Freaks is a 1932 horror film that tells the story of a normal-sized trapeze artist named Cleopatra (played by Olga Baclanova) who marries a sideshow midget Hans, (played by Harry Earles) for money that he had inherited. She mocks the other members of the troupe during their wedding celebrations and faces their retribution when she, along with her accomplice and lover, the strongman (Henry Victor ), attempt to poison Hans. The film also stars Wallace Ford , Leila Hyams, and Earles' real life sister Daisy Earles.

The movie was adapted by Al Boasberg , Willis Goldbeck , Leon Gordon , and Edgar Allan Woolf from the novel Spurs by Tod Robbins . It was directed by Tod Browning, famed at the time for directing Bela Lugosi in Dracula. Browning took the exceptional step of casting real "freaks" (people with deformities), rather than using costumes and makeup.

Among the other freaks are the Hilton twins, a pair of female conjoined twins; microcephiles (referred to in the film as "pinheads") such as Schlitze (actually a man, despite the dress which was for ease of using the restroom, Simon Metz ) and Zip and Pip (Elvira and Jenny Lee Snow , the inspiration for Zippy the Pinhead); the hermaphrodite Josephine Joseph , with her left/right divided hair (believed to be the inspiration for the hairstyle of Phil Oakey of the band Human League); Johnny Eck , the legless man; and the completely limbless Prince Randian (also known as a torso), who, in a notable scene, lights a cigarette with his mouth.

Reaction to this film was so intense that Browning had trouble finding work afterwards, and this in effect brought his career to an early close. The movie was banned in the United Kingdom for thirty years.

The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

A comics adaptation of Freaks was published in four issues by Monster Comics in 1982, written by Jim Woodring and illustrated by F. Solano Lopez .

The movie was one of the inspirations for the television show Carnivàle on HBO, which is also set in the 1930s.

Quote

"Gooble gobble, gooble gobble, we accept her, we accept her, one of us, one of us!"

This quote was referenced in an homage in season 1 (Episode 7G04) of The Simpsons and the South Park episode "Butters' Very Own Episode".

The quote and characters are also referenced in the Clerks Animated Series episode 6

It was also the inspiration for the Ramones' song "Pinhead," though there it was "Gabba Gabba."

External link

• Information about the cast of "Freaks"