Rent Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers (1932)

Fascinating cinema history - Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers review by KW

This 3 film collection gives you famous 'Freaks' from 1930, a tale of the hard and dangerous lives of 'freakshow' performers which could be read as a film championing the equality of disabled people but the memorably shocking ending does undermine that to an extent. Also in the collection is a very entertaining silent film 'The Unknown', in which a circus performer who is considered harmless because he is armless, turns out to be anything but harmless or armless. Thrilling melodrama ensues in a way that could only possibly make sense in a silent movie. Finally, the least of the three films is 'The Mystic,' which is still an interesting story about a seancing scam gone wrong. In this edition, it has an imaginative and moody soundtrack added that mixes music and effects well.

All the films in the box set look magnificent so if you are a fan of this era, this is well worth seeing.

...on all three films. - Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers review by Steve

THE MYSTIC

This is unmistakably the work of Tod Browning, with the carnival setting and the outré storyline about the post WWI vogue for occult communications with the dead. A trio of Hungarian sideshow charlatans are tempted to New York to run fake seances to scam the rich.

 And of course their racket succeeds, then falls apart. Without the director’s usual star- Lon Chaney- there are minor actors, but still a decent ensemble cast, with Aileen Pringle charismatic as the exotic medium. And she gets to wear some eye-catching art deco costumes.

The early scenes are spooky and unsettling, and it remains interesting as the tricks of the trade are exposed. But eventually the narrative stalls before recovering for a decent climax. In the middle period there is an impression of filler to get it up to feature length. But this always is a handsome production.

The home video release has an eerie score (by Dean Hurley) with ambient audio effects, similar to the Movietone soundtracks of later silents. And this enhances the picture… This should be of interest to fans of Browning’s weird, dreamlike idiosyncrasies. And surely was an influence on Nightmare Alley?

FREAKS

This is such a groundbreaking horror picture mainly because it emerged from an existing community; the human exhibits exploited by travelling carnivals. Many of the actors actually made a living out of displaying their deformity. And also because what is on the screen is so subversive. Sometimes, it's hard to believe your eyes.

There is a love triangle between two ‘midgets’ played by Harry and Daisy Earles (actually brother and sister) and a 'big person’, a normal bodied trapeze artist (Olga Baclanova as Cleopatra). She wants his inheritance and so marries the much smaller man with the intention of ending his life.

This is an exploitation film. There’s a framing story which explains how Cleopatra  became a sideshow curiosity after the revenge of the 'freaks' which puts us in among the interested by-standers. We've bought a ticket, and we are voyeurs. And as the events are told by a carny barker, maybe the whole story is a fantasy and we are also mugs.

And perhaps the freaks aren't those with genetic mutations, but the normal woman and her accomplice, who seek to murder out of greed. The famous scene where the 'freaks' accept the bride, by chanting ‘one of us' is spellbinding. It’s an extraordinary experience, and not always easy to watch. There’s nothing else like this.

THE UNKNOWN

The wildest, craziest plot ever imagined. It is set in Madrid and claims to be a true story told by carnival workers! Lon Chaney plays a serial killer known to the police only by his unique double thumbs. So he binds up his arms and joins a travelling circus as a knife act, throwing daggers at a very young Joan Crawford with his feet. Who he loves...

Because of previous abuse, the girl can't stand to be touched. So she is neurotically repulsed by the attentions of the circus strongman (Norman Kerry). As the police close in, to hide his incriminating thumbs and to indulge her fetish, Chaney has both his arms removed by a surgeon he is blackmailing! 

Unfortunately, by the time he returns to the circus, the showgirl is over her phobia and married to the muscleman. The now insanely jealous knife thrower devises a hideous revenge! Phew! This is pretty uninhibited stuff. It was created by Tod Browning who left home as a child to join a circus. Chaney's upbringing was similarly unconventional.    

Many silent horrors have the illusory mania of a fever dream. And that is the attraction here. And it's a lot of fun watching Chaney (and his stand-in) act with his feet. There was an alchemy when Browning and Chaney worked together. It feels like absolutely anything is possible.