Within a sideshow, the Freaks live, carrying out romances, arguments, friendships, and betrayals. Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova), the beautiful acrobat of the circus, plots to marry the midget Hans (Harry Earles) for his secret fortune, and then kill him, with the aid of her lover, the strongman Hercules (Henry Victor). Frieda (Daisy Earles), Hans’s ex-fiancée, knows that Cleopatra laughs at Hans behind his back, but he won’t listen to her. The others go along with the situation, but when they discover how far Cleopatra is willing to go, they plan their revenge.
Freaks is a power fantasy for the disenfranchised and outsider of any kind, and it works best when considered in that way. The midgets, dwarves, Pinheads, Siamese Twins, bearded lady, and physically disadvantaged are shown to be kind, or cruel, smart or stupid, loving or hateful. They are us, assuming we are not those with power, the normals. They are laughed at and abused. They have their allies (Phroso the clown and Venus), but allies can be accepted, but never entirely understand. And the outsiders (that’s us), can band together, rise up, and avenge themselves.
It’s an important story, and one that’s always needed. And when the Freaks do finally rise up against Cleopatra and Hercules, the film becomes transcendent. It becomes culturally significant.
Unfortunately, the rest of the time it’s not so great. Tod Browning was never a top tier director. His roots were in the circus, and his sympathies with the unusual, so he could add an interesting outlook to a motion picture, but he lacked the artistry to do more. The look of his finest film, Dracula, can be assigned to cinematographer Karl Freund. If he was going to make great art, he needed a lot of help, and he didn’t get it with Freaks.
On the interesting side, he cast actual sideshow performers, people with deformities and mental and physical disadvantages. This brought realism to the picture. However, while casting for realism has advantages, one of them is not acting. The sideshow performers were mostly terrible at lines and movement before a camera. This really stands out with Harry and Daisy Earles as they play major characters, and not for a second do they appear to be anything but people reciting lines. Even the professional actors are weak, which calls into question both Tod Browning’s ability to work with actors, and the decision not to hire any established stars. Here and there, when acting isn’t required (and for that amazing revenge sequence), I can be pulled into the film, but the rest of the time, I’m watching non-actors and semi-actors going through the motions.
Freaks has another problem, and it’s a crippling one. A test audience rejected the film, many walking out and one woman threatening to sue. They hated it, calling it deviant and sickening. MGM immediately caved and cut a third of the film, and added a brief prologue and epilogue in an attempt to stitch up the story. Few films can survive being butchered like that, and Freaks couldn’t. Those missing sections are lost, but it’s known that part of what’s gone is the end of the climactic scene, when the Freaks get their hands on Cleopatra and Hercules. It neuters the movie. A film needs its climax. I can’t say if the excised material would have fixed the structural problems and slight character development, but I’m willing to bet on it.
Freaks, as whole, could never have been great, but it could have been better. It is interesting, which is enough of a reason to watch it.