Freaks
Encyclopedia
Freaks is a 1932 American Pre-Code horror film
about sideshow
performers, directed and produced by Tod Browning
and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
, with a cast mostly composed of actual carnival
(funfair
) performers. The film was based on Tod Robbins
' 1923 short story "Spurs
". Director Browning took the exceptional step of casting real people with deformities as the eponymous sideshow "freaks," rather than using costumes and makeup.
Browning had been a member of a traveling circus
in his early years, and much of the film was drawn from his personal experiences. In the film, the physically deformed "freaks" are inherently trusting and honorable people, while the real monsters are two of the "normal" members of the circus who conspire to murder one of the performers to obtain his large inheritance.
artist named Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova
), who seduces and eventually marries a sideshow
midget
, Hans (Harry Earles
), after learning of his large inheritance. At their wedding reception, the other "freaks" resolve that they will accept Cleopatra in spite of her being a "normal" outsider, and hold an initiation ceremony, wherein they pass a massive goblet of wine
around the table while chanting, "We accept her! We accept her! One of us! One of us! Gooble-gobble, gooble-gobble!" The ceremony frightens the drunken Cleopatra, who accidentally reveals that she has been having an affair with Hercules (Henry Victor
), the strong man; she mocks the freaks, tosses the wine in their faces, and drives them away. Despite being humiliated, Hans remains with Cleopatra.
Shortly thereafter, Hans is taken ill. Cleopatra has poisoned his wine at the wedding, and continues slipping poison
into Hans' medicine so that she can inherit his money and run away with Hercules. Venus (Leila Hyams
), another circus performer, overhears Cleopatra and Hercules discussing the murder plot and tells Hans and the other freaks. In the film's climax, the freaks attack Cleopatra and Hercules with guns, knives, and various sharp-edged weapons, hideously mutilating them during a bad storm. Though Hercules is never seen again, the original ending of the film had the freaks castrating
him; the audience sees him later singing in falsetto
. The film concludes with a revelation of Cleopatra's fate; she has become a grotesque, squawking "human duck". The flesh of her hands has been melted and deformed to look like duck feet and her lower half has been permanently tarred and feathered
.
In an ending MGM threw in later for a "happier ending", Hans is living a millionaire's life in a huge house. Venus and her clown boyfriend Phroso (Wallace Ford
) come with Frieda to visit, and Frieda comforts Hans when he begins to cry.
performers.
, offered Browning the opportunity to direct Arsène Lupin
with John Barrymore
. Browning declined, preferring to develop Freaks, a project he had started as early as 1927. Screenwriters Willis Goldbeck
and Elliott Clawson were assigned to the project at Browning's request. Leon Gordon, Edgar Allan Woolf, Al Boasberg
and an uncredited Charles MacArthur
would also contribute to the script. The script was shaped over five months. Little of the original story was retained beyond the marriage between a midget and an average-sized woman and their wedding feast. Myrna Loy
was initially slated to star as Cleopatra, with Jean Harlow
as Venus. Ultimately, Thalberg decided not to cast any major stars in the picture.
Freaks began filming in October 1931 and was completed in December. Following disastrous test screenings in January 1932 (one woman threatened to sue MGM, claiming the film had caused her to suffer a miscarriage
), the studio cut the picture down from its original 90-minute running time to just over an hour. Much of the sequence of the freaks attacking Cleopatra, as she lay under a tree, was removed, as well as a gruesome sequence showing Hercules being castrated, a number of comedy sequences, and most of the film's original epilogue. A new prologue featuring a carnival barker
was added, as was the new epilogue featuring the reconciliation of the tiny lovers. This shortened version - now only 64 minutes long - had its premiere at the Fox Criterion in Los Angeles
on February 20, 1932.
. Browning, famed at the time for his collaborations with Lon Chaney
and for directing Bela Lugosi
in Dracula
(1931), had trouble finding work afterward, and this effectually brought his career to an early close. Because its deformed cast was shocking to moviegoers of the time, the film was banned in the United Kingdom
for 30 years. Beginning in the early 1960s, Freaks was rediscovered as a counterculture
cult film
, and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the film was regularly shown at midnight movie screenings at several movie theaters in the United States. In 1994, Freaks was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It was ranked 15th on Bravo TV's list of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments
.
