I first sawTod Browning’s Freaks when I was a mere lad in a rather odd movie theatre. It was a converted apartment building on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. We literally sat in someone’s former living room and watched the film on a small screen. I was still mesmerized.

Freaks was condemned in its time as exploitative since the sideshow was on its way out as a form of semi-mainstream entertainment. But the monsters are the “normal” people who mock and manipulate the freaks until the latter rise against them.

It is also a period piece. You do not see these folks around nowadays due to advances in science and pre-natal care. Of course, there was a freak show last weekend in the DC burbs so maybe that comment was, uh, premature.

In the end, Freaks is an effective early talking picture parts of which will send chills up your spine. It, alas, more or less destroyed the career of director Tod Browning since it was released by MGM, which was the high gloss, low calorie studio of the day, and this was a big budget bust. He was a major director who was then relegated to programmers and low budget fare before his career faded out a mere 7 years later.

Here’s the trailer: