Anyone watch the movie "Freaks" on TCM last night

[LynneSin]

That was one messed up movie - where did they find those people. This movie came out in 1932 and used people who had real 'freak' disabilities in the movies - I think like every country banned the movie for awhile. All I know was that was 60minutes of some really crazy stuff - really freaked out when the limbless man rolled and lit his cigerette - now that's talent

[graywarrior]

1. I caught some of it. That was banned for a long time.

Guess with Bush as president, Freaks didn't seem like such a....freaky thing.

[Hugin]

2. *snort*

Sadly true.

[LynneSin]

3. I'm suprised that movie is shown anywhere it's so fricking Politically Incorrect

Did you know that those two dwarfs who played a couple in the movie were actually real life brother and sister.

[graywarrior]

4. I had facts about that movie years ago, but I foget them all now.

Makes you wonder how they all felt about that movie.

[China_cat]

25. I traveled with a carnival for quite a few years.

While I didn't know any of those 'freaks', I did get to know quite a few who were outraged when their source of income was taken away from them. People who had good incomes, bought houses, paid caretakers and never took a cent of public money until they were no longer allowed to work at the only thing they were really capable of doing.

[ikojo]

33. My great great uncle and his wife, also a little person,

were able to have a house built to their specifications back in the teens or 20s. They did well in vaudeville and settled in of all places, Council Bluffs IA. Guess my great great uncle had no idea about parts of the US. His wife was American but he was born in what was then Bohemia. I think it's now Serbia or Croatia.

[GoneOffShore]

9. They were midgets, not dwarves

They didn't exhibit the classic dwarf (or little people) body problems.

I went and searched IMDB while I watched the movie. It was pretty disturbing, but touching.

There are some very interesting facts about the film on the IMDB board. I found that it was banned in England for 30 years, also banned in Australia, and several states here banned it.

[LynneSin]

13. I thought Midget was a word that was not acceptable to use

I watched a documentary about little people and they don't like the word midget because of it's reference to the sideshow freaks of yore. I think the prefered terms are little people/person or dwarf

[graywarrior]

20. That's why Boston Legal is so damn funny in the little person/Denny storyline.

[GoneOffShore]

29. Little people is right

I stand corrected.
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2005/bigenough/special_dwarfism_ety.html
"For some reason, "midget" has another meaning as well. It refers only to a dwarf whose limbs are in the same proportion to his body as an average-size person's — generally, to people whose short stature is the result of a hormonal deficiency rather than a genetic bone anomaly, as is the case with achondroplasia and other skeletal dysplasias. Because "midget" was coined at the height of P. T. Barnum's career, and because his most famous performers, Charles Stratton and Lavinia Warren, were proportionate dwarfs, it is often assumed that it was Barnum himself who came up with the word. There is, however, no evidence for that. The word "midget" did not appear anywhere in Barnum's 1855 autobiography, The Life of P. T. Barnum. In fact, he referred to Stratton repeatedly as a "dwarf.""

[deucemagnet]

5. d'oh! I wish I knew it was on!

I've been wanting to see that since I was a kid!

[Ahpook]

34. Is a strange film

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6355110065089064433&q=public+domain

[Madspirit]

6. 100 years ago

I saw that movie about 100 years ago. I'm old...<g>... I keep meaning to catch it again when it's on. It's kind of sick.
Madspirit

[AllegroRondo]

7. Darn! I saw the first 5 minutes then changed the channel.

because the Food Network had a special on Mexican food.

[Maddy McCall]

8. No...I missed it. I did watch Fifth Element, though.

It was a cheezy, fun movie.

[Zookeeper]

18. That's a movie people love to hate....

but, I really enjoy it. "Cheezy, fun movie." Yep. :thumbsup:

[kwassa]

10. studied the movie in film school many years ago ...

my wife was flicking through it last night when I walked through the room.

"OH! Tod Browning's "Freaks"! Great movie"

with real pinheads, too.

[NYCGirl]

23. Schlitzie!

[China_cat]

26. Schlitzie was actually male, you know.

[NYCGirl]

27. I'd forgotten that. But I just found out, in looking at websites for his picture,

that Schlitzie was very much loved in the carny business — as he was such a sweet natured person.

[China_cat]

28. I did know several pinheads when I was out on the road

(Schlitzie was dead by then) and yes, they were all very sweet natured. And while it may seem cruel to have exhibited them, they earned the same salary or even more than some of the acts, were well cared for and, again, not on any public assistance.

[ohiosmith]

11. The first time I saw Freaks was the late 60s on a double bill with The Night of the Living Dead.

The one and only time I regretted dropping acid.

[Reverend_Smitty]

12. lol...I've never done acid, but I can see how that would make a bad trip!

:scared:

[stuntcat]

16. Good Times!

(well minus the acid..) that sounds like a good time, they both rock, especially Night Of.

[mitchum]

31. I first saw "Freaks" on a double bill with "Dracula" under heavy narcotics...

mmmmmmmmmmmmm:)

[enigmatic]

14. Great film

Pretty much destroyed Tod Browning's career, but a great film nonetheless. The banquet (for lack of a better word) scene near the end what absolutely surreal, and had to be at least a little bit the embryo for David Lynch's scene in Eraserhead where Henry goes over to Mary's home for dinner...

I Don't like the scene at the end where Hans and Frieda reunite, but w/ Warren Hayes ruling Hollywood's Production Code at the time, it was understandable they tacked it on...

Great film.

[Zookeeper]

17. Actually, the DVD version I have...

has three alternate endings, one of which was on the TV version I saw as a kid. (It wasn't the "happy ending.")

Have you seen Browning's, "The Show?" TCM was showing it last night. It looked like it was worth watching.

[enigmatic]

19. Really?

Wow, I've got to get the DVD then; thanks for this.

I was watching "The Show" last night on TCM last night before I went on and it was interesting, but not in the same all-out weirdness as Freaks; more a conventional (if you could call it that)Browning film, but worth seeing..

[Zookeeper]

15. That's an interesting movie....

Tod Browning had an affinity for weird subject matter.

The movie is quite sympathetic to the "freaks." They are generally more likable than the normal people and definitely kinder. It must have been a shock to the carnival goers who viewed freak shows to realize that the freaks were real people.

When my DH was a teen, he talked his dad into taking him to a special showing of Freaks. Once the movie started, his dad remembered seeing it when it first came out, before it disappeared for decades. I have it on DVD now, and showed it to my kids. It was quite eye-opening for them and elicited some good conversations.

Now, if you want something purely weird and creepy, check out Browning's "Devil Doll."

:hi:

[edbermac]

21. One of us, one of us, we accept her, gooble gobble, one of us...

Great film, great climax when the dwarf's wife is caught trying to poison him and the circus freaks chase after her and give her some major-league payback.

[Mike Daniels]

22. I haven't seen the movie since the early 80's but that final scene is locked in my mind

There was a theater in Norfolk that used to do thematic double/triple features for one admission price. I saw Freaks doubled with The Elephant Man. Talk about one dark movie experience.

[edbermac]

24. That dwarf pictured was in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

Angelo Rossito playing Master Blaster; interesting career.

[LynneSin]

30. Enjoy: This has got to be a bad nightmare

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQkYGhmdMig

[ikojo]

32. I have it on DVD..should put it on my

iPod. Interesting movie for sure. I have a great great uncle who was brought over to the US from Bohemia to do the vaudeville circuit. He was just a wee bit over three feet tall. So, this kind of thing has interested me for quite some time.

[redqueen]

35. No, but I've wanted to see it...

thanks for the thread, I'll look to see if it'll be on again.