Among the characters featured as "freaks" were Peter Robinson
("the human skeleton"); Olga Roderick
("the bearded lady
"); Frances O'Connor
and Martha Morris ("armless wonder
s"); and the conjoined twins
Daisy and Violet Hilton
. Among the microcephalics
who appear in the film (and are referred to as "pinheads") were Zip and Pip (Elvira and Jenny Lee Snow) and Schlitzie
, a male named Simon Metz who wore a dress mainly due to incontinence
, a disputed claim. Also featured were the intersexual Josephine Joseph
, with her left/right divided gender; Johnny Eck
, the legless man; the completely limbless Prince Randian
(also known as The Human Torso, and mis-credited as "Rardion"); Elizabeth Green the Stork Woman
; and Koo-Koo the Bird Girl
, who suffered from Virchow-Seckel syndrome or bird-headed dwarfism, and is most remembered for the scene wherein she dances on the table.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
about sideshow
Sideshow
In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction.- Types of attractions :There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:...
performers, directed and produced by Tod Browning
Tod Browning
Tod Browning was an American motion picture actor, director and screenwriter.Browning's career spanned the silent and talkie eras...
and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
, with a cast mostly composed of actual carnival
Traveling carnival
A traveling carnival is an amusement show that may be made up of amusement rides, food vendors, merchandise vendors, games of chance and skill, thrill acts, animal acts or sideshow curiosities. A traveling carnival is not set up at a permanent location, like an amusement park, but is moved from...
(funfair
Funfair
A funfair or simply "fair" is a small to medium sized travelling show primarily composed of stalls and other amusements. Larger fairs such as the permanent fairs of cities and seaside resorts might be called a fairground, although technically this should refer to the land where a fair is...
) performers. The film was based on Tod Robbins
Tod Robbins
Clarence Aaron "Tod" Robbins was an American author of horror and mystery fiction. Robbins attended Washington and Lee University and—along with Mark W...
' 1923 short story "Spurs
Spurs (short story)
"Spurs" is a short story by Tod Robbins. The story was published in February 1923 in Munsey's Magazine and included in Robbins' 1926 anthology Who Wants a Green Bottle? and Other Uneasy Tales...
". Director Browning took the exceptional step of casting real people with deformities as the eponymous sideshow "freaks," rather than using costumes and makeup.
Browning had been a member of a traveling circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
in his early years, and much of the film was drawn from his personal experiences. In the film, the physically deformed "freaks" are inherently trusting and honorable people, while the real monsters are two of the "normal" members of the circus who conspire to murder one of the performers to obtain his large inheritance.
Plot
The central story is of a self-serving trapezeTrapeze
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances...
artist named Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova
Olga Baclanova
Olga Vladimirovna Baclanova, or Baklanova, was a Russian-born actress, who achieved prominence during the silent film era. She was billed as the Russian Tigress and remains most noted by modern audiences for portraying the leading lady in Tod Browning's unique horror movie Freaks , which features...
), who seduces and eventually marries a sideshow
Sideshow
In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction.- Types of attractions :There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:...
midget
Midget
A midget is a short person with relatively average bodily proportions in comparison with other human beings. The term is often improperly used to describe a person with the medical condition dwarfism. The two terms are often used synonymously because both terms originate as words defining small...
, Hans (Harry Earles
The Doll Family
The Doll Family was a group of four dwarf siblings from Germany who were popular performers in circuses and sideshows in the United States from the 1920s until their retirement in the mid 1950s.They were:*Gracie The Doll Family was a group of four dwarf siblings from Germany who were popular...
), after learning of his large inheritance. At their wedding reception, the other "freaks" resolve that they will accept Cleopatra in spite of her being a "normal" outsider, and hold an initiation ceremony, wherein they pass a massive goblet of wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
around the table while chanting, "We accept her! We accept her! One of us! One of us! Gooble-gobble, gooble-gobble!" The ceremony frightens the drunken Cleopatra, who accidentally reveals that she has been having an affair with Hercules (Henry Victor
Henry Victor
Henry Victor was an English-born character actor. Raised in Germany, Victor is probably best remembered for his portrayal of the strongman Hercules in Tod Browning's 1932 film Freaks. He originally was a leading figure in UK silent films...
