100 Scariest Movie Moments: #15 Freaks

I’ve heard Freaks called “Fair For its Day.” The truth is, I think it’s Fair for our day as well. I’m not going to say the film is perfect. The movie shows the “Freak Show” as the ideal environment for the disabled, keeping their own company and isolated from the rest of society. However, it portrays them neither as victims in need of protection from the able-bodied, nor as jokes. While in the real world, even in the 21^st century, little actors whose names aren’t “Peter Dinklage” or sometimes “Warwick Davis” typically need to fill their resumes primarily with roles as the “funny midget.”

The movie has a lot of slice-of-life subplots, and likely would have had far more if the studio hadn’t forced director Tod Browning to cut out half an hour. However, the main plot concerns the dwarf Hans (Harry Earles) leaving his dwarf fiance Frieda (his sister Daisy Earles) for an acrobat named Cleopatra (Olga Baclanoa). It eventually becomes clear that Cleopatra despises all the “Freak,” and plans to kill Hans for the fortune he recently inherited. So the performers take their revenge, tarring and feathering Cleopatra to turn her into a duck-woman, forcing her to join them as a part of their act.

At the time of Freaks release, there was a major controversy around Browning’s decision to make the film with actual circus performers. Unlike today, when advocates for the disabled might declare the film “Exploitation,” this aspect of the controversy was mainly just an objection to people being made aware that these performers existed. These are human beings who chose to present themselves to us, and show us how they lived. The Human Torso (Prince Randian) in one scene demonstrates his ability to roll and light a cigarette using only his mouth, and various other performers show us how they can get by without arms or legs.

Hans does come across as a bit of moron, as Cleopatra’s contempt for him is barely concealed by the thinnest veil of sarcasm. After your wife kisses another man in front of you, throws wine on your friend and then mocks your size, most men would get the idea that maybe this isn’t the best marriage; doubly so if all of these things happened at the wedding reception. That said however, Hans is the only one of the performers who doesn’t immediately get what’s going on, and Earles was the one who proposed the movie, so I doubt he minded playing the dupe.

The scene in which the “Freaks” take their revenge on Cleopatra and her lover Hercules (Henry Victor) is still frightening today despite being heavily censored. Hans asks Cleopatra for her “little black bottle,” as Angeleno (Angelo Rossitto) pulls out a switch blade. Cleopatra and Hercules, realizing the jig is up, attempt to make a break for it, but quickly find themselves outnumbered and surrounded.

The existing version of the film cuts away from the final attack on Cleopatra, to a carnival barker showing us a brief glimpse of Cleopatra as a duck-woman. We then get a final scene showing Hans and Frieda reunited. In the original version the reunion was not present, the attack was longer, and we also got to see the eventual fate of Cleopatra’s Hercules as a singing castrato. Sadly, very little of the censored footage still exists. The castrato scene can be found online, but the actual castration appears to be lost as far as I can tell.

This is the type of movie where you probably know from the general description whether or not you’d be likely to enjoy it. It doesn’t have a lot of surprises, but it works well for what it is. A lot of the actors come across as hammy, but I suspect that’s because their experience came from circuses and carnivals rather than from film or stage. And even in its watered-down form, it holds up pretty well.