Marya Zaleska
08-26-2007, 05:06 PM
Oh hi!
I'm your hostess to the supernatural, Countess Marya Zaleska.
Pardon me while sit down on my comfortable sofa and adjust my shawl, fix my dress, get a nice glass of brandy and tell you about a classic horror movie.
The movie is Freaks and is from 1932.
The film was directed by Tod Browning and written by Aaron "Tod" Robbins.
The plot outline is that a beautiful circus trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader ( a midget)of a group of side show performers. However, his deformed friends find out that the lovely trapeze artist is marrying the leader for his inheritance but is really in love with the circus strongman. The freaks gang up on the trapeze artist and strongman and wreak their revenge for trying to kill their leader.
The uniqueness of this film is that director Tod Browning uses actual sideshow abnormalities rather than actors in makeup. Browning used his expereience as a member of a travelling circus to creat this film.
The reaction here in the U. S. was so intense that Browning had a hard time finding work for many years for being associated with this project. The film when finally issued here in the U. S. had many scenes deleted.
The film was banned for 30 years in the U. K.
The cast included:
Olga Baclanova as Cleopatra, the trapeze artist
Wallace Ford As Phroso
Leila Hyams as Venus
Roscoe Ates as Roscoe
Henry Victor as Hercules The Strongman
Rose Dione as Madame tetralini
The sideshow "freaks" include:
Harry & Daisy Earles as the midgets han & Freida
Daisy & Violet Hilton as the Siamese twins
Josephine Joseph as the half man/ half woman
Johnny Eck as the boy with no lower extremities
Pete Robinson as the human skeleton
Martha Morris and Frances O'Connor as the armless wonders
Price Radian as the human torso
Angelo Rossitti as the dwarf
Schlitze & the Snow Twins ( Zip & Pip) as performers that suffered with microcephaly
Elizabeth Green as the stork girl
'Koo Koo as the bird girl
Olga Roderick as the bearded lady
The "freaks" take their revenge on the Cleopatra and Hercules during a storm filled night with each of them being shown moving toward the punishment of the two.
At the end Cleopatra is seen as a half human clucking hen. The punishment for Hercules is castration.
In the original film Hercules was to been seen at the end as a singing soprano but the censors forced this scene to be cut leaving only Cleopatra as the half human clucking hen.
There has been a renewed interest in this film and it has been shown on TV and has been released on DVD.
Even though this is a 1932 film which shows it's age, it is not for the squeemish. Remember, Browing uses actual persons not actors in makeup. This film is still shocking despite it's age.
Leonard Maltin gives this film a 3.5 out of 4 stars. I agree fully. It's a great film ahead of it's time.
The DVD issued today restores most of the cut scenes as well as a special section on the biographies of the side show performers. Quite interesting and shocking as well.
If you are a classic horror movie buff, this is a movie you need for your library.
Well, must be going now.
So long from your hostess in the supernatural, Countess Marya Zaleska
I just love films that I can put my teeth into. Don't you! Lol!
I'm your hostess to the supernatural, Countess Marya Zaleska.
Pardon me while sit down on my comfortable sofa and adjust my shawl, fix my dress, get a nice glass of brandy and tell you about a classic horror movie.
The movie is Freaks and is from 1932.
The film was directed by Tod Browning and written by Aaron "Tod" Robbins.
The plot outline is that a beautiful circus trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader ( a midget)of a group of side show performers. However, his deformed friends find out that the lovely trapeze artist is marrying the leader for his inheritance but is really in love with the circus strongman. The freaks gang up on the trapeze artist and strongman and wreak their revenge for trying to kill their leader.
The uniqueness of this film is that director Tod Browning uses actual sideshow abnormalities rather than actors in makeup. Browning used his expereience as a member of a travelling circus to creat this film.
The reaction here in the U. S. was so intense that Browning had a hard time finding work for many years for being associated with this project. The film when finally issued here in the U. S. had many scenes deleted.
The film was banned for 30 years in the U. K.
The cast included:
Olga Baclanova as Cleopatra, the trapeze artist
Wallace Ford As Phroso
Leila Hyams as Venus
Roscoe Ates as Roscoe
Henry Victor as Hercules The Strongman
Rose Dione as Madame tetralini
The sideshow "freaks" include:
Harry & Daisy Earles as the midgets han & Freida
Daisy & Violet Hilton as the Siamese twins
Josephine Joseph as the half man/ half woman
Johnny Eck as the boy with no lower extremities
Pete Robinson as the human skeleton
Martha Morris and Frances O'Connor as the armless wonders
Price Radian as the human torso
Angelo Rossitti as the dwarf
Schlitze & the Snow Twins ( Zip & Pip) as performers that suffered with microcephaly
Elizabeth Green as the stork girl
'Koo Koo as the bird girl
Olga Roderick as the bearded lady
The "freaks" take their revenge on the Cleopatra and Hercules during a storm filled night with each of them being shown moving toward the punishment of the two.
At the end Cleopatra is seen as a half human clucking hen. The punishment for Hercules is castration.
In the original film Hercules was to been seen at the end as a singing soprano but the censors forced this scene to be cut leaving only Cleopatra as the half human clucking hen.
There has been a renewed interest in this film and it has been shown on TV and has been released on DVD.
Even though this is a 1932 film which shows it's age, it is not for the squeemish. Remember, Browing uses actual persons not actors in makeup. This film is still shocking despite it's age.
Leonard Maltin gives this film a 3.5 out of 4 stars. I agree fully. It's a great film ahead of it's time.
The DVD issued today restores most of the cut scenes as well as a special section on the biographies of the side show performers. Quite interesting and shocking as well.
If you are a classic horror movie buff, this is a movie you need for your library.
Well, must be going now.
So long from your hostess in the supernatural, Countess Marya Zaleska
I just love films that I can put my teeth into. Don't you! Lol!