"Freaks" script synopsis. Continuity and Dialogue by Willis Golbeck and Leon Gordon Additional dialogue by Edgar Allan Woolf and Al Boasberg Direction by Tod Browning Supervision by Mr.
Thalberg Production #592 (Note: This script synopsis comes directly from the M-G-M archives. We have highlighted in red all the portions of the original script that have been eliminated from the final picture. Most of the cuts concern the growing relationship between Venus and Phroso and the enmity between Venus and Hercules, rather than the hoped-for addition of more freaks and more horror, although the intended final climax and ending were indeed more intense than they are in the final film. Please refer to the footnotes for a little more insight into the evolution of the film.) Scenes 1-10 — M. Jean, the gatekeeper, protests to his master that he did see a convention of awful monstrosities disporting themselves, and that there should be a law to smother such, — such things — smother them at birth, or else lock them up.
Mme. A classic 1973 commentary on the cult horror film "Freaks" FREAKS: Re-Evaluating A Screen Classic by Ronald V.
Borst Reprinted from Photon #23 (Published 1973) © 1973 by Mark Frank; used by permission of the author and the publisher. The author requests that the reader keep in mind that this thesis is based on the prints available at the time of the article's publication, which did not include the now-available final sequence in Hans' estate (see Footnote 16 in the Freaks script synopsis for more on this).
Over the period of the last forty years, one particular horror film from the early thirties has continued to garner increasing laurels and plaudits until it has eventually arrived at such a pinnacle of respect and awe that it is considered to be almost singularly immune from any form of criticism, safely enjoying a reputation of being the most startling and terrifying example of cinematic horror of all time. Regarding the legend surrounding FREAKS, Carlos Clarens has written: "That FREAKS was made at all is extraordinary.
The inspiration for "Freaks" By Tod Robbins Copied in the M-G-M Script Dept.
Sept. 18, 1928 From the book Who Wants a Green Bottle? The following short story, Spurs by Tod Robbins, is the work which Freaks is based upon. Tod Browning used another story of Tod Robbins' for the basis of The Unholy Three (1925), which also featured Harry Earles, the midget in Freaks, along with Lon Chaney Sr., Mae Busch, and Victor McLaglen. Harry Earles and Lon Chaney appeared again in the 1930 sound remake of The Unholy Three, but Jack Conway, not Tod Browning, directed that version. Jacques Courbé was a romanticist. What matter that St. The dwarf had no friends among the other freaks in Copo’s Circus. Now it came about, after many humiliating performances in the arena, made palatable only by dreams, that love entered the circus tent and beckoned commandingly to M. Mlle. From the first performance, M. “Ah, the dog!” St. “Ah, you devil of a dog!” M. “Ah, now we can retire, marry and settle down, old friend! That evening as Mlle. M.