Freaks! (1932)

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:05] Speaker B: Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of the Pugsley Crew Reviews Podcast, where we talk about all manner of films, whether they're good, bad, or anything in between. We'll give them a watch and tell you what we think about them today. Joining us is Kerr9000. [00:00:23] Speaker A: Hi up, dude. [00:00:25] Speaker B: How you doing, man? [00:00:27] Speaker A: I'm doing well. How you doing? [00:00:28] Speaker B: Yeah, not too bad, not too bad. Bit tired as always. Otherwise, I'm good. Watched the film today just before recording and. Yeah, we'll get on with that. What you been up to recently? [00:00:45] Speaker A: Nothing much. Just, you know, the usual. Watching films, playing Fire Emblem on the Switch 2, playing around with that Oculus Quest. Just the regular stuff. [00:00:57] Speaker B: Killer's Quest. What's that? [00:00:59] Speaker A: Oh, Oculus Quest. You know, meta quest, whatever they call it. [00:01:02] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Sorry. I miss. I misjudged. I miss you. Meta Quest. Yeah, yeah, I miss you. I think it's a killer quest. I was like, what's that? Never mind. So the film we are discussing today is a film called freaks. It's from 1932. 2. And it was chosen by you. Why did you pick this film? [00:01:27] Speaker A: Well, I saw it years and years ago, and it's also one of them films that's. It's massively cult, possibly because a degree of it's missing. [00:01:39] Speaker B: All right. [00:01:39] Speaker A: The version we've watched is like an hour long, but there was actually an hour and a half of it originally, but it caused massive sort of hysteria when it came out and ended up getting cut and cut and cut. And the 30 minutes are sort of lost media. [00:01:55] Speaker B: Ah, right. I didn't know, though. Do people know what was cut? [00:02:03] Speaker A: Some of it, apparently. There's some little bits which are just like, fleshing out characters a bit. But then some of the stuff at the end is cut. So I'll. I'll probably say that when we get to the end, rather than spoil that now, but. [00:02:22] Speaker B: Okay, that's fair. To be honest, the film didn't do much for me personally. I think it was kind of a bit boring until, like, near the end, where things started going a bit wonky. Not wonky, but you know what I mean? It started getting a bit more interesting because. I don't know, I just thought the whole following the lives of the people in the circus just wasn't that interesting for me. Don't. I. I just. I don't know. I just. It didn't grip me. [00:03:01] Speaker A: It's. It's a weird film because basically Todd Brown in the guy that made it. [00:03:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:09] Speaker A: He'd done work on Dracula. [00:03:11] Speaker B: All right. [00:03:12] Speaker A: And he kind of moved between Universal Films and MGM Metro Golden Mayor. And I think they really wanted this to be their kind of Dracula. There was a big push that it would be scary. And I don't think that's really what Todd Browning sort of fully had in mind. [00:03:33] Speaker B: Right. [00:03:34] Speaker A: Because I think some of what was cut was that he humanized the. And we're going to use the word freaks a lot. And I think we need to say that it's not us really saying these people are freaks. It's what the film calls them and it's the way it refers to. They're. They're essentially different. Handicapped, handicapable. People have it, you know, because the terminology changes all the time. [00:03:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:59] Speaker A: And I think he was trying to be quite good with them because if you notice when you've got the dwarf characters. [00:04:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:07] Speaker A: They don't really shoot them from, like, on high and make them look tiny when they're having the conversation. The man and the wife, he shoots over the shoulder, them looking at each other. So you are, like, down on their level, seeing them having real conversations. And it's like, there's a bit right near the beginning. So, you know, this is no spoiler, but the circus madam, is it trailing or something? Or something like that? Tetra something. I don't know. I forget. She's taken all of the freaks to some kind of parkland and there's a guy going, look at those damn dirty freaks. I think they should be killed at birth. And she is quite loving to them. And like, I've told you not to be scared. You're all God's children. He loves you all. You're important to me. So I do think, because this does come from a time with circuses had freak shows all the time. You were paying, you know, a couple of coins to go stare through a hole at the man with three arms, or that was normal back then. [00:05:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:12] Speaker A: And I think he was trying to, like, show that they have lives. And yes, they might be in circuses, but they fall in love, they have arguments. They basically go through