Tod Browning returned to M-G-M after completing Iron Man to direct what became the most controversial film of his career: Freaks (1932).
Freaks may be one of the most compassionate movies ever made–Film critic Andrew Sarris in The American Cinema (1968) p. 229
Not even the most morbidly inclined could possibly find this picture to their liking. Saying it is horrible is putting it mildly. It is revolting to the extent of turning one’s stomach…Anyone who considers this [to be] entertainment should be placed in the pathological ward in some hospital–Harrison’s Reports, July 16, 1932
If Freaks has caused a furor in certain censor circles, the fault lies in the manner in which it was campaigned. I found it to be an interesting and entertaining picture, and I did not have nightmares, nor did I attempt to murder any of my relatives. — Motion Picture Herald, 23 July 1932
After the spectacular success of Dracula (1931) at Universal, Browning returned to MGM studios, lured by generous contract and enjoying the support of production head Irving Thalberg.
Anticipating a repeat of his recent success at Universal, Thalberg accepted Browning’s story proposal based on Tod Robbins’ circus-themed tale “Spurs” (1926).
The studio purchased the rights and enlisted screenwriter Willis Goldbeck and Leon Gordon to develop the script with Browning
Thalberg collaborated closely on pre-production, but Browning completed all the actual shooting on the film without interference from the studio executives. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s president, Louis B. Mayer, registered his disgust with the project from its inception and during the filming, but Thalberg intervened on Browning’s behalf to proceed with the film. The picture that emerged was Browning’s “most notorious and bizarre melodrama.”
A “morality play,” Freaks centers around the cruel seduction of a circus sideshow midget Hans (Harry Earles) by the sexy trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova).
She and her lover, strongman Hercules (Henry Victor), scheme to murder the diminutive Hans for his inheritance money after sexually humiliating him. The community of freaks mobilizes in Hans’ defense, meting out severe justice to Cleopatra and Hercules: the former trapeze beauty is transformed into a sideshow freak.
Browning enlisted his cast from carnival freak shows—a community and milieu he was intimately familiar. The circus freaks serve as dramatic and comedic players, central to the story, and do not appear in their respective sideshow routines as novelties.
Two major themes in Browning’s work—”Sexual Frustration” and “Reality vs. Appearances”—emerge in Freaks from the conflict inherent in the physical incompatibility between Cleopatra and Hans. The guileless Hans’ self-delusional fantasy of winning the affection of Cleopatra—”seductive, mature, cunning and self-assured”—provokes her contempt, eliciting “cruel sexual jests” at odds with her attractive physical charms.[269] Browning provides the moral rationale for the final reckoning with Cleopatra before she has discovered Hans’ fortune and plans to murder him.
Film historian Stuart Rosenthal explains: Browning justifies the disruption of an individual’s sexual equanimity as a cause for retaliation. Cleopatra’s decision to wed the dwarf for his wealth and then dispose of him is not, in itself, a significant advance in villainy…her most heinous crime is committed when she teases Hans by provocatively dropping her cape to the floor, then gleefully kneels to allow her victim to replace it upon her shoulders…This kind of exploitation appears more obscene by far than the fairly clean act of homicide.
Browning addresses another theme: “Inability to Assign Guilt.” The community of freaks delay judgement on Cleopatra when she insults Frieda (Daisy Earles), the midget performer who genuinely loves Hans. Their social solidarity cautions restraint, but when the assault on Hans becomes egregious, they act single-mindedly to punish the offender. Browning exonerates the freaks of any guilt: they are “totally justified” in their act of retribution.
Stuart Rosenthal describes this doctrine, the “crux” of Browning’s social ideal: Freaks is the film that is most explicit about the closeness of equability and retribution. The freaks live by a simple and unequivocal code that one imagines might be the crux of Browning’s ideal for society: ‘Offend one of them, and offend them all’…if anyone attempts to harm or take advantage of one of their number, the entire colony responds quickly and surely to mete out appropriate punishment.
Browning style is informed by the precepts of German Expressionism, combining subdued documentary-like realism with “chiaroscuro shadow” for dramatic effect.
The wedding banquet sequence in which Cleopatra and Hercules brutally degrade Hans is “among the most discussed moments” and according to scholar Vivian Sobchack “a masterpiece of sound and image, utterly unique in conception and realization.”
The final sequence in which the freaks carry out their “shocking” revenge and Cleopatra’s fate is revealed achieves the most sustained level of high-pitched terror of any Browning picture.
Freaks was given general release only after 30-minutes of footage was excised by Thalberg to remove offensive contents to the public. Though Browning had a long history of making profitable pictures at MGM, Freaks was a “disaster” at the box office, though earning mixed reviews among critics.
Browning’s reputation as reliable Hollywood filmmaker was tarnished, and he completed only 4 more pictures before retiring from the industry after 1939.
Freaks began principal photography in November 1931, with 24-day shooting schedule.
At the time of the production’s beginning, the film had a budget of approximately $209,000, though it would eventually expand to more than $300,000.
The film was shot on the MGM studio lot in Culver City, California.
Baclanova recalled her time first meeting her co-stars on the set: “Tod Browning, I loved him. He say, “I want to make a picture with you, Olga Baclanova… Now I show you with whom you are going to play. But don’t faint.” I say, “Why should I faint?” So he takes me and shows me all the freaks there. First I meet the midget and he adores me because we speak German and he’s from Germany. Then he shows me the girl that’s like an orangutan; then a man who has a head but no legs, no nothing, just a head and a body like an egg. Then he shows me a boy who walks on his hands because he was born without feet. He shows me little by little and I could not look. I wanted to cry when I saw them. They have such nice faces, but it is so terrible… Now, after we start the picture, I like them all so much.
During the shoot, the film had already begun to draw disgusted reactions, resulting in MGM segregating the film’s cast and crew to a separate cafeteria so that “people could get to eat in the commissary without throwing up.” The shoot was completed on December 16, 1931, and Browning began retakes on December 23.
In January 1932, MGM held test screenings of the film which proved disastrous: Art director Merrill Pye recalled that “Halfway through the preview, a lot of people got up and ran out. They didn’t walk out. They ran out.” Others reportedly became ill, or fainted; one woman who attended the screening threatened to sue MGM, claiming the film had caused her to suffer a miscarriage. Due to the extremely unfavorable response, the studio cut the picture down from its original 90-minute running time to just over an hour.
Much of the sequence of the circus entertainers attacking Cleopatra as she lies under a lightning-struck tree was removed, as well as a sequence showing Hercules being castrated and made into a castrato, a number of comedy sequences, and most of the film’s original epilogue, which included Hercules singing in a falsetto (a reference to his castration) with Cleopatra quacking along. These excised sequences are considered lost.
In order to pad the running time after these cuts, a new prologue featuring a carnival barker was added, as was the alternate epilogue featuring the reconciliation of the dwarf lovers.
The truncated version—only 64 minutes long—had its premiere at the Fox Criterion in Los Angeles on February 12, 1932. It opened in New York City that summer, premiering on July 8, 1932.
Regionally, the film attracted controversy upon its release, and was pulled from screenings in Atlanta.
In the UK, the film was banned by the British censors, and remained as so for more than 30 years before getting X rating in August 1963.
Freaks was a box-office bomb, recording total loss of $164,000. It grossed $289,000 in the United States, and $52,000 internationally.
The film had greater earnings in smaller cities like Cincinnati, Boston, and Saint Paul than it did in larger metropolitan cities such as Los Angeles or Chicago.
Biographer Alfred Eaker claims that “Freaks, in effect, ended Browning’s career.”
