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July commemorates a special date in film history, and Cult de Sac would like to offer a heartfelt Happy Birthday to the late Charles Albert “Tod” Browning, born in Louisville on 12 July 1882.

Like his films, Browning’s story was never destined to see a happy ending.

Browning saw his prolific career (which totalled over 60 films) ruined by controversy and financial loss, following the release of FREAKS (1932).

Like Bela Lugosi, whose 1931 role in DRACULA effectively strangled his acting prospects, Browning was personally and professionally haunted by one of his best-known films.

It is of course an unhappy coincidence that Browning also directed the ill-fated Lugosi in DRACULA.

Very often a great director’s career is distinguished by the themes he or she tirelessly pursues. Whether it’s physical metamorphosis in Cronenberg’s case, or descent in Aronofsky’s, the themes are recurrent and typify their work.

No director better exemplifies this notion than Browning.

Andrew's obsession with cult films began at midnight at the age of ten, and involved a bowl of popcorn, an old television set and John Carpenter's Halloween. Little has changed since then, besides age, the popcorn and the fact that he can now climb dark stairwells after a horror movie by himself. Andrew is a published writer of horror fiction, a screenwriter and a freelance journalist. His time is spent largely in pursuit of a truly original horror film. Failing that he has threatened to make his own.

Considered by many to be the Poe of cinema, Browning’s leanings were always towards the macabre. Coupled with his fascination with the circus and carnivals, FREAKS was perhaps inevitable, as was the backlash which saw it banned in Britain for 30 years.

FREAKS revolves around the life of a circus, featuring a macabre side-show of nature’s blunders.

When Cleopatra, a beautiful trapeze artist in the circus, suddenly takes a romantic interest in Hans, her midget admirer, her motives are found to be suspicious. Indeed it is no coincidence that Hans has inherited a great deal of money. His fellow ‘freaks’ intervene, and gruesomely halt Cleopatra and her boyfriend’s plot to dispense with Hans.

FREAKS is an accomplished work, and contains some utterly unforgettable footage, like the Wedding Feast and of course the final grisly moments. When the ‘freaks’ decide to make Cleopatra one of them by sharing from the ‘Loving Cup’ there kicks in a strong sense of unease, which sweeps the film along to its gruesome end. The script apparently called for the ‘freaks’ to drool into the Loving Cup before making Cleopatra drink from it. And while the final cut is sanitised, it is by no means ineffective.

Weighing in at just over an hour, this sadly is not the film Browning intended to make and contains a hackneyed footnote, intended to calm vitriolic audiences. It also contains a happy ending, which amongst other scenes, Browning was forced to film post production, following the test audience’s reactions to the original print.

Technically FREAKS is not the most sophisticated film of its era. For a more stylish approach you would have to see DRACULA – (at least the scenes prior to the Count’s arrival at Whitby Abbey). Browning is not known for his expert direction, but is known for bringing to the screen an emotive understanding of what it takes to disturb audiences.

And disturb he does. The film features some of the most famous real ‘freaks’ of the time; including Siamese twins joined at the hip, a half woman half man, an armless girl, the ‘pinheads’, a human skeleton and a ‘half boy’; the curious example of a man born without legs, but with a shortened torso and normal (dextrous) upper body.

The jury is still out on whether Browning was exploiting these people, paying them tribute or trying to gain them acceptance. Whatever the case the tapestry woven here is compelling, sinister and even today quite disturbing.

Sadly for Browning he was not directing at a time when controversy meant increased ticket sales, like the utterly insipid BASIC INSTINCT (1992), which drew audiences to theatres based on self-perpetuated hype and scandal.

But having said this it could also be argued that if FREAKS was to have been made today, it would probably draw a similarly voracious and self-righteous reaction as it did in 1932.

FREAKS resulted in a substantial loss for MGM and Browning was to complete only four more films over the next ten years (FAST WORKERS, 1933; MARK OF THE VAMPIRE, 1935; THE DEVIL DOLL, 1936; and MIRACLES FOR SALE, 1939), before he was finally struck off the MGM payroll in 1942. He was to die twenty years later in complete seclusion.

In FREAKS Browning found his voice and whether he exploited the cast of the film, paid tribute to them in his own ghoulish way, or simply broke the back of his own demons, the film remains as a testament to a prolific, macabre and brilliant mind.

Happy Birthday!

** Unlike many of Browning’s films, FREAKS is readily available in all good rental outlets and can be purchased online.**

Feel free to disagree with all of the above and contact me with ideas, suggestions and abuse. I’m open to all three, although I do prefer qualified abuse.