all the motions. [00:05:26] Speaker B: We did exactly. Yeah. No, I get what you're saying. Completely. But, yeah, when they were in the field, obviously, the one. They were French, I think, and the one guys. Yeah. Kill them and all that sort of thing. They should be killed at birth or caged up or wherever. And then the other guy he was speaking to was just like, oh, enjoy the field as much as you like. Yeah, you're fine. [00:05:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:05:52] Speaker B: And that was it. And that's when the woman said, like, you know, told you not to worry, you know, be, you know, you were all God's children and that sort of thing. [00:06:02] Speaker A: Oh, [00:06:05] Speaker B: yeah. [00:06:09] Speaker A: But I think in some ways, by doing this and showing them and humanizing them. Yeah, that's great to show to people that they are people, but it isn't necessarily the most enjoyable of film things. So like you said, when you're just following their lives a bit, it's a bit pseudo documentary. Yeah. Because a lot of them were performers and they're kind of playing almost versions of themselves. [00:06:41] Speaker B: That makes sense, actually, because if they were basically playing themselves and it makes sense that they kind of felt documentary ish at the start [00:06:55] Speaker A: because the only ones that really have that much acting to do would be the dwarf man and woman. A lot of the other people are just milling around going on, if you know what I mean. [00:07:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. The two. Those two mate were the main characters. Then you had the strong man and then the other woman. [00:07:23] Speaker A: Who, Cleopatra? The priest. [00:07:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And then I think, like, it was just showing bits and bobs of other things going on, like the conjoined twins who were both getting engaged to different people. And they're like, oh, you should come visit us and stuff. And I was thinking, how is that even gonna work? Because I think some of it was played for laughs. [00:07:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:51] Speaker B: But at the same time, I think it was trying to show, like, you know, they separate people, they have separate lives, I guess, but. And then you had the clown, which I thought, well, the funny thing with the clown was, is when the woman walked out of the strong guy's room when they. At the start of the. Near the start of the film, after arguing with them, she's as a goat, the clown. Are you gonna think this is funny? In her listening in on the argument and wherever. Then she walks off and the guy just doesn't say a word. Then he wipes his makeup off and all of a sudden he storms into the room as if he's like a completely different person without his makeup on. The cow makeup, like, I don't think. [00:08:34] Speaker A: And I mean, this is part black and white. It didn't help that the trapeze artist lady was a slim build, blonde lady. And then the lady who talks to the dwarf lady. [00:08:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:50] Speaker A: And who ends up with the clown is a petite blonde lady. They look quite sort of similar if you weren't paying full attention. [00:08:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I would agree with that. [00:09:00] Speaker A: You know, it sounds terrible, but you'd have cast a brunette or put a [00:09:06] Speaker B: wig on one just to differentiate Them a bit. [00:09:10] Speaker A: I suppose you might not even tell that. Well in black and white. But they were quite similar looking. So if you didn't pay attention and you. You couldn't watch this film and do something else like game or. Because you total lose track. [00:09:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd agree with her. It was. They were a bit similar looking. But the film, the film, it's basically the first, say 40 minutes is just the lives the day in the lives of the circus. And that's what it seemed to be. And then the last bit is Hans, I think the guy's name is. He's sort of getting on with the trapeze artist, Cleopatra. And I said, getting on the get her married. Because all like, he's like, oh, I'm. He was engaged to the other woman. [00:10:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:11] Speaker B: And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden he decides he doesn't want to be with her anymore because he likes the tall lady, I think. The big person, I think he called her. And. [00:10:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:23] Speaker B: And then obviously that's when it kind of gets more interesting. Like the whole actual wedding was just really weird. Like they're all trying to get a drink from a glass, saying, yeah, you're one of us now kind of thing, and she just lose it. Yeah, exactly. And then all of a sudden she loses it. Tells them all to leave, gives them loads of. And then puts hands on her shoulders and carries him round taking the piss, like. And then it's like I was drunk in a later