It wasn’t trapeze artist Cleopatra’s nefarious scheme to manipulate, marry, then murder German midget Hans for his money that was so shocking. Nor was it the attempt by her strongman lover, Hercules, to rape Venus, the seal-trainer. What revolted audiences at Tod Browning’s Freaks upon its release in 1932 was the director’s decision to cast (and humanize) real life sideshow performers — including conjoined twins Violet and Daisy Hilton, Johnny Eck the Half Boy, and Prince Randian, the Hindu Living Torso. Where else are you going to find a movie that contains a man with no arms or legs rolling up a cigarette and smoking it or a German midget talking about Swiss cheese or a clown named Phroso or a family that looks like Howard Stern’s lackey Beetle Juice or a woman being turned into a chicken?
The film was yanked from theaters and stayed banned in Great Britain for 30 years. Browning — who, at the age of 16, had run away to join a circus — treated these actors like professionals and presented characters that were more than grotesque curiosities, and it all but ended his career.
Freaks is on a double bill with Fahrenheit 451 as part of King’s Book’s Banned Film Night.
[King’s Books, 6:30 p.m., free, 218 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma, 253.272.8801]
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