Freaks (1932) - film review

The main attraction of a travelling circus is a collection of deformed human beings, which includes dwarves, pinheads, Siamese twins, a hermaphrodite, a bearded lady and several unfortunates without arms and legs.   Two members of this company are Hans and Frieda, two midgets who appear ideally suited for one another.  However, whilst she loves him, he is interested only in Cleopatra, the circus’ perfectly proportioned trapeze artist.  Cleopatra is amused by Hans’ amorous attentions and takes a sadistic pleasure in leading him on, which entertains her real lover, Hercules the strongman.  Unable to see her beloved Hans taunted any more, Frieda appeals to Cleopatra to leave him alone, but lets slip that he is about to come into a huge fortune.  Seeing an opportunity to get rich quick, the greedy Cleopatra agrees to marry Hans.  Within hours of the wedding ceremony, she begins poisoning him.  When Hans’ friends realise what is happening, they decide to exact a terrible vengeance...

Misunderstood and reviled in its day, Freaks has come to be regarded as one of the most important films of the Twentieth Century, since it confronts some fundamental truths about the human condition which, for some reason, film directors seem unable or unwilling to tackle.  There has never been a film quite like this one, and its uniqueness goes far beyond the fact that its cast is largely comprised of people with what the population at large would consider to be grotesque physical deformities.  The reason why this film stands out and leaves such a lasting impression is because it makes blisteringly apparent the folly of judging individuals by their outward appearance.

Freaks was not conceived as a work of great social or humanitarian significance.  It was intended, like Dracula and Frankenstein before it, to give audiences a cheap thrill.    MGM had seen the success of Universal’s early Gothic horror films and decided to cash in on the obvious appeal of monsters.  The studio had already purchased the rights to a short story entitled Spurs (written by Tod Robbins) and saw this as an appropriate vehicle to launch their own series of horror flicks.  And who better to direct the film than Tod Browning, who had already made several silent films in the horror genre for the studio and who had recently directed Universal’s hugely popular Dracula?

Browning was well-acquainted with the circus milieu, having spent several years working as a circus clown in his youth before finding work as an actor in Hollywood.  His experience with circus folk is apparent in the warm community of self-supporting individuals that he manages to portray in this, possibly his greatest film.  Unlike the fantasy Gothic world conjured up by Universal, Browning’s circus world in Freaks is real, tangible and believable.  At times, the film feels less like a genre film and more like a social documentary.

Whilst the cavalcade of deformed men and women does initially shock, it is surprising how quickly we see through their physical imperfections and begin to accept them as people we can identify with.    The true monsters of the piece are not them, but the outwardly perfect trapeze artist and her strongman lover, whose twisted villainy makes them far harder to engage with.   The message is obvious.  It is not the outer shell that makes one a monster, it is what lies beneath.  

It is a pity that the film’s underlying moral imperative is somewhat undermined by its denouement, in which the so-called freaks enact their revenge on Cleopatra in Hercules.  This is clearly a cheap attempt by a Hollywood studio to gratify an audience.  The sequence was originally far more graphic, depicting the mutilation of Cleopatra and Hercules being castrated, but this was cut (along with around a third of the rest of the film) after a disastrous preview screening.  Whilst this part of the film is very effective as a piece of horror, it diminishes the poetry and humanity of the work overall.

When Freaks was first released, audiences were not impressed, and many were shocked.  MGM was accused of exploiting the physically deformed for cheap commercial gain.  When the film failed at the box office, it was hastily shelved.  Several countries banned the film outright; it was not seen in the UK until the 1960s, where it was issued with an X certificate.  In the 1970s, Freaks acquired something of a cult status and soon found its way into popular culture, although it was still considered primarily a horror film.  Today’s more enlightened audiences can appreciate the film as much as a morality play as a horror film.  For an era that is increasingly obsessed with physical perfection, Freaks offers a sobering reminder that outward beauty is not everything.  It is difference, not clone-like uniformity, that we should celebrate, since that is what ultimately makes society stronger and humanity richer.

© James Travers 2009

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