scene, she's like, I was just drunk now. It's just a joke. And then she poisons him during the wedding and then continues to poison him. And I think one my favorite scene in the entire film, personally, is when I believe his name is Hans. Hans sits up in the bed in Cleopatra and she's like, oh, how are you? What's this? How are you sitting up? Kind of thing? And he's like, give me the black, little black bottle. And then one of the other people just whips out a knife and then another person whips out a gun and I'm like, where the did they come from? That was great. That was literally the best part of the film. [00:11:45] Speaker A: I like that he just. He does get the knife out suddenly, doesn't he? Just suddenly gets the blade out and he's like looking at her like, yeah, do you want to be. [00:11:56] Speaker B: It's pretty good though, I think the. The ending of the film. Not like the final scene, but I think the last, say 10 minutes when like all the. The freaks then are like crawling underneath the Underneath the carriage, under the wagons? Yeah, underneath all them. And it's kind of creepy the way they're just crawling, trying to get at the. The Strong man and Cleopatra. I thought that was really cool. [00:12:28] Speaker A: I mean, really. That's the only sort of bit that's horror. [00:12:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. [00:12:33] Speaker A: And. But I mean, I suppose it depends on the person watching it, but to me, I never saw them as like a Jason Voorhees, Chucky type thing. To me, they were like the crap. They were in the right, but they were gonna him up for righteous reasons, if you know what I mean. They were? [00:12:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:57] Speaker A: I couldn't blame them for it. I was like, no, you. You know, they took the piss out of all of you and they were trying to kill hands. And this is, you know, maybe slightly biblical, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth stuff. But it's raw retribution, and I'm on their side. You go get them and I'm gonna enjoy this. [00:13:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd agree with that completely. It does feel like valid retribution, really. Maybe over the top, but that's film seal. [00:13:31] Speaker A: Wow. That's. That's where I can now circle back to telling you some of what was missing from the film. [00:13:41] Speaker B: Okay. [00:13:42] Speaker A: Apparently more of that assault is missing. [00:13:46] Speaker B: All right. [00:13:46] Speaker A: Because they. They do more to the strong man. Ah. You see him. Stab him in the leg. [00:13:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:55] Speaker A: Apparently you see more of what they do to him. And you know how. You see how the woman ends up as that chicken monster, shall we say? [00:14:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:03] Speaker A: They cut his balls off and he ends up as a singing eunuch. [00:14:07] Speaker B: All right. Really? [00:14:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:11] Speaker B: Wow. I didn't know that. Damn, that's. That's harsh. [00:14:17] Speaker A: I showed this to test audiences and things, and then they had initial screenings of it, and apparently people were being sick and passing out, and one woman even tried to blame having a miscarriage on this film. [00:14:32] Speaker B: Wow. Really? [00:14:34] Speaker A: She said the film was so shocking that it had given her a miscarriage and she was going to sue them for it. [00:14:40] Speaker B: Wow. That is shocking. [00:14:43] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's. I'd like to think that nowadays, if you saw somebody that's a little person or a conjoined twin or like the lad with no legs or the man who had no arms or legs, it would be, like, more normalized and you wouldn't care. But then I remember, I think it was when my daughter was young and she's like, 24 now. There was. I'm gonna say CBBs, but I'm not sure. It was some children's TV thing. And they got a new presenter. Yeah. I was thinking of the word then I was gonna say active presenter. And it was a woman. And basically one of her arms ended at the elbow and she effectively had like, what, like a finger coming out of her elbow? [00:15:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:36] Speaker A: And I always thought that was fine and cool because it's showing young children difference at a very young age. And I thought, you know, they'll see it, they might ask you a question or be curious for a second and then the kid will gloss over it and it will just become perfectly normal. And if they see somebody like that in real life, they won't care. [00:15:56] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:15:56] Speaker A: Well, I don't mean won't care, but, you know, I mean, it'll be. It'll just be a person to them. [00:16:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:01] Speaker A: And there were loads of people that like wrote in and they wanted this woman off the network because it was sick and it had upset