), the strong man; she mocks the freaks, tosses the wine in their faces, and drives them away. Despite being humiliated, Hans remains with Cleopatra.
Shortly thereafter, Hans is taken ill. Cleopatra has poisoned his wine at the wedding, and continues slipping poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
into Hans' medicine so that she can inherit his money and run away with Hercules. Venus (Leila Hyams
Leila Hyams
Leila Hyams was an American film actress. Her relatively short film career began in silent films, and ended in the mid 1930s.-Early life:...
), another circus performer, overhears Cleopatra and Hercules discussing the murder plot and tells Hans and the other freaks. In the film's climax, the freaks attack Cleopatra and Hercules with guns, knives, and various sharp-edged weapons, hideously mutilating them during a bad storm. Though Hercules is never seen again, the original ending of the film had the freaks castrating
Castration
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.-Humans:...
him; the audience sees him later singing in falsetto
Falsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
. The film concludes with a revelation of Cleopatra's fate; she has become a grotesque, squawking "human duck". The flesh of her hands has been melted and deformed to look like duck feet and her lower half has been permanently tarred and feathered
Tarred and Feathered
"Tarred and Feathered" is a song by English punk rock band Dogs and is featured on their debut album, Turn Against This Land. Released on November 28, 2005, it was the fifth and final single taken from the album....
.
In an ending MGM threw in later for a "happier ending", Hans is living a millionaire's life in a huge house. Venus and her clown boyfriend Phroso (Wallace Ford
Wallace Ford
Wallace Ford was an English film and television actor who, with his friendly appearance and stocky build later in life, appeared in a number of film westerns and B-movies....
) come with Frieda to visit, and Frieda comforts Hans when he begins to cry.
Additional features
Spliced throughout the main narrative are a variety of "slice of life" segments detailing the lives of the sideshowSideshow
In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction.- Types of attractions :There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:...
performers.
- The bearded womanBearded LadyA bearded lady or bearded woman is a woman who has a visible beard. These women have long been a phenomenon of legend, curiosity, ridicule, and more recently, political statement and fashion statement. A small number of women are able to grow enough facial hair to have a distinct beard...
, who loves the human skeleton, gives birth to their daughter. - Violet, a conjoined twinConjoined twinsConjoined twins are identical twins whose bodies are joined in utero. A rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 50,000 births to 1 in 100,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in Southwest Asia and Africa. Approximately half are stillborn, and a smaller fraction of...
whose sister Daisy is married to one of the circus clowns, herself becomes engaged to the owner of the circus. Daisy appears to react with romantic arousal when Violet is kissed by her suitor, and a closed-eyed Violet knows when Daisy's shoulder has been touched, implying that each sister can experience the other's physical sensations.- Daisy and Violet HiltonDaisy and Violet HiltonDaisy Hilton and Violet Hilton were a pair of conjoined twins who toured in the U.S. sideshow and vaudeville circuit in the 1930s.-Early life:...
were real-life conjoined twins.
- Daisy and Violet Hilton
- The Human Torso (Prince RandianPrince RandianPrince Randian or Prince Rardion , also known as The Snake Man, The Living Torso, The Human Caterpillar and a variety of other names was a famous limbless sideshow performer of the early 1900s, best known for his ability to roll cigarettes with his lips. He was reportedly brought to the United...
), in the middle of a conversation, takes his own cigaretteCigaretteA cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
and lights it, using only his tongue. In the original scene, he also rolls the cigarette, but the sequence does not appear in any commercial release.
