Arkansas Society for Cinema and Television Production (ASCTP)

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contact: Gary William Jones gary@jonesfilmvideo.com

Glossary of Film Terms: http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms1.html

RTV 3303-001 Spring 2010 Class #4 Freaks (1932)

(Setting the stage for Freaks (1932)—one of the most controversial movies of its—or any other—era.)

Chapter 8: The Sound Film and the American Studio System

Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film, Third Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1996.

Studio Politics and the Production Code

It is impossible to comprehend the American film during the thirties without understanding the mechanisms of the Hollywood studio system. The great studios were founded in the era Before World War I when the Motion Picture Patents Company was destroyed and the independents moved to assume monopolistic control over film production, distribution, and exhibition…In the period of economic growth that followed the war, Wall Street began to invest heavily in the studios for both financial and political reasons. It was clear, in the first place, that motion pictures were on their way to becoming a major industry; it was equally clear during these years of the “Red Scare” that the movies were a medium of mass persuasion and propaganda par excellence. (p. 280)

…the coming of sound had produced a wave of grim, often violent, screen realism and yet another public outcry against the “immorality” of Hollywood films. This time the reaction was organized by the American bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, who…set up the “Legion of Decency” to fight for better and more “moral” motion pictures…(and the Hays Office created)…the Draconian “Production Code” whose provisions would dictate the content of American motion pictures, without exception, for the net twenty years.

In a pendulum swing away from the excesses of the “new morality” of the Jazz Era, the Production Code was awesomely repressive, and it prohibited the showing or mentioning of almost everything germane to the situation of normal human adults. It forbade depicting “scenes of passion” in all but the most puerile terms, and it required that the sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home be upheld at all time (married couples, however, were never to be shown sharing a bid). Adultery, illicit sex, seduction, or rape could never be more than suggested, and then only if they were absolutely essential to the plot and were severely punished at the end. .. Also prohibited were the use of profanity…and racial epithets; any implication of prostitution, miscegenation, sexual aberration or drug addiction; nudity of all sorts; sexually suggest dances of costumes; “excessive and lustful kissing”; and excessive drinking. It was forbidden to ridicule or criticize any aspect of any religious faith, to show cruelty to animals or children, or to represent surgical operations, especially childbirth, “in fact or in silhouette.”

…the Code’s most labyrinthine strictures were reserved for the depiction of crime. It was forbidden to show the details of a crime…law enforcement officers never be shown dying at the hands of criminals, and that all criminal activities within a given film were shown to be punished. Under no circumstances could a crime be shown to be justified…

The reasons that the moguls were willing not merely to accept but to institutionalize what was clear a system of de facto censorship and prior restraint were several—all of them ultimately related to staying in business. For one thing, obviously, the economic threat of a boycott during the worst years of the Depression was real, and a n industry dependent upon pleasing a mass audience several times a week must deliver to that audience what it thinks, at least, the audience wants. For another thing, producers found that they could turn the Code to work decisively in favor of more efficient production…the Code could be used as a kind of scriptwriter’s blueprint….Finally, we should remember that the Depression was a time of open political anti-Semitism in the United States…If Will Hays alone couldn’t reassure the moguls’ Christian audience of their decency, perhaps a code of ethics dictated by the Catholic bishops could. (pp.282-4)

Schneider, Steven Jay, ed. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, Hauppauge, NY:Barron’s, 2008.

From its original conception as a horror movie exceeding all expectations, something more disturbing than anything seen before…to its revival as an avant-garde film in the tradition of Luis Bunuel and Alain Robbe-Grillet, Tod Browning’s Freaks has covered the range of horror, art-house, and documentary. This last—documentary—because of its realism as expressed in the movie’s use of “real freaks.” Nevertheless, despite its originality of conception and design, and its startling ability to both move and frighten audiences, Freaks has remained to this day an underappreciated film….no mere plot summary can do justice to this alarming yet profound movie…considered by many the most remarkable film in the career of a director whose credits include the original version of Dracula (1931). (p. 100)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tod_Browning

(Biographical excerpts on Wikipedia entry for TOD BROWNING:)

He was born Charles Albert Browning, Jr., in Louisville, Kentucky... As a young boy, he put on amateur plays in his backyard. He was fascinated by the circus and carnival life, and at the age of 16 he ran away from his well-to-do family to become a performer.

Changing his name to "Tod", he traveled extensively with sideshows, carnivals, and circuses. His jobs included working as a talker (barker, as the term is also known, isn't correct) for the Wild Man of Borneo, performing a live burial act in which he was billed as "The Living Corpse", and performing as a clown with the Ringling Brothers Circus. He would draw on this experience as inspiration for some of his film work…

The death of his father sent Browning into a depression that led to alcoholism. He was laid off by Universal and his wife left him. However, he recovered, reconciled with his wife, and got a one-picture contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer. The film he produced for MGM, The Day of Faith, was a moderate success, putting his career back on track.