their children. And when I think about that, I think we've not really come that much further from this sort of film in a way. Yeah, I think. [00:16:19] Speaker B: I agree, I agree. I remember that myself. Obviously my kids are younger than yours. I remember that. And I think it was CBeebies. Yeah. But is strange because I reckon the kids didn't get upset. The kids were probably fine. It's probably the parents problem and that's it. Unfortunately, we are. [00:16:41] Speaker A: We live in a world. Don't worry. There's a lot of times where people decide offense on other people's behalves. I remember there was a thing at one point where the military were stopping. Army walks, so many streets before a mosque, turning into civilian clothing, walking past and then getting back into military clothing because they thought it would offend Muslims in the mosque. And then when they asked a load of the Muslim. I can't remember their name for a priest, but that's their priest. And they asked their congregation and they were like, no, it's British soldiers on British land walking through British streets. Why would we be worried? [00:17:22] Speaker B: Exactly. I think. I think with my mic. I think with some things people are afraid of offending and there's no need to be. [00:17:32] Speaker A: No. And you could just ask people and. [00:17:34] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:17:35] Speaker A: Instead of presume. But people presume a lot of things. People presume their kids would be scared or maybe they didn't presume. Maybe they just were intolerant and tried to wrap it up in a bow, thinking, if I use my. The potential of children being scared, I can get my way. [00:17:54] Speaker B: Yeah, that's probably another factor as well. People are dicks, as we've established before. People are dicks. For the most part, people are dicks. [00:18:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:07] Speaker B: Unfortunate but true. [00:18:11] Speaker A: I mean, apparently this sort of ruined Todd Browning's career really, because they never, they'd never leave him alone to make a film directly on his own after this. It was like mass interference and you're not gonna do what you want. So it's a shame, I think, because I think there's. There's pacing problems with the film and there's problems of it not being. I mean it's no Dracula, I'll put it that way. [00:18:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:41] Speaker A: But it was something different and I think it should have been a starting point to a career more than an end. [00:18:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it's an interesting film in many ways. Like it wasn't for me in the sense of I just found her a bit boring. But I don't see why you would end her career for daring to show people who inhabit a circus. Especially at the time. [00:19:11] Speaker A: I mean if he hadn't died, this film was going to be a Lon Chaney product. He's gonna have the act along Cheney. That was the Phantom of the Opera and the hunchback in it. Yeah, but it was with him dying that I think it's because he died that belly Bela Lugosi got Dracula from Universal and then MGM decided with this they'd have nobody massively famous in it. They would get the real circus people and then they would get like lower level famous people. I mean apparently the woman that was the evil trapeze artist, she had been quite famous and she wanted this film to like push her back into the public consciousness. Semi ended her career as well. She had about three films after this and that was it. [00:20:01] Speaker B: I didn't know that. [00:20:06] Speaker A: Yes, it was banned for over 30 years. [00:20:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I noticed that it was rejected by. Rejected by the British BBFC. [00:20:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:20] Speaker B: So for a long time. I believe it's 15 rated now, I think. Which don't see why. Really. Nah. [00:20:31] Speaker A: Well, I mean this came out during the period when you didn't even have film ratings. They just used to like throw anything on the screen. And there wasn't any upg15 originally. No, that was like a wildness years. Which seems crazy now that you wouldn't have any recommendations on something. [00:20:50] Speaker B: Yeah, it does seem mad. Any. Anyone discourse, inner marches, any old shit like how old are you? I'm five. Oh, there's no age rating on this film. You go watch this film full of murder. [00:21:05] Speaker A: Just come in here, young child and watch aliens with marines blowing things apart. I'm sure it'll be fine. [00:21:14] Speaker B: Yeah, sounds like A plan. But yeah, I, I like, like I said the last say 10, 15 minutes of this film was all right, but the rest of it I just found a little bit boring. It's a shame really because I've like I, I've. I would was open to like it, you know. [00:21:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd say I like it more but I do think it's a, it's a flawed film. But I do wonder if the extra 30 minutes would make it better