FREAKS (1932) on TCM 8pm EST Tonight !

[Allhallowsday]

FREAKS (1932) on TCM 8pm EST  Tonight !  

http://youtu.be/vJVXTKkjsxA 

[HappyGilmore]

I have the DVD.

The people I've shown it to don't seem to have the same, um, appreciation for it that I do.

[RCMerchant]

I enjoy it. But don't think it's all that scary. The final scene with the freaks crawling through the mud in the rain is spooky-but otherwise it's really just a -well-freak show.

[HappyGilmore]

I enjoy it. But don't think it's all that scary. The final scene with the freaks crawling through the mud in the rain is spooky-but otherwise it's really just a -well-freak show.

Exactly.  The people I know that didn't like it, mainly didn't like 'exploitation' aspects of using real life people with deformities.  So to speak.

[Allhallowsday]

Watched again.  It's unique.  As BELA said, not scary at all, but some nice set ups.  A movie might be bad for many reasons.  I think FREAKS is a "bad idea" movie.  Of course, it has other "bad" qualities... er, detriments.  For me, it's the GRANDADDY of BAD MOVIES.  Banned, reviled, unseen.  It's what BAD MOVIES are all about.  Long before I saw FREAKS, it's reputation in those old movie monster mags preceded it.  I was primed.  I didn't see it until videotape in the 80s.    

[Raffine]

One of the odd things about FREAKS to me is that it was produced by the top studio MGM (known for its polished, professional, glamorous look) and directed by a (at the time) high profile director - but it looks like it was made by the same folks that made MANIAC (1934). Despite this, or because of it, I love this completely oddball little movie.

Lots of people were outraged at the use of REAL LIVE FREAKS! but I think for the most part they give good, self aware performances. For some reason The Hilton Sisters get lots of praise, but I think the best performance by one of the 'freaks' is by Josephine/Joseph. And even though there's been several recent reality shows featuring people with a similar condition it still takes my breath to see Johnny Eck scuttling around grinning wildly. And I still can't believe they let such a disturbing image as Cleopatra's transformation be shown! Yikes!

It wasn't until this was out on DVD with captions that I finally read much of the dialog, which sounds like gibberish in the movie. I like how Prince Radian ends his big scene with a snarky "Can you do anything with your eyebrow". The midgets and their squeaky voices switch back and forth between heavily accented English and German so it's impossible to tell what's going on without the titles.

Best line is still Wallace Ford's still unexplained: YOU SHOULDA CAUGHT ME BEFORE MY OPERATION.

I wonder if Edward Brophy's 'Rollo Brother' is supposed to be the same character, also a circus performer 'Rollo Brother', he plays in MAD LOVE.

[TYTD Reviews]

I really properly love this movie. Its often I feel mislabelled as a "Horror"...while it certainly does have horror elements I would argue its probably more at home as a "Tragedy" with Horror elements. I think it was probably about 30 years ahead of its time and had they gone with the original uncut ending it would be considered one of the all time horror greats. In the UK it was pretty much banned till the 70's/80's. I only managed to get round to watching about 3-4 years ago and I was absolutely smitten with it.

I heard a while ago that Criterion was putting together a Bluray for it. But that was about 3 years ago now so I guess they must have run into trouble with it.