Thalberg reunited Browning with Lon Chaney for The Unholy Three (1925), the story of three circus performers who concoct a scheme to con and steal jewels from rich people using disguises. Browning's circus experience shows in his sympathetic portrayal of the antiheroes. The film was a resounding success…

After directing the boxing melodrama The Iron Man (1931), Browning began work on Freaks (1932). Based on the short story "Spurs" by Clarence Aaron "Tod" Robbins, the screenwriter of The Unholy Three, the film concerns a love triangle between a wealthy dwarf, a gold-digging aerialist, and a strongman; a murder plot; and the vengeance dealt out by the dwarf and his fellow circus freaks. The film was highly controversial, even after heavy editing to remove many disturbing scenes, and was a commercial failure. Browning's career was derailed.

Browning found himself unable to get his requested projects greenlighted…Browning's final film was the murder mystery Miracles for Sale (1939)… After Miracles for Sale, Browning did some scenario work for MGM. In 1942 he retired and moved to Malibu. He became such a recluse that soon after his wife died in 1944, Variety accidentally published an obituary for him. Even his neighbors rarely saw him. In the late 1950s he developed throat cancer, necessitating tongue surgery. When his brother Avery died in 1959, he attended the funeral from a private room and would not let family members see him.

Tod Browning was found dead at age 82, on October 6, 1962, in the bathroom of some friends in Malibu.

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http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0022913/trivia

The film's original ending showed Hercules singing soprano in Madame Tetralini's new sideshow because he has been castrated by the freaks. After intensely negative reaction by preview audiences, this scene was cut.

Prince Randian, the man with no arms or legs, developed a habit of lurking in dark corners and frightening passers-by with a blood-curdling yell.

During filming, director Tod Browning was plagued with dreams in which Johnny Eck and a pinhead would keep bringing a cow in backward through a doorway in the middle of shoots.

In the UK this film was banned for 30 years after it was first released.

The original casting had Victor McLaglen as Hercules, Myrna Loy as Cleopatra, and Jean Harlow as Venus. All balked at the prospect of co-starring with "sideshow exhibitions".

The on-screen romance between Hans and Frieda was very subdued because the roles were being played by real life brother and sister Harry Earles and Daisy Earles.

After the film had been withdrawn and shelved by MGM, the distribution rights were acquired by notorious exploitation roadshow specialist Dwain Esper. Esper traveled the country showing the film under such lurid titles as "Forbidden Love" and "Nature's Mistakes".

During the 1920s and 1930s, photographer Edward J. Kelty took a succession of group photographs of members of the Barnum and Bailey freak show. What is interesting is how many cast members can be spotted in them (this film is the only movie credit for most of them). Familiar faces include Harry Earles (Hans), Daisy Earles (Frieda), Peter Robinson (human skeleton), Elvira Snow (pinhead), Jenny Lee Snow (pinhead), Elizabeth Green (bird girl) and Olga Roderick (bearded lady).

Cast member Olga Roderick, the bearded lady, later denounced the film and regretted her involvement in it.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was a member of the MGM writing department at the time the movie was in production. He never felt quite at home with all the movie stars and powerful moguls, and so he often dined in the commissary at the table of the sideshow attractions (freaks) during his lunch hour.

When uncredited producer Dwain Esper traveled the country with this film, he used some of the most lurid and suggestive promotions. For some engagements, if he was satisfied that it was safe, the feature would be followed by a square-up reel. This reel was basically nudist camp footage.

In the United States, this film was banned in a number of states and cities. Although no longer enforced, some of the laws were never officially repealed. Therefore, it is still technically illegal for this film to be shown some areas of the USA.

Myrna Loy, originally slated for the Olga Baclanova role, turned down the part because she felt the script was offensive.

During a publicity photo session with Olga Baclanova, midget actor Harry Earles kept making lewd remarks. Many of her surprised and disgusted visual expressions in the photos that the session yielded are authentic rather than posed.

Several variations on the ending are still in existence. However, the footage of Hercules singing soprano was not included in any of the foreign versions and is now regarded as lost.

Was originally banned in Australia.

When MGM production chief Irving Thalberg gave Willis Goldbeck the assignment to write a draft of a screenplay based on Clarence Aaron 'Tod' Robbins's story "Spurs", the only direction he gave Goldbeck was that the script had to be "horrible". The writer completed his draft quickly and turned the script over to Thalberg. A few days later, Goldbeck was summoned to Thalberg's office, where he found the producer slumped forward on his desk with his face buried in his arms, as if overwhelmed. After a moment, Thalberg sat up straight and looked at Goldbeck. "Well," said Thalberg, "it's horrible."

Schlitze, the microcephalic member of the cast who appears to be female, was actually a male. The dress was worn for reasons of personal hygiene.

Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies".

Dwarf actor Angelo Rossitto, who appeared as Angeleno, would go on to a successful career in TV and films including Little Moe in the Robert Blake TV series Baretta and as one half of the giant Master Blaster opposite Mel Gibson in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

The film was rejected for UK cinema showing in 1932 and again in 1952. It was finally passed for cinema with an uncut X rating in May 1963, making it one of the longest bans in UK film history.

