freaks

From the opening scene of this film, which features ' The Living Torso' Prince Randian rolling, and then lighting a cigarette using only his mouth, I knew that I was in for something special. Tod Browning ( director of Dracula) made this movie in 1932, when carnival sideshows were still doing a roaring trade. The film is set in a travelling circus, and is about Hans the midget ( Harry Earles) who is engaged to another midget called Freida ( played by Harrys' real life sister Daisy). He inherits a fortune from a deceased relative, and when Cleopatra, the troupes beautiful trapeze artist finds out, her and fellow gold digger, circus strongman Hercules decide to swindle Hans out of his fortune . Cleopatra plans to seduce Hans ( who already has the hots for her anyway), and then poison him so that her and Hercules can run off together. Unfortunately for the conniving couple, the other 'freaks' who are good freinds of

The great thing about Freaks, and the thing that has drawn the most criticism, is its use of real-life human oddities such as Johnny Eck the half boy, the siamese twin Hilton sisters, and of course the pinheads. I myself find it a refreshing change from todays mainstream cinema, which more often resembles a beauty pageant rather than a movie. Regardless of your acting ability, if you aren't deemed good looking enough, you have no chance in hell of making it into a big budget film today ( unless your role is an ugly complete loser , which is the only reason Steve Buscemi gets any mainstream work). So why should people criticise a movie like Freaks ? It was the only chance a lot of these people would ever have had at fame, seeing as none fit the bill of a Cary Grant or a Judy Garland. To make matters worse, freakshows were banned in the 1970's , so now these people are gawked at and don't even get paid for it. You should really get a copy of Freaks, and put it away so that you can show your grandchildren what life was like before babies were genetically modified to look like Brad Pitt, or Jennifer Anniston.