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Freaks

“Can a full grown woman truly love a midget?”

1932 · 1 h 4 min
Directed by Tod Browning
DramaHorror

Cast

Wallace Ford Leila Hyams Olga Baclanova

Credits

Written by: Clarence Aaron 'Tod' Robbins

Plot

A beautiful trapeze artist in a circus, Cleopatra, pretends to love a dwarf, Hans, to inherit his fortune, with the help of the strongman Hercules. The circus's performers, who are people with physical differences, learn of the plot and take their revenge. Tod Browning's 1932 film used real performers and was so shocking to audiences that it was cut, banned in some places and ended Browning's career. It has since been recognised as a work that treats its performers with sympathy and is a cult classic.

Sinekatalog’s take

Tod Browning's 1932 horror stars real sideshow performers and sides with them against cruel 'normal' people. Disturbing and once banned, it still has the power of its infamous wedding scene.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

Ratings

IMDb: 7.8 / 10 (55,539 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.

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