Freaks’s (1932) Lost Scenes

Fans of American Horror Story will instantly recognize some of the imagery from this old movie.

A few things I think are over looked are: Maggie Esmerelda’s name being similar to the villainous trapeeze artist. Meep was inspired by Koo Koo the Bird Girl. (Real name Minnie Woosley). Season favorite Pepper was based on Schlitze, who’s birth name was likely Simon Mertz. Both strongmen in the show and movie are both evil people. The obvious tributes are... obvious.

I was rewatching American Horror Story recently, trying to try and get an idea of what the next season was going to be. It made me want to rewatch the movie is it was inspired by and talk to you guys about some of the footage that’s lost from the 1932 film. At least a half hour of the film is gone forever. Back then, there really wasn’t a reason to save unused footage. People didn’t even purchase films outside of seeing it in a theater. There would be no way for people to view it. While this movie being a huge failure can be contributed to footage not being properly preserved, it’s worth knowing that destroying extra footage was a common practice. Even the classic Wizard of Oz is missing at least one song.

While quite a few things were taken out, things were also added. In addition to the amended ending, a prologue was added.
 Tod Browning had to cut a lot of the film and change the ending to appease the general audience. The people that saw the film the way it was meant to be seen claimed to have  fainted, miscarried, and vomited. Not all at the same time, I hope! Freaks is actually still illegal to view/possess in a few states. However, the law is not technically enforced, and has not been since 2012. 

In fact, this film is preserved in the United States National Film Registry where it is deemed to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. I don’t really consider this a horror film nothing is really that scary by today’s standards. It’s more of an exploitation film in my opinion. Especially becuase attitudes have changed about “Freaks”. In a way, we are much kinder and don’t consider someone with a microcephalic head to be horrifying. I think that if they showed more of what was implied, it might be considered horror by our standards. The chase scene during the climax was some heart pounding suspense, but not horror.  I actually like they didn’t show the things that lead to Cleopatra’s fate. The main thing I took from this film was that “Freaks” are people like you and me. Seeing them act in such a savage way would make me view them as monsters. I imagine people back then would have seen it as 100000 times worse, because they were already shocked by the “Freaks”appearances. Like I said before, our attitudes have changed.  The way people threw the “M” word around back then made me feel weird. It’s not a word I use and I’m not sure what we’re supposed to say, and it’s not really my decision on what’s appropriate in that respect. I felt bad for most of the actors people, most notably F. Scott Fitzgerald treated the actors kind of rudely behind the scenes. I do appreciate that the movie ended more happily than originally intended. As much as I love horror, I’m a sucker for a happily ever after.

Stay Spooky,
Nik