FreaksAs a boy in the late nineteenth century, horror film director Tod Browning (Dracula, 1931) witnessed firsthand the feelings of morbid fascination, fear and pity the 'sideshow freaks' of a travelling carnival inspired in their public.
Decades later, he would populate his own (notorious, cult) film with characters who were as authentic as the carnival 'freaks' he had befriended in his youth.
Russian stage actress Olga Baclanova was cast in the role of Cleopatra, the opportunistic trapeze artist - the only true 'grotesque' of the film, her conventional height and physical beauty notwithstanding - who sets her mercenary sights on the besotted Hans.
The 'little people', Hans (Harry Earles) and Frieda (Daisy Earles), who round out the love triangle at the heart of Freaks' melodrama, were real-life siblings who started out as a vaudeville act billed 'The Dancing Dolls' at Coney Island.
Despite predicable outrage from conservative social quarters when the film was released, Browning's film seeks to affirm the humanity of his cast. An early scene, in which Madame Tetrallini (Rose Dione) tells a group of 'pinheads' (as the film refers to them) that they mustn't be afraid resonates for the affection with which she seeks to instil self-confidence in her charges.
"Freaks is moving, harsh, poetic and genuinely tender" The New Yorker
Screens with Frankenweenie (28 mins, USA, 1984), Burton's live-action short film in which an inventive ten year old, Victor (Barret Oliver), takes a leaf out of Mary Shelley's classic story and re-animates his dearly departed dog, Sparky. Shelley Duvall and Daniel Stern co-star.
"This lovable little mutt of a film announced the outsider-in-town theme Burton would later develop in Edward Scissorhands" Inner Views