The tune that 'Angeleno' plays on his flute during the final confrontation between Cleopatra and the bedridden Hans is the "Mournful Tune" from Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan and Isolde", played in the opera while the dying Tristan waits for Isolde's ship to appear on the horizon.

Dwarf John George - for reasons unknown - does not appear in "Freaks", even though a role was specifically written for him in the screenplay.

One woman, after seeing "Freaks", wrote a letter to Tod Browning at MGM, exclaiming that "You must have the mental equipment of a freak yourself to devise such a picture." Another viewer complained, "To put such creatures in a picture and before the public is unthinkable."

Although production chief Irving Thalberg decided to re-cut the picture immediately after the disastrous test screening, he could not cancel the world premiere on January 28, 1932 at the 3,000-seat Fox Theatre in San Diego. This is the only venue at which the uncut version of "Freaks" is known to have played. Ironically, the unexpurgated "Freaks" was a major box-office success. Crowds lined up around the block to see the picture, which broke the theatre's house record. By the end of the run, word had spread that "Freaks" was about to be butchered, and the theatre advertised, "Your last opportunity to see 'Freaks' in its uncensored form!"

According to one source, director Tod Browning was introduced to the story by Cedric Gibbons, longtime head of MGM's Art Department. He was supposedly boyhood friends with author Clarence Aaron 'Tod' Robbins and convinced the studio to purchase film rights for the sum of $8,000. Another source claims that the diminutive actor Harry Earles gave Browning a copy of the story during the production of The Unholy Three in hopes that he could star in the adaptation.

Samuel Marx, head of MGM's Story Department, recalled with peculiar pride, "And so, Harry Rapf, who was a great moral figure, got a bunch of us together and we went in and complained to Irving [Irving Thalberg] about 'Freaks'. And he laughed at that. He said, 'You know, we're making all kinds of movies. Forget it. I'm going to make the picture. Tod Browning's a fine director. He knows what he's doing.' And the picture was made." But the lunchroom protests didn't end. As a result, a makeshift table was constructed and the cast of "Freaks" (with the exception of Harry Earles and Daisy Earles, Violet Hilton and Daisy Hilton, and the more "normal" cast-members) were forced to eat their meals outdoors.

Olga Baclanova, later recalled the day when she was first introduced to the supporting cast, "[Tod Browning] shows me little by little and I could not look, I wanted to faint. I wanted to cry when I saw them. They have such nice faces... they are so poor, you know... [Browning] takes me and say, you know, 'Be brave, and don't faint like the first time I show you. You have to work with them.'... It was very, very difficult first time. Every night I felt that I am sick. Because I couldn't look at them. And then I was so sorry for them. That I just couldn't... it hurt me like a human being."

Johnny Eck, the half-boy, remembered his screen test was taken by MGM's scouting unit while he was on tour in Canada, and he shared the screen with the world's largest rat. He recalled being treated well by the crew, "The technicians, the sound men, the electricians, and the prop department, and everybody... was my friend... We got along beautifully."

According to the screenplay, the scene in which Madame Tetrallini introduces the wandering land-owner to the performers frolicking in the woods ran quite a bit longer. It included additional dialog that endeavored to humanize the so-called freaks. She tells him they are "always in hot, stuffy tents - strange eyes always staring at them - never allowed to forget what they are." Duval responds sympathetically (clearly the stand-in for the viewing audience), "When I go to the circus again, Madame, I'll remember," to which she adds, "I know, M'sieu - you will remember seeing them playing - playing like children... Among all the thousands who come to stare - to laugh - to shudder - you will be one who understands."

Numerous other bits of dialog were removed that depicted the "normal" humans as disgusting creatures and the "freaks" as gentle and sympathetic (destroying the social critique of intolerance Tod Browning was attempting to construct). While the circus awaits word on Hans's declining health, one of the Rollo Brothers coldly remarks, "You'd think the world was coming to an end - just because a mangy freak's got a hangover." In another scene, Madame Tetrallini responds to the Rollos' taunts by defending the humanity of her "children," "Augh, you cochons - you beasts... They are better than you - all of them - you two dogs!"

Tod Browning's only onscreen credit is on the title page: "Tod Browning's Freaks," which is interpreted as the director credit. He is not in studio records as a producer.

SPOILER: The reunion of Hans and Frieda, seen at the end of most prints, was not part of Tod Browning's original cut. It was added during the re-editing to give the film a happier ending.

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http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0022913/alternateversions

Alternate Versions

Original preview version of "Freaks" allegedly ran 90 minutes. After a disastrous reaction from the audience, MGM executive Irving Thalberg deemed the film "too horrific" and had it cut to its present length of 64 minutes. The cut footage is not known to exist.

Two of the "graphic" sequences removed involved the freaks castrating and mutilating Hercules, and his subsequent appearance as one of the freaks at the film's end, singing high pitched notes.

Although most prints end with the revelation of what happened to Cleopatra, Turner Classic Movies shows a version which follows that scene with a happy-ending epilogue in which Hans and Frieda are reunited. This epilogue itself exists in two different versions, one with dialogue, one without. All three alternate endings are included on the Warner DVD