Freaks/The Unknown/The Mystic: Tod Browning's Sideshow

Originally purchased this because of Freaks. I’ve had the film on DVD for years and was always keeping an eye out for a Blu Ray version. The other two films were an added bonus and I wasn’t disappointed at all.

The first film, “Freaks” is an infamous story of circus sideshow performers and their act of revenge when a woman marries one of their own for his money and then tried to poison him. “The Unknown” is about a criminal hiding in a carnival who pretends to be armless so that the police won’t suspect him. He becomes obsessed with the carnival owner’s daughter and will go to incredible (and gruesome) lengths to possess her. The final film “The Mystic” is about a fake mystic in Hungary who is persuaded by a conman to come to America and use her Spiritualist Medium show to swindle wealthy patrons out of their fortunes.

I knew I was going to enjoy Freaks, but the other two silent films were pleasant surprises. Apparently, both of the silent films have been pretty rare for some time. For The Mystic, this package is the first time it’s been available on home video and for The Unknown, this is a restored version that has the longest run time to date. By combining images from two different prints (French and Czech with English title cards provided by the George Eastman Museum), we now have a 68 minute version of the film which, while still not complete, is the most that anybody has been able to view in a long time.

All of these films are really enjoyable. The Mystic surprised me because I had not heard of Aileen Pringle before, but she was a very attractive woman and fine actor in her day. The Unknown has great performances by the legendary Lon Chaney (Man of 1000 Faces) and a very young Joan Crawford (yes, *THE* Joan Crawford). I like The Mystic for its portrayal of those fake Seance’s that were all the rage in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Unknown is such a bizarre story with Lon Chaney portraying Alonzo the “armless” and Joan Crawford as a young performer who has a peculiar phobia regarding men touching her with their hands. I can’t spoil where this story goes, but it is truly bizarre.

Of course, the most bizarre is “Freaks”. Infamous for the casting of a number of genuinely deformed individuals, it’s been labeled as exploitative by some and a true portrait of humanity by others. I, myself, focus on the humanity as these individuals are really just like anybody else once you get to know them. While labeled as “Horror”, it’s really not like that unless you count the climax at the very end when the conniving circus performer gets what’s coming to her (again, no spoilers).

The package is really good. Disc 1 has Freaks with a number of special features and a documentary carried over from the previous Warner Brothers DVD release. Disc 2 has the two silent films with a brief documentary for The Mystic and commentary for The Unknown. The restoration on all films is really good. Freaks is nearly flawless as is The Mystic. The restoration on The Unknown isn’t quite as good, but considering that this was reconstructed from two different film elements, it’s still pretty decent. One unusual thing about The Unknown is that some scenes appear to have been filmed through some kind of fabric, maybe cheesecloth. This is definitely from the original film and is not a flaw in the restoration. If anything, the fact that one can tell this was filmed in such a way owes to the fact that the restoration is really good. Sound is good too with new music tracks provided for the silent films.

When watching Freaks, I recommend turning on the English Subtitles. Browning never really got the hang of filming with sound, so the actors who were hired for this film have some pretty strong accents that make them hard to understand. Particularly for the Little People who will slip into German during their dialogue. Not only will the English Subtitles help you understand what they’re saying, but they will provide translations for those brief German bits of dialogue.

This is a great package to get. The three films are enjoyable to watch and fine examples of the works of director Tod Browning.

Tod Browning is best known today as the director of Dracula (1931), the film that started a series at Universal featuring all types of monsters, from mummies to wolfmen. His background working in sideshows, circuses, and vaudeville was instrumental in other pictures he directed, collected in the set Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers. Disc 1 contains the film Freaks (1932) and related extras. Disc 2 contains The Unknown (1927) and The Mystic (1925) with related extras.

The most notorious of the three is Freaks, set in a small traveling circus whose performers include human oddities. We see these individuals engaging in everyday activities, having overcome physical limitations to become self-sufficient. The midget Hans (Harry Earles) is enamored of the beautiful, normal-sized trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova), much to the chagrin of his midget girlfriend, Freida (Daisy Earles). Cleopatra initially regards Hans’ affections as a joke. But she changes her attitude on learning that Hans is wealthy. She and boyfriend Hercules, the strongman (Henry Victor), hatch a plan for her to marry Hans and gradually poison him to death. She will inherit his money and live happily ever after with Hercules.

