As I was saying about films I need to rewatch, this was one of them, having recently scored the Criterion blu-ray with this (ludicrously, I don’t think I’ve ever actually owned this in any form until now), The Unknown and The Mystic… both of which will also be making appearances here. This wasn’t Tod Browning’s first rodeo …er, circus story, but by casting actual “freaks” he was crossing boundaries audiences weren’t prepared to go beyond with him; although I’m not sure if they were offended on behalf of the “freaks” for being exploited, or on behalf of themselves for being forced to look at these misshapen things… I suspect it was more the latter, however, given that behind the scenes MGM’s other staff were finding Browning’s cast kind of unacceptably monstrous as well. It’s clear, though, that Browning’s sympathies are absolutely with his human oddities from start to finish; even when they go on their climactic rampage against Cleopatra and Hercules, the latter—a pair normal-sized able-bodied people who hate the rest of the circus cast, even the other “normal” ones—have been painted as so awful and venal that the “freaks”‘ revenge on them is quite understandable. Alas that critics and audiences would take a few more decades to catch up with Browning, whose career was pretty fatally damaged by the fuss; all this time later it still seems incomprehensible that MGM, of all the major Hollywood studios at that time, made and released this thing. Less incomprehensible than them repudiating it until the 1960s but even so. It’s still pretty transgressive and kind of questionable, but a lot better and more seriously intended than it could’ve been in less careful hands. Very pleased to have seen this again.
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