FREAKS (1932) on TCM Saturday Oct 19 8pm EST.
Though I considered listing this notice in Good Movies, FREAKS is a sterling example of a "bad" movie. Badly shot? No! Badly produced, scripted...? Not so much. Badly acted? Well... BAD TASTE? BAD for you??? Oh yeah. Downright naughty. The original Hollywood WTF? movie.
I own this movie.
Not as disturbing as it's been touted.
The fact that Tod Browning,who had a childhood in a carnival explains alot about his fasination with the macabre. FREAKS was a fiplanned on making with Lon Chaney-evidence of Chaney photos of the human chicken.
I have seen parts of Freaks, it is quite interesting. It was a controversial film in the UK, where it was banned until it was finally passed uncut with an "X" rating in 1962.
You can add bad editing to the other "bads." When it failed upon its first release to theaters, it was taken back to the studio and re-edited to make it more palpable to 1932 audiences and re-released. It still failed. I suppose proof that it was a film ahead of its time. Unfortunately, it was also the film that almost destroyed the career of its director Tod Browning. Though, having seen "Freaks" on TV, I think it's a better directorial effort than his better known "Dracula" and "Mark of the Vampire," which I have also seen.
Quote from: BoyScoutKevin on October 23, 2013, 04:02:40 PM
You can add bad editing to the other "bads." When it failed upon its first release to theaters, it was taken back to the studio and re-edited to make it more palpable to 1932 audiences and re-released. It still failed. I suppose proof that it was a film ahead of its time. Unfortunately, it was also the film that almost destroyed the career of its director Tod Browning. Though, having seen "Freaks" on TV, I think it's a better directorial effort than his better known "Dracula" and "Mark of the Vampire," which I have also seen.
I agree; I'd much rather look at
FREAKS than the other two.
FREAKS is on again, tonight October 30, 2013 at 12 am - Midnight - !!!