle involving a circus freak. London After Midnight (1927), from this period, was Browning's first foray into vampire film and is a highly sought-after lost film. Their final collaboration was Where East is East (1929), of which only incomplete prints have survived. Browning's first talkie was The Thirteenth Chair (1929), which was also released as a silent and starred Bela Lugosi.

Related Topics:
The Unholy Three - Antihero - Freaks - London After Midnight - Vampire film - 1929 - Bela Lugosi

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