Freaks (1932)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Freaks |
| Original title | Freaks |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English , German |
| Publishing year | 1932 |
| length | 64 (originally 90) minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Death Browning |
| script |
Al Boasberg , Willis Goldbeck , Leon Gordon , Edgar Allan Woolf |
| production | Death Browning, Irving Thalberg |
| camera | Merritt B. Gerstad |
| cut | Basil Wrangell |
| occupation | |
| |
Freaks is a 1932 American horror film directed by Tod Browning .
action
A woman looks into a locked box during a curiosity show and starts screaming. The guide then explains that the now so horrible-looking creature in the box was once a charming trapeze artist. The following is the story of how the beautiful trapeze artist Cleopatra became this creature.
The diminutive Hans is part of the curiosities show at the circus of Madame Tetrallini. Hans is engaged to Frieda, who is also short, but has fallen in love with Cleopatra. Despite Frieda's warning, he gives her compliments and presents, which Cleopatra gladly accepts, but behind Hans' back she makes fun of him. When Cleopatra learns that Hans has become wealthy through an inheritance, she forges a perfidious plan with her lover, the muscle man Hercules: Cleopatra marries Hans. At the wedding, Cleopatra shows her true colors and makes fun of the many freaks of the circus show while drunk . But not only that - she and Hercules try to poison Hans to get his money. He survived, but his eyes have now been opened.
Then the freaks take revenge. Because those who let themselves be made the mockery of the "normal" stick together. And an old code says that whoever insults one of them is insulting all of them at the same time. The freaks kill Hercules and forcibly turn beautiful Cleopatra into a freak . This becomes - mutilated by the others and reminiscent of a duck - ultimately part of a curiosity show itself. The final scene shows how Hans - meanwhile living in wealthy circumstances due to his inheritance - and Frieda finally get together again years later. Frieda is accompanied by the clown Phroso and the beautiful circus lady Venus, who - although neither are freaks - have always taken them seriously and treated them with kindness.
background
Irving Thalberg , the production manager of MGM , tried with this film to build on the horror successes of the competition Universal Studios . He hired Tod Browning to make a film against which Dracula should appear harmless. Freaks was created in just 36 days of shooting . The film is based on the short story Spurs by Clarence Robbins , which was first reprinted in Munsey's Magazine in February 1923 . Contrary to the usual pattern, Browning decided to make his film look as authentic as possible. That is why the "freaks" were played by genuinely deformed people whom he recruited from fairgrounds or circus tents around the world. He had already worked with lead actor Harry Earles on The Unholy Three .
Originally, the roles of Hercules, Cleopatra and Venus were to be cast with Victor McLaglen , Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow ; however, they didn't want to play alongside the freaks . F. Scott Fitzgerald, on the other hand, who was part of MGM's writing team at the time and couldn't do anything with the movie stars, always sat down with the freaks at a table.
Director Browning himself lived with such freaks in the circus for several years . With this film he actually wanted to set an example for an understanding of otherness, but the film often had the opposite effect. Disabilities were considered curiosities and morally questionable. Therefore, many viewers left the performances because such a film at this time violated the moral standards of the visitors. But the film shows that the "monsters" do not necessarily have to be frightening and that a monster can also hide behind a "beautiful" and apparently normal person.
The final scene was originally planned differently. In the first version you can hear Hercules singing soprano after being punished by the freaks . However, this ending frightened visitors so much during test demonstrations that it was changed. Nevertheless, the film was banned in various states and cities in the United States. In some of them, this ban still applies today. The film was also banned in Great Britain for 30 years. With this, the career of director Browning, which had just reached its climax the year before with the film Dracula , suffered a slump from which he could no longer recover. Because the censors were banned, the film was a financial disaster for MGM. However, decades later, the film is considered one of the classics of the genre.
Originally about 90 minutes long, only a version that is about a third shorter - and has since been restored - has survived. In 1994 the film was entered into the National Film Registry .
Reviews
“An unusual work in the context of the classic horror film genre, in which outwardly well-rounded but evil people are contrasted with monstrous freaks who have retained a sense of dignity, justice and love in all their misery. A basically humane, but at the same time horrific film, which fully shows off the fantastic and macabre aspects of the story. "
“Bizarre cult film. So strange and strange that it took him decades to find his audience. "
“A disturbing, fascinating masterpiece. A humane, tender horror film. "
“Monstrous freaks, from all circus arenas in the world, in a creepy feature film, whose horror operates atmospherically close to the externalities of the freaks, in order to then release them as the most human beings into the free imagination of the viewer; gripping, touching, humane horror exception film (...). (Rating: 3 stars / very good) "
“By allowing the 'freaks' (in the film) to lead an everyday life, they are increasingly regaining that naturalness, naturalness and human dignity that deprive them of a 'preparation medium' such as photography or a camera and a dramaturgy that makes life full of meaning , full of joy, full of worries and the like no more. "
Musical theater
In 2007 the film served as a template for the contemporary opera Freax , the music of which was written by Moritz Eggert and the libretto by Hannah Dübgen . The concert premiere at the Bonn International Beethoven Festival caused a scandal.
literature
- Günter Helmes : Feature film, handicap, handicapped. Observations on an early classic of the “disabled film” genre and its historical and contemporary contexts. The didactic play Freaks (1932) by Tod Browning . In: Diversity and Diversity in Film and Television, ed. by Julia Ricart Brede and Günter Helmes. Münster et al. 2017, pp. 19–62.
Web links
- Freaks in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Freaks in the online film database
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for freaks . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2004 (PDF; test number: 98 665 V / DVD).
- ↑ IMDb Trivia
- ↑ "Freaks" - Tod Browning's greatest flop
- ^ Lexicon of international film (CD-ROM edition), Systhema, Munich 1997
- ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier , Berndt Schulz : Lexicon "Films on TV" . 2nd edition, Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, p. 257, ISBN 3-89136-392-3
- ^ Günter Helmes : Feature film - deviation - disability. In: Julia Ricart Brede, Günter Helmes (Hrsg.): Diversity and variety in film and television. Münster u. a. 2017, p. 58
- ↑ Report in Tagesspiegel