or worse. [00:21:54] Speaker B: Depends on what it takes, what it took away all together. Like do you know when she becomes a chicken woman thing? Did it originally show how she became a chicken woman thing? Because I don't understand how she became a chicken woman thing. [00:22:12] Speaker A: I mean you could see they'd cut her face up and stuff and I'm presuming they cut her legs off but I got the belief that rarely they cut her legs off, cut her face and glued her into a suit, shall we say? [00:22:27] Speaker B: Well that's weird. [00:22:29] Speaker A: The suit existed for some Lon Chaney production that I don't think ever got made. So I think they just. And like when we've got a weird ass mutant chicken suit, shove her in the chicken suit. Saves a few quid on designing something new. But yeah, could be mistaken. I don't think other than the Strongman being castrated and singing, I don't think there's really like a big list of everything that was cut because well it's 1932, so. And I think the full 130 minute version was only shown a fair few times, if you know what I mean. I think before the end of the year it was getting cut and cut and caught. [00:23:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:23] Speaker A: So finding somebody now that would have seen it. [00:23:28] Speaker B: Yeah, [00:23:31] Speaker A: you wouldn't really be, to be fair, be able to trust them. You'd be thinking are they remembering it or they're remembering something else they saw or did they dream it or. [00:23:44] Speaker B: Yeah, and as everyone knows, memories change a little. [00:23:50] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean I've watched films and then I've tried to explain them to somebody and these are films I saw 20 years ago and you've twisted it around or bled a part of another film into it or just misremembered it in some way. [00:24:04] Speaker B: Yeah, can happen. I, I agree with her. It can be a pain especially I saw like yeah, someone not to have watched this when it came out. They would be. If they watched it the day they were born, they would be about 96 right now. So yeah, you're thinking older people would have got to see this. So I doubt there's anyone alive who's seen this when it originally released. [00:24:34] Speaker A: No, probably not. [00:24:38] Speaker B: Crazy. Yeah. Would you like to add anything more about the film? [00:24:49] Speaker A: No, not that I can think of. I don't think there's ever been anything quite exactly like it since. To be fair. The only thing I can think of is that Alex Winter's film freaked, but that's more played for laughs. And it's about freaks created through a form of, like, mutagen goop. [00:25:10] Speaker B: Ah, right. I don't think I've heard of it. I don't think. [00:25:14] Speaker A: Oh, we'll have to cover that sometime. It's. It's deeply weird. It's got Keanu Reeves in it as the human dog boy. [00:25:21] Speaker B: I'll have to check it out. [00:25:24] Speaker A: Alex Winter is, like, half human, half gremlin. [00:25:27] Speaker B: Right. [00:25:28] Speaker A: And then a man and a woman are fused together, so they've got three legs, one arm of each of theirs and the head of each. There's a guy with a giant nose. It's. It's a weird film, but it's dead fun. Well, I think it's dead funny. [00:25:48] Speaker B: Cool. It might be something we'll have a look at in the. In the future. Aragons. [00:25:52] Speaker A: I think the only thing that's changed about how we sort of you. All these freaks. Do you know who the comedian Doug Stanhope is? [00:26:01] Speaker B: Sounds familiar. [00:26:03] Speaker A: He used to be on Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe as the voice of America. And he basically did a big thing talking about how in the old days you went to the circus and you paid a quarter and you looked through a knothole and you saw freaks and you. They got exploited like that. But the freaks got their money and you got your enjoyment. But now they go through the Oprah Winfrey circuit where they go on talk shows and you see the disfigured face and Oprah bats the tears away while cashing the paychecks. And it's, like, fed to people as some kind of inspirational thing. If that woman's got no face and half an arm, then you should get off the sofa and sort your life out. [00:26:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:50] Speaker A: So, you know, we've really not changed much from the 30s in that sort of aspect. Just that I think they've learned to give the freaks even less money and monetized it for those in positions of influence even more. [00:27:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I can agree with her. Mad, you know? Yeah, it's mad how little has changed. Yeah. So I think that is gonna be us today. I would like to thank everyone who has listened, and I would like to thank her 9,000 for taking part again. Thank you, Kurt. [00:27:31] Speaker A: Thank you very much for having me on, pal. [00:27:34] Speaker B: No problem at all. And with that, we'll say bye bye. So, bye. Bye. [00:27:38] Speaker A: Bye.