69: Freaks

USA  64m  Dir: Tod Browning

I was a little apprehensive about this film, fearing it would be an exploitative and discriminatory towards people with disabilities. The fact that it is described as a horror film and is directed by Tod Browning who also did Dracula only added to my fears. But it turns out this is not the film I was expecting it to be. 

The film follows the assorted 'freaks' of a circus and features a couple with dwarfism, conjoined twins, a man with microcephaly, someone who is intersex and several people missing various limbs. There is a tension between them and the able-bodied members of the circus which escalates when trapeze artist Cleopatra seduces dwarf Hans in order to gain access to his money and then utterly humiliates him at their wedding reception. 

Though it does have a moment of horror at the climax of the film, this simply isn't a horror film. It's a forward-thinking story which spends the vast majority of it's run-time depicting the everyday life of people with disabilities and the way they are discriminated against and mistreated by those around them. It's also great that there is no-one pretending to be disabled here, these are real people with disabilities playing characters with disabilities. Given that Hollywood still seems to struggle to cast like this it's incredible to see a film from 1932 already doing it. 

Freaks is a film which really represents how far society has moved forward. Many critics at the time were utterly disgusted at seeing a film that featured people with disabilities so prominently with them saying things like "There is no excuse for this picture. It took a weak mind to produce it and it takes a strong stomach to look at it" and "...it is impossible for the normal man or woman to sympathize with the aspiring midget". Even having people with disabilities on the studio lot drew disgust with MGM segregating the film's cast and crew in a separate café so that "people could get to eat in the commissary without throwing up". It's utterly appalling to consider that these attitudes existed so recently in history. Here in the UK the film was outright banned until 1963. 

My only wish for this film is that I could have seen the original cut that was butchered by the censors that has since been lost to history. It's a film made in the 30s with a script that feels like it is at least fifty years more recent than that. Unforgettable and a film that everyone ought to see.