Freaks/Fun Facts

• The electrical equipment on the set was so badly grounded that crew members were frequently shocked.

• The film's original ending showed Hercules singing soprano in Madame Tetralini's new sideshow due to the fact that he has been castrated by the freaks, but due to intense reactions of disgust on the part of test audiences this scene was cut.

• Prince Randian, the man with no arms or legs, developed a habit of lurking in dark corners and frightening passers-by with a blood-curdling yell.

• During filming, director Tod Browning was plagued with dreams in which Johnny Eck and a pinhead would keep bringing a cow in backward through a doorway in the middle of shoots.

• In the UK this film was banned for 30 years after it was first released.

• The original casting had Victor McLaglen as Hercules, Myrna Loy as Cleopatra, and Jean Harlow as Venus. All balked at the prospect of co-starring with "sideshow exhibitions".

• The on-screen romance between Hans and Frieda was very subdued because the roles were being played by real life brother and sister Harry Earles and Daisy Earles.

• After the film had been withdrawn and shelved by MGM, the distribution rights were acquired by notorious exploitation roadshow specialist Dwain Esper. Esper traveled the country showing the film under such lurid titles as "Forbidden Love" and "Nature's Mistakes".
• During the 1920s and 1930s, photographer Edward J. Kelty took a succession of group photographs of members of the Barnum and Bailey freak show. What is interesting is how many cast members can be spotted in them (this film is the only movie credit for most of them). Familiar faces include Harry Earles (Hans), Daisy Earles (Frieda), Peter Robinson (human skeleton), Elvira Snow (pinhead), Jenny Lee Snow (pinhead), Elizabeth Green (bird girl) and Olga Roderick (bearded lady).

• Cast member Olga Roderick, the bearded lady, later denounced the film and regretted her involvement in it.

• F. Scott Fitzgerald was a member of the MGM writing department at the time the movie was in production. He never felt quite at home with all the movie stars and powerful moguls, and so he often dined in the commissary at the table of the sideshow attractions (freaks) during his lunch hour.

• When 'Dwain Esper (I)' traveled the country with this film, he used some of the most lurid and suggestive promotions. For some engagements, if he was satisfied that it was safe, the feature would be followed by a square-up reel. This reel was basically nudist camp footage.

• In the United States, this film was banned in a number of states and cities. Although no longer enforced, some of the laws were never officially repealed. Therefore, it is still technically illegal for this film to be shown some areas of the USA.

• Myrna Loy, originally slated for the Olga Baclanova role, turned down the part because she felt the script was offensive.
• During a publicity photo session with Olga Baclanova, midget actor Harry Earles kept making lewd remarks. Many of her surprised and disgusted visual expressions in the photos that the session yielded are authentic rather than posed.

• Several variations on the ending are still in existence. However, the footage of Hercules singing soprano was not included in any of the foreign versions and is now regarded as lost.

• Was originally banned in Australia.
• When MGM production chief Irving Thalberg gave Willis Goldbeck the assignment to write a draft of a screenplay based on Tod Robbins' "Spurs", the only direction he gave the writer was that the script had to be 'horrible.' Goldbeck completed his draft quickly and turned the script over to Thalberg. A few days later Goldbeck was summoned to Thalberg's office, where he found the producer slumped forward on his desk with his face buried in his arms, as if overwhelmed. After a moment, Thalberg sat up straight and looked at Goldbeck. "Well," said Thalberg, "it's horrible."

• Schlitze, the microcephalic member of the cast who appears to be female, was actually a male. The dress was worn for reasons of personal hygiene.

• Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 25 Most Dangerous Movies".
• Dwarf actor Angelo Rossitto, who appeared as Angeleno, would go on to a successful career in TV and films including Little Moe in the TV series "Baretta" (1975) and as one half of the giant Master Blaster opposite Mel Gibson in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985).

• The film was rejected for UK cinema showing in 1932 and again in 1952. It was finally passed for cinema with an uncut X rating in May 1963, making it one of the longest bans in UK film history.

• The tune that 'Angeleno' plays on his flute during the final confrontation between Cleopatra and the bedridden Hans is the "mournful tune" from Richard Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde", played in the opera while the dying Tristan waits for Isolde's ship to appear on the horizon.