In a festive wedding celebration, the performers gather around a table to welcome Cleopatra into their community. The guests include Siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton; Josephine/Joseph, Half Woman, Half Man; Johnny Eck the Half Boy; Prince Randian, the Human Torso; Human Skeleton Pete Robinson; Koo Koo the Bird Girl; Frances O’Connor, the Living Venus de Milo; and various Pinheads. As they chant, “We accept her, one of us,” and drink from a communal loving cup, Cleopatra’s mood changes from joy to horror and she angrily yells at the well-meaning celebrants, “Dirty, rotten freaks!”

The film takes a dark turn as the freaks, relying on the Code of the Freaks, discover Cleopatra’s nefarious plot and band together to protect Hans.

Director Tod Browning portrays the freaks as honorable people and Cleopatra and Hercules, the “normal” humans, as monsters. It is this approach that makes Freaks such an interesting film. Browning isn’t showing these deformed individuals as horrific creatures, but as kind innocents who will come together when harm is visited upon one of them.

Freaks faced many problems with the censors, and scenes in the original shooting script were either never filmed or were cut after adverse initial public reactions. Even in its current form, however, the movie is still quite powerful.

Browning and Lon Chaney made ten films together. The Unknown stars Chaney as Alonzo, an armless knife thrower in a circus who has become the confidant of his assistant, Nanon (Joan Crawford). Secretly, Alonzo loves her. Circus strongman Malabar (Norman Kerry), in contrast, is direct and blunt with Nanon about his affection for her. Knowing that Nanon has come to find the touch of a man frightening and repulsive, Alonzo encourages Malabar to take her in his arms and make love to her. He does, and she recoils in disgust.

As in Freaks, the story turns quite dark. Alonzo has a sordid past and has found the circus to be the perfect hiding place from the authorities. But an altercation with the circus owner turns violent. Alonzo’s desperation to elude the police and his sadomasochistic obsession with Nanon lead to deception, blackmail, murder, and disfigurement.

The Unknown is one of Chaney’s best films. Although he became famous for his character make-up creations, he doesn’t wear much facial make-up here. It’s the way he bound his arms tightly against his body that makes the armlessness of his character believable. In some scenes, he wears a cloak to hide his arm bulges, but most of the time, he convinces us that his character’s disability is real.

Though Chaney was known for putting himself through physical discomfort for his roles, the knife throwing with his feet was accomplished by an actual armless knife thrower serving as body double. Other feats such as lighting a cigarette, playing guitar with his toes, pouring and drinking tea from a cup, and picking up a shawl were also performed by the double.

Joan Crawford, who would go on to become one of MGM’s biggest stars of the 1930s, does a fine job as Nanon — sexy with a good deal of bruised innocence, repelled by the touch of men’s hands, and unafraid to be the human target for Alonzo’s knives. She adds a nice touch of glamour to the tawdry sideshow milieu.

The Unknown offers an ironic denouement in its circus melodrama. Browning and Chaney obviously had an excellent working relationship. Under Browning’s direction, Chaney was at his peak.

The Mystic, unavailable up until now, takes place in a small Hungarian circus sideshow. Zara (Aileen Pringle) is a phony psychic who easily fools the locals. Con man Michael Nash (Conway Tearle) has been following the traveling sideshow. He admires the scam of Zara and two associates and convinces them to go to America, where the big money lies. His plan is to bilk the wealthy by playing on their emotional attachment to deceased loved ones, using an assortment of mechanical, electrical, and lighting effects to “conjure” spirits of the dead.

Seances and psychics were popular after World War I. Many people had experienced losses and longed to reach out to those taken from them. Browning was fascinated with unmasking the devices employed by such psychics and has created some eerie, atmospheric moments. Though we know there is nothing actually supernatural about the seances, it is nonetheless intriguing to see how expert Nash, Zara and company are at making their tricks seem authentic. Much depends on the subject’s desire for communications from their dear departed for the orchestrated illusions to convince.

Bonus features on the 2-disc Criterion Collection release include audio commentaries, interview, archival documentary, alternate endings, reading of the short story, “Spurs,” video gallery’s and booklet.

The three films in Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers are all set in a circus or sideshow, a milieu well known to Browning. They all portray the underbelly of what is traditionally a place for entertainment and good times, and reveal deceit, greed, cruelty, and the dark side of human nature. Browning directed many films of various genres between 1915 and 1939 but he is best known for horror, though relatively few of his films can be truly classified as horror. Most deal with those apart from society’s norms, such as criminals, the disabled, scam artists, and exotic foreigners. The films in this set showcase the work of a man who dared to deal with material beyond the mainstream.