Cast (in credits order)
- Wallace FordWallace FordWallace Ford was an English film and television actor who, with his friendly appearance and stocky build later in life, appeared in a number of film westerns and B-movies....
as Phroso - Leila HyamsLeila HyamsLeila Hyams was an American film actress. Her relatively short film career began in silent films, and ended in the mid 1930s.-Early life:...
as Venus - Olga BaclanovaOlga BaclanovaOlga Vladimirovna Baclanova, or Baklanova, was a Russian-born actress, who achieved prominence during the silent film era. She was billed as the Russian Tigress and remains most noted by modern audiences for portraying the leading lady in Tod Browning's unique horror movie Freaks , which features...
as Cleopatra - Roscoe AtesRoscoe AtesRoscoe Ates was an actor and musician in primarily western films and television.-Early years:Ates was born in the rural hamlet of Grange, Mississippi, northwest of Hattiesburg. Grange is no longer included on road maps...
as Roscoe - Henry VictorHenry VictorHenry Victor was an English-born character actor. Raised in Germany, Victor is probably best remembered for his portrayal of the strongman Hercules in Tod Browning's 1932 film Freaks. He originally was a leading figure in UK silent films...
as Hercules - Harry Earles as Hans
- Daisy Earles as Frieda
- Rose DioneRose DioneRose Dione was a French born actress of the silent era. She appeared in 68 films between 1910 and 1932. She was often billed as Madame Rose or Madame Dion...
as Madame Tetrallini - Daisy Hilton as Siamese Twin
- Violet Hilton as Siamese Twin
- Schlitze as Himself
- Josephine JosephJosephine JosephJosephine Joseph was a Polish Austrian whose body was supposedly split down the middle, one side female and the other male. She claimed to be a true hermaphrodite, but there is no evidence to confirm whether this was the case or not; she may have just been a very skilled male/female...
as Half Woman-Half Man - Johnny EckJohnny EckJohnny Eck, born John Eckhardt, Jr. was an American freak show performer born with the appearance that he was missing the lower half of his torso. Eck is best known today for his role in Tod Browning's 1932 cult classic film, Freaks...
as Half Boy - Frances O'ConnorFrances O'Connor (performer)Frances Belle O'Connor was born without arms. She made her living by appearing in various circus sideshows as the armless wonder or the living Venus de Milo...
as Armless Girl - Peter RobinsonPeter Robinson (sideshow artist)Peter Robinson was an American actor and sideshow performer.Peter Robinson was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of Norwegian immigrants...
as Human Skeleton - Olga Roderick as Bearded Lady
- Koo KooKoo-Koo the Bird GirlKoo Koo, the Bird Girl was born Minnie Woolsey in 1880. When she died is unknown, but accounts show that she was still alive in 1960.Woolsey suffered from a rare skeletal disorder called Virchow-Seckel syndrome, which caused her to have a very short stature, a small head, a narrow birdlike face...
as Herself - Prince RandianPrince RandianPrince Randian or Prince Rardion , also known as The Snake Man, The Living Torso, The Human Caterpillar and a variety of other names was a famous limbless sideshow performer of the early 1900s, best known for his ability to roll cigarettes with his lips. He was reportedly brought to the United...
as The Living Torso - Martha Morris as Angeleno's Armless Wife
- Elvira Snow as Pinhead
- Jenny Lee Snow as Pinhead
- Elizabeth GreenElizabeth Green the Stork WomanElizabeth Green, also known as Betty Green, was a sideshow performer who was presented to audiences as a human stork during the early 1900s. According to Tod Browning her condition was a partial contrivance and she owned six blocks of flats. Nevertheless a genetic condition was responsible for her...
as Bird Girl - Delmo Fritz as Sword Swallower
- Angelo RossittoAngelo RossittoAngelo Rossitto was an American actor. He had dwarfism and was 2'11" tall.Rossitto was discovered by John Barrymore and made his screen debut opposite Barrymore in The Beloved Rogue . He appeared in the then controversial 1932 film Freaks directed by Tod Browning. He appeared in another...
as Angeleno - Edward BrophyEdward BrophyEdward S. Brophy was an American character actor, voice artist, and comedian. Small of build, balding, and raucous-voiced, he was known for portraying gangsters, both serious and comic.-Career:...
as Rollo Brother - Matt McHughMatt McHughMatt McHugh was an American film actor who appeared in over 200 films between 1931 and 1955, primarily in small parts.-Career:...
as Rollo Brother
Production
MGM had purchased the rights to Robbins' short story, Spurs, in the 1920s at Browning's urging. In June 1932, MGM production supervisor, Irving ThalbergIrving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films.-Life and...
