Freaks - videos, teasers and stills from filming
All videos, teasers and footage from the filming of the film "Freaks"
Freaks (1932)
Timing:
1:4 (64 min)
7.768/10
1293
1293
7.8/10
18373
18373
7.8/10
55000
55000
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on the short story "Spurs" (1923) by Tod Robbins.
- The head of MGM studio forbade actors with disfigurements from dining in the internal cafeteria, as they upset the sensitive actresses involved in other films.
- The film carried a humanist and moral charge of the highest intensity, but contemporaries were not ready for the level of frankness proposed by Browning. No censorship cuts could save 'Freaks' from box office failure, and the film was buried in the studio archive for three decades.
- The film was banned from screening in a number of countries (specifically, in Great Britain and Australia) and American states and cities (some of these bans have not been officially lifted to this day and are formally considered still in effect).
- In 1961, the film was rediscovered and quickly gained cult status. It had a significant influence on nonconformist cultural currents of the 1960s—for example, on the classic modern photographer Diane Arbus.
- In 1967, the film received a special exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
- In 1994, the film was included in the National Film Registry of the United States as having significant artistic value.
- David Lynch’s film “The Elephant Man” (1980) was filmed under the direct influence of this picture.
- David Bowie’s song “Diamond Dogs” opens with a reference to this film: As they pulled you out of the oxygen tent, You ask for the latest party, With your silicone hump and your ten inch stump, Dressed like a freak you was, Todd Browning’s freak you was.
- When filming, Tod Browning was largely guided by his own life experience – at the age of 16, he ran away from home and worked for a long time in a traveling circus.
- The film featured the most impressive group of actors with physical disabilities in the entire history of cinema. Tod Browning invited most of the famous circus 'freaks' from all the traveling circuses in the United States to the casting.
- Several actors already cast in the film refused to participate in it, not wanting to appear alongside "grotesque freaks"—these were Victor McLaglen (Hercules), Myrna Loy (Cleopatra), and Jean Harlow (Venus).
- According to legend, the studio was so frightened by the negative reaction of the public to the film that it destroyed the negative as a precaution.
- After the film was pulled from release, the rights to show it were acquired by the studio from a well-known impresario of traveling freak shows, Duane Esper, who screened the film under the titles "Forbidden Love" and "Errors of Nature" during his performances.
- The electrical equipment on the set was so poorly grounded that members of the crew were frequently shocked.
- Prince Randian, born without arms and legs and also known as Rardion, the Torso, the Living Torso, the Pillow Man, and the Caterpillar Man, had a habit of hiding in dark corners during filming and frightening passersby with a chilling scream.
- Schlitzie (born Simon Metz), also known as Pinhead, always dressed and presented himself as a woman – and appears as such in this film, despite the fact that Schlitzie was biologically male. At the same time, Schlitzie was neither homosexual nor a transvestite and claimed to prefer wearing a dress simply for reasons of personal hygiene.
- One of the roles in the original script was written specifically for the famous little person actor John George. However, for unknown reasons, John George did not appear in the film.
- The famous bearded woman Olga Roderick later condemned the film and regretted her involvement in it.
- Little person actor Angelo Rossitto (Angeleno) was subsequently able to continue a successful career in film and television, including roles as Baby Mo in the television series "Barretta" (1975-1977) and the Master in the film "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" (1985).
- In the United Kingdom, the film was banned from screening in 1932, and again in 1952. Eventually, the film was released in British cinemas with the most restrictive X rating in May 1963 – that is, 30 years after its release. This is one of the longest bans in the entire history of British cinema.
- Harry and Daisy Earles play a loving couple in the film, but in reality, they are siblings, both little people.
- The initial cut of the film was 90 minutes long, but after test screenings, it was reduced to 64 minutes. Among the cut and lost scenes, one known final episode features Hercules, castrated by freaks, singing soprano in a traveling circus.
- The 'chicken-man' special effect used in the film's finale was developed by the great Lon Chaney—a legendary actor, director, and master of special and makeup effects, who appeared in 11 films directed by Tod Browning.
- The film is based on the short story by Tod Robbins, "Spurs" (1923).
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