Freaks (1932)

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In a traveling circus sideshow, a scheming trapeze artist named Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) marries a gullible, love-struck little person named Hans (Harry Earles) with plans of poisoning him and inheriting his fortunes. But there’s a code among sideshow freaks, and when Cleopatra’s dishonesty is discovered, the freaks set out to make her… ‘one of us’.

Tod Browning’s (Dracula) Freaks was originally intended to horrify audiences with its cast of real-life performing oddities, even while the film subverts those expectations by portraying the performers as human beings with every day desires and emotions. The conjoined twins, for example, are courting two fiancees. And diminutive Frieda (Daisy Earles) doesn’t care about her own broken heart as much as she cares for Hans’ feelings, knowing all too well Cleopatra’s interest in him isn’t pure of heart.

Audiences today will still marvel at the authentic cast of sideshow curiosities — from Johnny Eck the half-man and Frances O’Connor the armless woman, to the human skeleton, the bearded lady, the pinheads, and perhaps most memorable of all, Prince Randian, the ‘living torso’. Freaks presents all these characters as neighbors in their own, caring community. The truly monstrous behavior comes from the conniving Cleopatra and her insensitive strong man boyfriend (Henry Victor). And once their villainy is exposed, you can’t blame the freaks from taking their revenge.

The film is full of highlights, but my favorite moments include the wedding day banquet, where the freaks chant their infamous “one of us, one of us” song and try to get Cleopatra to drink from their shared goblet. Browning’s depiction of the freaks’ revenge is set during a torrential rain and lightning storm. The sight of small or limbless bodies dragging themselves through mud with knives in their clenched hands and teeth is one of the spookiest in movie history.

With Leila Hyams, Wallace Ford, and Angelo Rossitto (Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome).