Freaks. Tod Browning Challenges Early Conventions

A director that I hold in the highest esteem for creating one of the greatest love stories of all time, in my opinion, (DRACULA) once created a film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM that was shunned for decades by the studio itself. The director I of course refer to is Tod Browning and his film entitled Freaks. MGM had been known for its highly glamorized productions. And they have worked with Tod Browning on many occasions before. The reason I chose to read this particular article is because of Tod Browning’s attack on what standards of Hollywood in the thirties. Hollywood films were emotional, and had beautiful women who were gazed upon by men who always seemed a little better looking than normal. The sets were highly stylized and expensive. Even Tod Browning’s earlier work with MGM contained impeccable sets with actors such as Bela Lugosi who starred in an innumerable amount of projects after Dracula.

Then Browning released his movie Freaks and it is exactly as its title suggests, freakish. The lavishly ornate sets were replaced with carnivals. Midgets, Siamese twins, bearded ladies, and other all around squeamishly constructed individuals had replaced the beautifully star casted crew. As Gary Morris states in his essay entitled Tod Browning’s Assault of Glamour, “it’s hard to believe that Freaks was actually produced at MGM.” (Morris) I find it interesting how Tod Browning used the tools that a mainstream cinematic powerhouse gave him, and used it to “subvert conventional morality, with an emphasis on physical deformity.” (The Unholy Tree) This abnormal almost uncanny film even went as far as to directly insult the head of MGM, Thalberg Mayer, which resulted in MGM keeping freaks out of “circulation for decades.”(Morris) Thalberg quoted, “In addition to attacking the stifling morals of the day, Freaks encourages a reading of Browning himself as a sort of ungrateful artist figure.”

The way that Browning challenges the conventions of MGM reminds me of how experimental film still object to the status quo of any standard. The avant-garde challenges editing rhythm, narrative, and sound conventions in the same way that Tod Browning assaulted glamour. In some works, such as pieces by Ryan Trecartin he completely reverses everything we installed in ourselves as the norms of film/video editing.

A film like Freaks must have felt so fresh to people who enjoyed films in the thirties. In the thirties Hollywood film had already created an atmosphere of beautiful actresses and romantic storylines. Freaks seems like a repulsive scar on the giant head of Hollywood cinema. Not only does the title express the abnormality of the characters in the film, but also the uncanny nature of how this film places itself in history as one of the first to dare to be different films.