Director Tod Browning has been well represented on DVD and Blu-Ray over the years. However that is mostly because of his star performers rather than for his name as a director. In addition to the ubiquitous DRACULA with Bela Lugosi, there are the many collaborations with Lon Chaney. There are also his late Teens and early 1920s crime pictures (OUTSIDE THE LAW, DRIFTING, THE WHITE TIGER) with then top Universal star Priscilla Dean. Finally there are his late MGM sound movies MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935) and THE DEVIL DOLL (1936) but that’s because Lugosi’s n the former and Lionel Barrymore is in the latter. The only picture without a marquee name is FREAKS (1932) and that is finally given the deluxe treatment in this new Criterion set entitled TOD BROWNING’S SIDESHOW SHOCKERS.

In addition to FREAKS (1932), this set also has THE UNKNOWN (1927) with Chaney and a young Joan Crawford and the little known THE MYSTIC from 1925. So much has been written elsewhere about FREAKS, his circus melodrama that uses real sideshow performers as actors, that I will concentrate on the other two movies. THE UNKNOWN has been around since the VHS days in a 50 minute version in so-so condition and that was all we had available. The George Eastman Museum restored the film from a 67 minute Czech archive print which is only 3 minutes short of its original running time. Chaney plays an armless knife thrower who uses his feet to do everything. He loves his assistant (Crawford) who has a phobia about men’s hands. She, in turn, is loved by the circus strongman (Norman Kerry).

It’s even more bizarre than it sounds. Chaney’s character isn’t really without arms. He keeps them hidden to avoid detection for past crimes. The strongman wants to embrace Crawford who recoils in horror. Chaney encourages this to feed her phobia and then has a plan to make her his own. Browning uses a body double for most of the foot sequences but it is very skillfully done. Crawford (who was 20 at the time) and Chaney got along very well and she fondly remembered working with him over 40 years later. Norman Kerry had worked with Chaney before on HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME & PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. The digital 2K resolution looks great and the film is accompanied by an atmospheric piano score by silent film specialist Phillip Carli.

For me the best part of this collection is the rarely seen 1925 crime drama THE MYSTIC. 3 Hungarian gypsies and their American front man use a series of fake seances to try and get a fortune in cash and jewels from a young American heiress. Aileen Pringle, a forgotten silent screen actress, is simply marvelous as Zara the medium. Decked out in costumes by Erte’ plus some fancy Gypsy duds, she seems to be having a great time. The fake seance sequences are still pretty remarkable and obviously influenced the later film noir THE AMAZING MR X (1948). Browning would recycle them in his last movie MIRACLES FOR SALE (1939). The print quality for an unknown movie is excellent and the sound effects score by David Lynch collaborator Dean Hurley is very effective.

As is usually the case with Criterion, they have done a first class job with the packaging. The cover is designed to resemble a vintage circus poster and inside this two disc set (FREAKS on one disc, THE UNKNOWN and THE MYSTIC on the other) a 36 page booklet is included that tells you all you need to know about the movies and their restorations. In addition to the films, there are a number of supplemental extras including commentaries and interviews with Tod Browning specialists David J. Skal and Megan Abbott. My only criticisms are why couldn’t Criterion have included Browning’s other carnival melodrama THE SHOW (1927) with John Gilbert? It could easily have fit on Disc 1 with FREAKS. Also, since their content is identical, why does the Blu-Ray cost $20 more?

I absolutely love 1932’s freaks, I’m 29 and this is in my top 10 films of all time, I’m a big fan of classics, silent and black and white in general, this is an absolute masterpiece, a very rare rating of a 10/10 from me, this was actually banned back in the day and there’s many controversy’s around this gem, also there were scenes that were deleted and hopefully somewhere those scenes are out there and hopefully we will one day see, it’s similar to the Nosferatu 1922 in the sense of that, Nosferatu was literally destroyed and there was one or a few that survived which is why we can watch and physically own the Nosferatu, this is similar , there are scenes that were destroyed so hopefully the scenes are somewhere which can eventually be seen and archived. I have this on dvd which I will be keeping. I have a huge collection dvds,blurays,4ks,VHS,laserdiscs, but I don’t usually spend 40- 50 quid all the time on every title, only those that I personally really want , and this is one that I pre-ordered , I don’t have many Criterion’s as they are expensive and you don’t get much for the price they ask for, but this criterion Blu-ray of freaks (and 2 other tod browning classics which I’ve not yet seen) I couldn’t say no , I must have this in my physical media collection.

If you’ve not seen this , I highly recommend you watch this, this is a very important piece of filmmaking. An underrated gem. I won’t spoil anything for anyone because I’m not one of those people who ruin things, but I suggest you go in blind , draw the curtains, put your feet up and watch the 1932 tod browning classic, which is freaks.