Freaks
The most transgressive film produced by a major American studio in the 1930s, Tod Browning’s crowning achievement has haunted the margins of cinema for nearly one hundred years. An unforgettable cast of real-life sideshow performers portray the entertainers in a traveling circus who, shunned by mainstream society, live according to their own code—one of radical acceptance for the fellow oppressed and, as the show’s beautiful but cruel trapeze artist learns, of terrifying retribution for those who cross them. Received with revulsion by viewers upon its initial release, Freaks permanently damaged Browning’s career but can now be seen for what it is: an audacious cry for understanding and a singular experience of nightmarish, almost avant-garde power.
Available In
Collector's Set
Collector's Set
Cast
- Wallace Ford
- Phroso
- Leila Hyams
- Venus
- Olga Baclanova
- Cleopatra
- Roscoe Ates
- Roscoe
- Henry Victor
- Hercules
- Harry Earles
- Hans
- Daisy Earles
- Frieda
- Rose Dione
- Madame Tetrallini
- Daisy Hilton
- “Siamese” twin
- Violet Hilton
- “Siamese” twin
- Schlitze Surtees
- Schlitze
- Josephine Joseph
- Half Woman, Half Man
- Prince Randian
- The Living Torso
- Olga Roderick
- Bearded lady
- Frances O’Connor
- The Living Venus de Milo
- Martha Morris
- Armless girl
- Elvira Snow
- Pinhead Zip
- Jenny Lee Snow
- Pinhead Pip
- Angelo Rossitto
- Angeleno
- Edward Brophy
- Rollo brother
- Matt McHugh
- Rollo brother
- Johnny Eck
- Half Boy
- Peter Robinson
- Human Skeleton
- Elizabeth Green
- Stork Woman
- Minnie Woolsey
- Koo Koo the Bird Girl
- Albert Conti
- Monsieur Duval, the landowner
- Michael Visaroff
- Jean, the caretaker
- Murray Kinnell
- Sideshow barker
- Hooper Atchley
- Doctor
- Jerry Austin
- Knife-throwing dwarf
- Mathilde Comont
- Madame Bartet
- Ernie S. Adams
- Sideshow patron
- Edith
- Turtle Girl
- Delmo Fritz
- Sword-swallower
- Constantine Romanoff
- Man bringing Frieda’s horse
- Sidney Bracey
- Hans and Frieda’s butler
Credits
- Director
- Tod Browning
- Producer
- Irving Thalberg
- Screenplay
- Willis Goldbeck
- Screenplay
- Leon Gordon
- Based on the short story “Spurs,” by
- Clarence Aaron “Tod” Robbins
- Dialogue
- Edgar Allan Woolf
- Dialogue
- Al Boasberg
- Photography
- Merritt B. Gerstad
- Additional photography
- Paul C. Vogel
- Additional photography
- Oliver T. Marsh
- Assistant camera
- David S. Horsley
- Art direction
- Cedric Gibbons
- Art direction
- Merrill Pye
- Film editor
- Basil Wrangell
- Recording engineer
- Gavin Burns
- Production manager
- Harry Sharrock
- Assistant director
- Errol Taggart
- Second assistant director
- William Ryan
- Script clerk/third assistant director
- Willard Sheldon
A scene from Freaks
