The world is a carnival of criminality, corruption, and psychosexual strangeness in the twisted pre-Code shockers of Tod Browning. Early Hollywood's edgiest auteur, Browning drew on his experiences as a circus performer to create subversive pulp entertainments set amid the world of traveling sideshows, which, with their air of the exotic and the disreputable, provided a pungent backdrop for his sordid tales of outcasts, cons, villains, and vagabonds. Bringing together two of his defining works (The Unknown and Freaks) and a long-unavailable rarity (The Mystic), this cabinet of pre-Code curiosities reveals a master of the morbid whose ability to unsettle is matched only by his daring compassion for society's most downtrodden.
Technical Specs:
- Language(s): English
- Hard of Hearing Subtitles: English
- Interactive Menu
Extras included:
- Commentary: 'Freaks'/'The Unknown': David J. Skal (film scholar)
- Documentaries: 'Freaks' archival documentary
- Interviews: Megan Abbott (author)
- Introduction to 'The Mystic' by David J. Skal; Episode of podcast 'Ticklish Business' about disability representation in 'Freaks'; David J. Skal reading of 'Spurs' by Tod Robbins, the short story on which 'Freaks' is based; Prologue to 'Freaks' (added 1947); Program on the alternate endings to 'Freaks'; Video gallery of portraits from 'Freaks'; Essay by Farran Smith Nehme (critic)