Freaks (1932)
Country: US
Technical: bw 64m
Director: Tod Browning
Cast: Wallace Ford, Olga Baclanova, Leila Hyams
Synopsis:
A beautiful trapeze artists marries one of the sideshow performers in her travelling circus, but the other freaks discover she is only after his money.
Review:
Without question the least likely film to come out of MGM studios, Browning's notorious horror was for many years kept unseen in the vaults until people could make up their minds what they thought of it. While there seems little doubt that the director empathized with his deformed cast as human beings, the fact remains that their final act of retribution is an act of unspeakable (and naturally unfilmable) evil that reduces them just as it is meant to make us cheer for them. The film is therefore a true horror film, and we are back to the problematic question of whether to be repelled or moved by it.
Country: US
Technical: bw 64m
Director: Tod Browning
Cast: Wallace Ford, Olga Baclanova, Leila Hyams
Synopsis:
A beautiful trapeze artists marries one of the sideshow performers in her travelling circus, but the other freaks discover she is only after his money.
Review:
Without question the least likely film to come out of MGM studios, Browning's notorious horror was for many years kept unseen in the vaults until people could make up their minds what they thought of it. While there seems little doubt that the director empathized with his deformed cast as human beings, the fact remains that their final act of retribution is an act of unspeakable (and naturally unfilmable) evil that reduces them just as it is meant to make us cheer for them. The film is therefore a true horror film, and we are back to the problematic question of whether to be repelled or moved by it.
Country: US
Technical: bw 64m
Director: Tod Browning
Cast: Wallace Ford, Olga Baclanova, Leila Hyams
Synopsis:
A beautiful trapeze artists marries one of the sideshow performers in her travelling circus, but the other freaks discover she is only after his money.
Review:
Without question the least likely film to come out of MGM studios, Browning's notorious horror was for many years kept unseen in the vaults until people could make up their minds what they thought of it. While there seems little doubt that the director empathized with his deformed cast as human beings, the fact remains that their final act of retribution is an act of unspeakable (and naturally unfilmable) evil that reduces them just as it is meant to make us cheer for them. The film is therefore a true horror film, and we are back to the problematic question of whether to be repelled or moved by it.