WHILE some movies don’t do much more than remind us of other movies, there are films like no other in cinema history. One such example is Tod Browning’s cult horror flick Freaks (1932), now set for an upcoming retrospective release.
First released by MGM in 1932 and swiftly banned soon after, Freaks is one of cinema’s great controversial talking topics.
It’s worth our attention because it remains one of a select group of films still banned in Ireland.
According to film scholar Kevin Rockett, Browning’s movie was condemned as “grossly offensive” by censor Ger Connolly in 1999 and its prohibition remains held by the Irish Film Classification Office.
Now, for Ireland to be banning films is a bit like fish swimming in the seas or monkeys swinging in the trees — it seems so natural.
After Irish film censorship was officially instituted in 1923 the state shielded the eyes of Irish viewers from such deadly stuff as the Marx Bros’ Monkey Business (1932) and Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979).
Cleopatra, played by Olga Baclanova (Picture: Getty)Chaplin’s classic The Great Dictator (1940) was proscribed for satirising Nazi Germany, which was thought indecorous to interstate protocol.
Censors took against Joseph Strick’s adaptation of Joyce’s Ulysses (1967) and Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971).
However, since 2000 a freer outlook means that most films formerly banned are now available unrestricted.
Yet, Browning’s Freaks remains a troubling feature.
Its story involves the world of a travelling circus, in which a number of characters/actors carry physical deformities.
Described in production notes as “human oddities”, the freaks in the narrative include dwarves, bearded ladies, conjoined twins and microcephalics, sometimes called “pinheads”.
Together they form a collective community, exacting terrible revenge on anyone who maligns their group.
Circus life is disrupted by the beautiful Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova), who seduces the midget Hans (Harry Earles) so she can grasp his family inheritance.
Initially welcomed into the circus community, Cleopatra nevertheless rejects and scorns them for their lack of physical beauty.
When it emerges that she’s poisoning Hans to get her hands on his loot, the carnival crowd mutilate her in a climax that still shocks after 73 years.
Freaks influenced Bunuel, Fellini and the Farrelly brothers.
Film critics still disagree if Browning made a brave parable on the pernicious cult of beauty or an exploitative grotesque show.
My recommendation is see it yourself and make up your own mind.
Tod Browning’s Freaks is rereleased in select cinemas in Britain on Friday, June 12
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