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Tod Browning's FREAKS

post #1 of 18
8/8/04 at 11:41am
Thread Starter 
It's pretty amazing how this film still holds sway and disturbs. Can only imagine what reaction was like back in the day. Browning was blacklisted because of FREAKS' f#@ked nature. This is truely one of the greatest horror films of any era and I'm salivating over the release on dvd.
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post #2 of 18
8/8/04 at 2:06pm
I have the DVD on preorder and can't wait! Sweet, sweet midgets!!!
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post #3 of 18
8/8/04 at 4:03pm
There is a story, and it's probably not true but I still think it's cool, about one day while filming at the MGM Studios either the two conjoined twin sisters or the pinhead sisters where eating at the commisary and Clark Gable was driven to the brink of being physically ill at the sight of them and from that day on it was mandatory the cast stay on the set all day and weren't allowed to leave until all other films in production were shut down and emptied for the day. That just cracks me up. They've made movies about the making of Citizen Kane, Ed Wood's movies, Nosferatu and others -- we need a movie about the making of Freaks.
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post #4 of 18
8/8/04 at 5:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cruikshank
They've made movies about the making of Citizen Kane, Ed Wood's movies, Nosferatu and others -- we need a movie about the making of Freaks.
And if they do, your story should be used.

Freaks I haven't seen and truthfully, I haven't seen any of Browning's films, so once again, I'll have a fun-filled Fall this year. I've wanted to see this one for years, along with The Unknown (Lon Chaney I think).
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post #5 of 18
8/8/04 at 5:58pm
Yeah, it's a great flick and I'll definately be picking up the dvd this week. Also can't wait to hear the commentary from Browning expert (and all around cool guy) David J Skal.
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post #6 of 18
8/9/04 at 7:36am
A fucking CLASSIC!!!!

It's disturbing as all hell.

BTW, the Mr. Torso guy was from New Jersey.

All the stars come from there...
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post #7 of 18
8/9/04 at 1:14pm
Once you see it you never forget it, that's for sure. Heckava thing...just a heckava thing. The ending puts it into the horror movie catagory otherwise it's like calling the Hunchback of Notre Dame a horror movie.
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post #8 of 18
8/9/04 at 2:25pm
They just don't make actors like that anymore.
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post #9 of 18
8/9/04 at 2:28pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Vitus Werdegast
Also can't wait to hear the commentary from Browning expert (and all around cool guy) David J Skal.
Where you able to catch him on the documentaries for the CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, and the GODS AND MONSTERS discs? Great stuff.
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post #10 of 18
8/9/04 at 2:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark
They just don't make actors like that anymore.
HA! Got a LOL from ya there Bob.

Yeah, we gotta start dumping more mercury in the drinking water again apparently.
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post #11 of 18
8/9/04 at 3:33pm
Agreed...Very well made and still disturbing today. The rain and mud drenched finale is still a scary and powerful sequence.

As good as destroyed it's Director of course...Just as "Peeping Tom" did to Powell.

Classics now....Poison then. What a World.
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post #12 of 18
8/9/04 at 4:23pm
Anyone who likes FREAKS will probably enjoy the photographs of Joel Peter Witkin. Or maybe "enjoy" is the wrong word?

http://www.art-forum.org/z_Witkin/gallery.htm

Also, what about this film called SHE FREAK that they now want to remake with Asia Argento? I think I heard one of the producers say that it has some connection to Browning's film.
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post #13 of 18
8/9/04 at 4:26pm
"She Freak" was the Dave Friedman 'Carny' flick...that he is supposedly re-making himself as part of his mini return to the film business (as with HG's "Blood Feast 2")...It's nothing to do with "Freaks" though.
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post #14 of 18
8/9/04 at 5:03pm
Thanks for the information. So what is your opinion regarding a potential SHE FREAK remake? Are you as opposed to that as you are towards the TCM, DOTD and SUSPIRIA remakes?
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post #15 of 18
8/9/04 at 6:25pm
Not really bothered...the original was not a success or in anyway a classic, or in anyway groundbreaking, or that easy to find compared to "TCM", "Suspiria" and "DAWN".
And it's being re-made by the same guy who made the original and as a little Indy film, as the original was.

Thus, we have REASONS why some re-makes are valid and/or of little consequence either way...and why some are gross sacrilige.
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post #16 of 18
8/10/04 at 2:11pm
You should check out Todd Browning's "The Unknown" which I don't think is available on dvd yet is widely available to download off the interent. It stars Lon Chaney as a circus performer who pretends to have no arms. He plays the violen, smokes, and other bizarre things with his bare feet, truely a sight to behold. It practically feels like a prequel to Freaks with the odd circus atmosphere it has running thru it. I'd encourage anyone to check it out.

Also, the worm guy / quadrapalegic (can't spell it) allegedly enjoyed scaring people in real life by hiding in the dark and screaming at the top of his lungs. Now THAT is truely terrifying!
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post #17 of 18
8/10/04 at 2:17pm
Thread Starter 
yeah, good stuff. They regurlarly show it one TCM when they decide to run a night of Chaney filx.
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post #18 of 18
8/12/04 at 11:33am
Watched the DVD last night and according to David Skal's commentary the story I was told is incorrect. It was not Clark Gable, but F. Scott Fitzgerald, who at the time was working as a screen writer, that was sickened by the sight of the two conjoined twins taking a lunch break and actually later wrote about the encounter in one of his stories.
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