, offered Browning the opportunity to direct Arsène Lupin
Arsène Lupin
Arsène Lupin is a fictional character who appears in a book series of detective fiction / crime fiction novels written by French writer Maurice Leblanc, as well as a number of non-canonical sequels and numerous film, television such as Night Hood, stage play and comic book adaptations.- Overview :A...
with John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
. Browning declined, preferring to develop Freaks, a project he had started as early as 1927. Screenwriters Willis Goldbeck
Willis Goldbeck
Willis Goldbeck was an American screenwriter and film director. He wrote for 40 films between 1923 and 1962. He also directed ten films between 1942 and 1951. Willis graduated High School from Worcester Academy....
and Elliott Clawson were assigned to the project at Browning's request. Leon Gordon, Edgar Allan Woolf, Al Boasberg
Al Boasberg
Al Boasberg was a American comedy writer in vaudeville, radio, and film, as well as being a film director....
and an uncredited Charles MacArthur
Charles MacArthur
Charles Gordon MacArthur was an American playwright and screenwriter.-Biography:Charles MacArthur was the second youngest of seven children born to stern evangelist William Telfer MacArthur and Georgiana Welsted MacArthur. He early developed a passion for reading...
would also contribute to the script. The script was shaped over five months. Little of the original story was retained beyond the marriage between a midget and an average-sized woman and their wedding feast. Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
was initially slated to star as Cleopatra, with Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" , Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute...
as Venus. Ultimately, Thalberg decided not to cast any major stars in the picture.
Freaks began filming in October 1931 and was completed in December. Following disastrous test screenings in January 1932 (one woman threatened to sue MGM, claiming the film had caused her to suffer a miscarriage
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
), the studio cut the picture down from its original 90-minute running time to just over an hour. Much of the sequence of the freaks attacking Cleopatra, as she lay under a tree, was removed, as well as a gruesome sequence showing Hercules being castrated, a number of comedy sequences, and most of the film's original epilogue. A new prologue featuring a carnival barker
Barker (occupation)
A barker is a person who attempts to attract patrons to entertainment events, such as a circus or funfair, by exhorting passing public, describing attractions of show and emphasizing variety, novelty, beauty, or some other feature believed to incite listeners to attend entertainment...
was added, as was the new epilogue featuring the reconciliation of the tiny lovers. This shortened version - now only 64 minutes long - had its premiere at the Fox Criterion in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
on February 20, 1932.
Reception
Despite the extensive cuts, the film was still negatively received by audiences, and remained an object of extreme controversy. Today, the parts that were removed are considered lostLost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
. Browning, famed at the time for his collaborations with Lon Chaney
Lon Chaney, Sr.
Lon Chaney , nicknamed "The Man of a Thousand Faces," was an American actor during the age of silent films. He was one of the most versatile and powerful actors of early cinema...
and for directing Bela Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
in Dracula
Dracula (1931 film)
Dracula is a 1931 vampire-horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal and is based on the stage play of the same name by Hamilton Deane and John L...
(1931), had trouble finding work afterward, and this effectually brought his career to an early close. Because its deformed cast was shocking to moviegoers of the time, the film was banned in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
for 30 years. Beginning in the early 1960s, Freaks was rediscovered as a counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
, and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the film was regularly shown at midnight movie screenings at several movie theaters in the United States. In 1994, Freaks was selected for preservation in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It was ranked 15th on Bravo TV's list of the 100 Scariest Movie Moments
100 Scariest Movie Moments
The 100 Scariest Movie Moments is a television documentary miniseries that first aired in late October 2004 on Bravo. Aired in five 60-minute segments, the miniseries counts down what producer Anthony Timpone, writer Patrick Moses, and director Kevin Kaufman have determined as the 100 most...
.
Among the characters featured as "freaks" were Peter Robinson
Peter Robinson (sideshow artist)
Peter Robinson was an American actor and sideshow performer.Peter Robinson was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of Norwegian immigrants...