• Dwarf John George -- for reasons unknown -- does not appear in Freaks, even though a role was specifically written for him in the screenplay.

• One woman, after seeing Freaks, wrote a letter to Browning at MGM, exclaiming that "You must have the mental equipment of a freak yourself to devise such a picture." Another viewer complained, "To put such creatures in a picture and before the public is unthinkable."

• Although Thalberg decided to re-cut the picture immediately after the disastrous test screening, he could not cancel the world premiere on January 28 at the 3,000-seat Fox Theatre in San Diego. This is the only venue at which the uncut Freaks is known to have played. Ironically, the unexpurgated Freaks was a major box-office success. Crowds lined up around the block to see the picture, which broke the theatre's house record. By the end of the run, word had spread that Freaks was about to be butchered, and the theatre advertised, "Your last opportunity to see Freaks in its uncensored form!"

• According to one source, Browning was introduced to the story by Cedric Gibbons, the head of the MGM Art Department. He was supposedly boyhood friends with Robbins and convinced the studio to purchase film rights for the sum of $8,000. Another source claims that the diminutive actor Harry Earles gave Browning a copy of the story during the production of The Unholy Three in 1925, in hopes that he could star in the adaptation.

• Samuel Marx, head of the Story Department, recalled with peculiar pride, " And so, Harry Rapf, who was a great moral figure, got a bunch of us together and we went in and complained to Irving [Thalberg] about Freaks. And he laughed at that. He said, 'You know, we're making all kinds of movies. Forget it. I'm going to make the picture. Tod Browning's a fine director. He knows what he's doing.' And the picture was made." But the lunchroom protests didn't end. As a result, a makeshift table was constructed and the cast of Freaks (with the exception of Harry and Daisy Earles, Violet and Daisy Hilton, and the more "normal" cast-members) were forced to eat their meals outdoors.

• Olga Baclanova, later recalled the day when she was first introduced to the supporting cast, "[Browning] shows me little by little and I could not look, I wanted to faint. I wanted to cry when I saw them. They have such nice faces... they are so poor, you know... [Browning] takes me and say, you know, 'Be brave, and don't faint like the first time I show you. You have to work with them.'... It was very, very difficult first time. Every night I felt that I am sick. Because I couldn't look at them. And then I was so sorry for them. That I just couldn't... it hurt me like a human being."

• Johnny Eck, the half-boy, remembered his screen test was taken by MGM's scouting unit while he was on tour in Canada, and he shared the screen with the world's largest rat. He recalled being treated well by the crew, "The technicians, the sound men, the electricians, and the prop department, and everybody... was my friend... We got along beautifully."

• According to the screenplay, the scene in which Madame Tetrallini introduces the wandering land-owner to the performers frolicking in the woods ran quite a bit longer. It included additional dialog that endeavored to humanize the so-called freaks. She tells him they are "always in hot, stuffy tents -- strange eyes always staring at them -- never allowed to forget what they are." Duval responds sympathetically (clearly the stand-in for the viewing audience), "When I go to the circus again, Madame, I'll remember," to which she adds, "I know, M'sieu -- you will remember seeing them playing -- playing like children... Among all the thousands who come to stare -- to laugh -- to shudder -- you will be one who understands."

• Numerous other bits of dialog were removed that depicted the "normal" humans as disgusting creatures and the "freaks" as gentle and sympathetic (destroying the social critique of intolerance Browning was attempting to construct). While the circus awaits word on Hans's declining health, one of the Rollo Brothers coldly remarks, "You'd think the world was coming to an end -- just because a mangy freak's got a hangover." In another scene, Madame Tetrallini responds to the Rollos' taunts by defending the humanity of her "children," "Augh, you cochons -- you beasts... They are better than you -- all of them -- you two dogs!"

• This movie inspired the Ramones song "Pinhead" after the group attended a screening of it in Ohio. The lines from the song "Gabba Gabba/ We accept you/ We accept you/ One of us" is based on the line "gooble gobble, gooble gobble, one of us, one of us" from the movie.