Radically featuring a large cast of actors with real physical deformities, Freaks was marketed with the tasteful tagline, `Can A Full-Grown Woman Truly Love A MIDGET?' The answer is no, as a beautiful but glacial trapeze artist (Olga Baclanova) marries a midget circus-owner (Harry Earles), in order to inherit his fortune. Trouble comes when the `freaks' find out... Director Tod Browning made Dracula but this is his masterwork: a dark but compassionate assault upon the idolatry of beauty.
DVD Extras:
David J Skal, author of Dark Carnival: The Secret World Of Tod Browning, provides an illuminating commentary and the original prologue is included alongside the three alternate `happy endings'. Best of all is Freaks: Sideshow Cinema, an hour-long documentary in which Skal and sideshow performer Todd Robbins discuss the careers of Browning, `living torso' Prince Radian, Koo-Koo The Bird Girl, `Little Person Actor' Angelo Rossitto and others.