("the human skeleton"); Olga Roderick
Jane Barnell
Jane Barnell was a US bearded lady who used the stage name Lady Olga....
("the bearded lady
Bearded Lady
A bearded lady or bearded woman is a woman who has a visible beard. These women have long been a phenomenon of legend, curiosity, ridicule, and more recently, political statement and fashion statement. A small number of women are able to grow enough facial hair to have a distinct beard...
"); Frances O'Connor
Frances O'Connor (performer)
Frances Belle O'Connor was born without arms. She made her living by appearing in various circus sideshows as the armless wonder or the living Venus de Milo...
and Martha Morris ("armless wonder
Armless wonder
An Armless Wonder was a person without arms who was exhibited, usually at a circus sideshow. Typically a woman, she would perform various tricks using her feet and toes, such as smoking a cigarette or writing...
s"); and the conjoined twins
Conjoined twins
Conjoined twins are identical twins whose bodies are joined in utero. A rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 50,000 births to 1 in 100,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in Southwest Asia and Africa. Approximately half are stillborn, and a smaller fraction of...
Daisy and Violet Hilton
Daisy and Violet Hilton
Daisy Hilton and Violet Hilton were a pair of conjoined twins who toured in the U.S. sideshow and vaudeville circuit in the 1930s.-Early life:...
. Among the microcephalics
Microcephaly
Microcephaly is a neurodevelopmental disorder in which the circumference of the head is more than two standard deviations smaller than average for the person's age and sex. Microcephaly may be congenital or it may develop in the first few years of life...
who appear in the film (and are referred to as "pinheads") were Zip and Pip (Elvira and Jenny Lee Snow) and Schlitzie
Schlitzie
Schlitzie , possibly born Simon Metz, and legally Schlitze Surtees, was an American sideshow performer and occasional actor, best known for his role in the 1932 movie Freaks and his life-long career on the outdoor entertainment circuit as a major...
, a male named Simon Metz who wore a dress mainly due to incontinence
Urinary incontinence
Urinary incontinence is any involuntary leakage of urine. It is a common and distressing problem, which may have a profound impact on quality of life. Urinary incontinence almost always results from an underlying treatable medical condition but is under-reported to medical practitioners...
, a disputed claim. Also featured were the intersexual Josephine Joseph
Josephine Joseph
Josephine Joseph was a Polish Austrian whose body was supposedly split down the middle, one side female and the other male. She claimed to be a true hermaphrodite, but there is no evidence to confirm whether this was the case or not; she may have just been a very skilled male/female...
, with her left/right divided gender; Johnny Eck
Johnny Eck
Johnny Eck, born John Eckhardt, Jr. was an American freak show performer born with the appearance that he was missing the lower half of his torso. Eck is best known today for his role in Tod Browning's 1932 cult classic film, Freaks...
, the legless man; the completely limbless Prince Randian
Prince Randian
Prince Randian or Prince Rardion , also known as The Snake Man, The Living Torso, The Human Caterpillar and a variety of other names was a famous limbless sideshow performer of the early 1900s, best known for his ability to roll cigarettes with his lips. He was reportedly brought to the United...
(also known as The Human Torso, and mis-credited as "Rardion"); Elizabeth Green the Stork Woman
Elizabeth Green the Stork Woman
Elizabeth Green, also known as Betty Green, was a sideshow performer who was presented to audiences as a human stork during the early 1900s. According to Tod Browning her condition was a partial contrivance and she owned six blocks of flats. Nevertheless a genetic condition was responsible for her...
; and Koo-Koo the Bird Girl
Koo-Koo the Bird Girl
Koo Koo, the Bird Girl was born Minnie Woolsey in 1880. When she died is unknown, but accounts show that she was still alive in 1960.Woolsey suffered from a rare skeletal disorder called Virchow-Seckel syndrome, which caused her to have a very short stature, a small head, a narrow birdlike face...
, who suffered from Virchow-Seckel syndrome or bird-headed dwarfism, and is most remembered for the scene wherein she dances on the table.