Beautiful circus trapeze artiste Cleopatra likes to flirt with one of the sideshow attractions, Hans, a dwarf — much to the dismay of his fiancee, Frieda. When Cleopatra learns that Hans is a wealthy man, she decides to marry him. It’s a choice she will live to regret…
“Give me something that will out-horror Frankenstein,” MGM production chief Irving Thalberg demanded of his leading genre stylist, Tod Browning (Dracula). But he was not ready for what Browning wrought. One of the most shocking films to come out of the studio system, Freaks was a financial failure in 1932, but became a cult favourite decades later, and is now widely regarded as a masterpiece. It was decades ahead of its time, and it still packs a punch.
In the pre-screening presentation, Michael van den Bos examines why and how this freak of an MGM film was made, its horror elements, the controversy it generated and director Browning’s visual approach.
A work of genius.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
A superb and unique film from the master of the morbid, masochistic and macabre, Tod Browning.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
2:00 pm
2:30 pm
Michael van den Bos
Tod Browning
Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Rosco Ates, Henry Victor, Harry Earles, Daisy Earles
USA
1932
English
Book Tickets
Monday May 05
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Screenwriter
Willis Goldbeck, Leon Gordon
Editor
Basil Wrangell
Art Director
Cedric Gibbons, Merrill Pye
Also in This Series
SIN! SEX! SHOCK! SCANDAL! Welcome to the sordid cinema of Pre-Code Hollywood! Classic film scholar Michael van den Bos is your tour guide on a 5-part trek through the seamier, steamier and sinister side of Hollywood movies from the early 1930s.
Baby Face
In the first of our new five-week Film Studies course exploring the notorious pre-censorship era of American cinema, Michael van den Bos introduces the 1933 shocker Baby Face, with Barbara Stanwyck sleeping her way up the corporate ladder.
Red-Headed Woman
The second stop on our tour of Hollywood's pre-Code naughty neighbourhood is a racy rendezvous with Jean Harlow as the lustfully liberated "Red" who turns on her titillating allure for advancement in upper society. Introduced by Michael van den Bos.
Freaks
Beautiful circus trapeze artiste Cleopatra likes to flirt with one of the sideshow attractions, Hans, a dwarf. When she learns that Hans is a wealthy man she decides to marry him. It's a choice she will live to regret... An unforgettable 1932 shocker.
Trouble in Paradise
Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins play lovers and thieves attempting to fleece the chic owner of a French perfume company, played by Kay Francis. What ensues is a modern ménage à trois in the most elegant, innuendo filled film comedy of all time.