Director Tod Browning's Freaks is a cinematic, MGM masterpiece, censored and buried, revived and revered. It pleas for empathy and acceptance, but on the heels of such sentiments, it promotes a foundation of revenge. That's right: Freaks is a revenge tale, and through its incensed heart, it may be the most impassioned ever rendered.
Classic Monsters of the Movies writer/researchers Nige Burton and Jamie Jones have compiled a captivating, 36-page curation for the 1932 production, Freaks, detailing how it sprung from Clarence "Tod" Robbins' short story, "Spurs," later to be screen-adapted by Leon Gordon and Willis Goldbeck, and was even for a time, proposed as a possible, Lon Chaney Sr. vehicle. In truth, Freaks' popularity (albeit in a tight, 64-min cut) only seems to expand over time and in no small part due to its inclusion of genuine, performers from the traveling-sideshow heyday.
For the record, Freaks' titular cast was considered nothing short of royalty on the carnival circuit, and its members populate this ultimate edition's pages: Harry (The Unholy Three) Earles (Hans, the lead, little person); Daisy Earles (Frieda, his once betrothed); Johnny Eck (the half boy); Prince Randian (the human torso); Josephine Joseph (the hermaphrodite); Minnie Woolsey (Koo Koo, the bird lady); Peter Robinson (the skeleton man); Olga Roderick, aka Jane Barnell (the bearded lady); Elizabeth Green (the stork lady); Daisy and Violet Hilton (the Siamese twins); Schlitze Surtees, Jenny Lee Snow and Elvira Snow (the endearing pinheads); and the legendary, small-in-stature, horror icon, Angelo Rossitto as Angelino, who ushers the famous, "gooba gabba" initiation.
And as their featured friends, we have Wallace (The Mummy's Hand/The Ape Man) Ford as Phroso; Leila (Island of Lost Souls) Hyams as Venus; Roscoe Ates as Roscoe (Daisy's spouse); Demetrius Alexis' Mr. Rogers (Violet's betrothed); Rose (West of Zanzibar) Dione as the motherly Madame Tetrallini; and as our protagonists' heartless foes, Olga (The Man Who Laughs) Baclanova as Cleopatra and Victor (King of the Zombies) Victor as Hercules.
The tender care invested into Freaks makes it not only unusual, but deeply moving. Burton and Jones apply the same tenderness to their honorable exploration, explaining how this unmatched entry reached its (in)famous status and the unjust prejudice that led to it being ostracized for so many decades. (Each meticulous, Burton/Jones passage is accompanied by superb stills and revealing trivia.)
If one holds an appreciation for this bold, Tod Browning achievement, then this issue can't help but thrill and fulfill.
Order Classic Monsters of the Movies: Freaks, but please take note: Copies are limited.
https://www.classic-monsters.com/shop/product/freaks-1932-ultimate-guide-magazine/
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