Freaks
Freaks (1932)
Directed by Tod Browning
Starring Harry Earles, Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Daisy Earles, Henry Victor, and Olga Baclanova.
Story: Freaks follows Hans, a circus "freak" who falls for a woman who manipulates him for his money.
The Bad: The ending of the film was clearly not the original ending and was something added later on to make Hans not look like a bad person (although I feel as though what he did was justified.)
The Good: It boggles my mind how this film is paced so well yet it's only an hour long. I've seen films that are 2 hours long where we don't know the characters well and and we don't understand the motives of the characters, yet this film executes all of that perfectly with its short runtime. This film is oddly progressive for 1932 with the film viewing the circus "freaks" as the protagonists rather then antagonists. Normally a film like this would follow a person with no deformities so audiences will relate to that person more but this film follows Hans who has GHD and I thought that Harry Earles was fantastic in this. The wedding scene was so heartbreaking, it's the moment where Hans realizes that he's not loved by Cleo but is being used by her and when Cleo and Hercules torments Hans and tries to poison him so they can collect his fortune, he hatches a plan of revenge. Which leads us to the climax which was quite controversial for the time but I think it's amazing. When the "freaks" all attack Cleo and Hercules its satisfying to see them get what they deserve yet it's horrific and distraughtful to see these characters that we've grown to care for do something so inhuman.