Freaks
Wednesday, July 18, 7 p.m.,
Wells Hall, B106
Director: Tod Browning, 1932 (66 min.)
Kresge Art Museum
German "little person" Harry Earles plays Hans, who falls in love with long-legged trapeze artist Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova). Discovering that Hans is heir to a fortune, Cleopatra inveigles him into a marriage, all the while planning to bump off her new husband and run away with brutish strongman Hercules (Henry Victor). What she doesn't reckon with is the code of honor among circus freaks: "offend one, offend them all."— Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideGenuine circus and carnival sideshow performers were cast for this film. An accompanying hour-long commentary featurette, Freaks: Sideshow Cinema, further enlightens viewers about the lives of these performers before, during, and after the filming of Freaks. It includes interviews with David Skal, author of a biography of director Tod Browning, sideshow performers and historians Tod Robbins and Johnny Meah, actors Mark Povinelli and Jerry Maren, and current sideshow performer Jennifer Miller. Len Sawisch, Ph.D., will provide an introduction to the film and commentary on its personal significance in his own life.
