The Criterion Collection announced its October release slate this past week and the clear must-own selection that easily rises to the top of the list is titled Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers, which arrives as both double-disc Blu-ray and double-disc DVD sets on Oct. 17.
After Dracula in 1931, Browning delivered one of the most controversial films of the 1930s (and in some places, well into the 1960s). This would be the February of 1932 theatrical release of Freaks, which was either banned (countries) or panned (critics), for its shock value. It is the anchor film in Criterion’s Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers.
The actors playing the sideshow denizens were real and that drove some people nuts. It’s OK to do makeup and prosthetics (Hollywood’s tricks of the trades), but if you use real Carnies trying to earn a buck during the Depression, that’s somehow evil.
Included with this show-stopper classic — which plays as both a horror film and as social-commentary — are two of Browning’s silent films that have similar themes … the sideshow, the traveling carnival, the circus and the stories about the people who make their living in this unique form of “show business.”
The first of these is the 1927 film release of The Unknown, starring Lon Chaney as Alonzo, a criminal on the run with a unique physical characteristic, he has two thumbs on one hand. To avoid the long “arm” of the law, he hides out in a traveling road carnival, where he falls in love with Estrellita (played by none other than Joan Crawford).
As it turns out, she can’t stand the touch of any man’s hand, so Alonzo does the unthinkable and has both of his arms amputated … he earns his headline status by throwing knives with his feet. When Estrellita betrays him for Malabar (Norman Kerry), it is a third act of vengeance that leads to a fight to the death!!
The third film in the collection is from 1925 and is more of a con-artist with a heart romantic drama. Conway Tearle plays Michael Nash, a conman, who imports real Gypsies to run a hustle on an heiress, Doris Merrick (Gladys Hulette), but has a change of heart and follows the lovely Zara (Aileen Pringle) back home to Hungary … happy ending.
Bonus features include commentary from film scholar David J. Skal on both Freaks and The Unknown, a newly-minted video session with author Megan Abbott, a vintage documentary on Freaks and more … much more, a film buff’s delight.
Elsewhere on the October release calendar from Criterion are: Director Nikyatu Jusu’s Nanny (Oct. 31 – DVD and Blu-ray editions), a 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack edition of writer/director Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others, starring Nicole Kidman (Oct. 24 – also Blu-ray), on Oct. 10 director David Cronenberg’s 1983 Videodrome will be available as a 4K Ultra HD/ Blu-ray Combo Pack presentation and Nicolas Roeg’s 1973 creep-out, Don’t Look Now, starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie will be available as both a Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack (Oct. 03).
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