Tag: Tod Browning

The Devil-Doll (1936)

day 18, the devil-doll

THE DEVIL-DOLL (1936) Four stars
Two men escape from Devil’s Island at the beginning of THE DEVIL-DOLL, director Tod Browning’s penultimate theatrical feature.

Paul Lavond (Lionel Barrymore), wrongly convicted and imprisoned for 17 years for looting his own bank and murdering a night watchman, wants nothing more than cold-blooded revenge against his three former business partners who set him up for the fall. They’ve been living high on the hog while he’s been rotting away in prison. That can produce a lot of hatred.

Marcel (Henry B. Walthall, 1878-1936), meanwhile, wants to return to his scientific work. He’s single-minded in purpose, just as Lavond. Marcel, an idealist through and through until his final breath, has developed a way to reduce people to one-sixth their original size and this all ties in with speculation on how mankind will find the necessary resources to feed a growing population. Marcel believes that he’s found the solution for the human race moving forward.

(With the world’s population projected at 10 billion by 2050, there’s articles already written on how we will feed our growing population.)

At the moment of his greatest scientific triumph, the first successful shrunken human, Marcel dies and then Lavond joins Marcel’s widow and assistant Malita (Rafaela Ottiano) in continuing Marcel’s work. Of course, Lavond intends to exploit this scientific breakthrough for his personal revenge with the ultimate goal of clearing his name and Lavond and Malita go to Paris to carry out Lavond’s master plan. Lavond, a wanted man, disguises himself as Madame Mandelip (call her Mrs. Dreadfire) and Lavond/Mandelip and Malita set up a shop selling lifelike dolls.

Lavond can mind control the miniaturized humans (first Marcel and Malita’s slow servant and then one of his former associates Rodan) and they carry out his revenge. Brilliant plan. I mean, what authorities would ever believe that you were attacked by a “devil-doll?” Not only that, but you wouldn’t even know what hit you until it’s too late.

Barrymore (1878-1954) finds the right notes to play the wide range presented to him throughout THE DEVIL-DOLL. On one hand, Barrymore played Mr. Potter in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE 10 years after THE DEVIL-DOLL and Mr. Potter earned the No. 6 slot on the American Film Institute’s list of the 50 Greatest Villains. Barrymore uses some of the same notes playing Lavond, although he’s the main protagonist rather than main antagonist. On the other hand, it’s especially sad watching Lavond being unable to reveal himself to his estranged daughter (Maureen O’Sullivan) who’s adamant that she hates him; Lavond mostly contacts his daughter in the Mandelip guise. Mandelip earns a few laughs and like the later performances, for example, by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in SOME LIKE IT HOT and Dustin Hoffman in TOOTSIE, they create legitimate characters that go beyond, way beyond the dudes-in-drag gimmick.

Walthall’s Marcel and Ottiano’s Malita belong alongside many of the great mad scientists throughout cinematic history. Malita is deliriously, delightfully loopy and, of course, relentless in the pursuit of continuing her dead husband’s legacy. Ottiano (1888-1942) became the subject of an article titled “Rafaela Ottiano: The Venetian Who Played the Villainess.” She’s a lot of fun.

Marcel and Malita fit one definition of mad (“carried away by enthusiasm or desire”) while Lavond fits another (“intensely angry or displeased”), and that gives THE DEVIL-DOLL a very interesting dynamic.

Freaks (1932)

day 13, freaks

FREAKS (1932) Four stars
Tod Browning’s 1932 one-of-a-kind masterpiece had incredible difficulty passing muster with the British Board of Film Classification, failing twice before the third time’s a charm in 1963 when it was slapped with an X rating and the caveat “People should be warned of the nature of the film so that those to whom such sights are displeasing will not see it.”

That’s amazing, since 30 minutes of even more shocking content were excised after a disastrous test screening in January 1932. Apparently, one woman threatened suing MGM for giving her a miscarriage. Removed scenes and sequences possibly lost forever include a longer attack on female villain Cleopatra, her conspirator Hercules being castrated, several comedy sequences, and the original epilogue (replaced by a more traditional happy ending). When the film debuted February 20, 1932, it was 64 minutes in length and that’s what we have always seen.

It’s also amazing, of course, the film was even made in the first place, but MGM desperately wanted a piece of the horror market. Keep in mind that 1932 was a glorious year for horror: THE OLD DARK HOUSE, THE MUMMY, WHITE ZOMBIE, ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, VAMPYR, MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, THE MASK OF FU MANCHU, and THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME.

Browning had the opportunity to direct anything he wanted after the Universal Studios hit DRACULA (1931) and his career would never be the same after FREAKS. Browning did not direct again until 1935’s MARK OF THE VAMPIRE.

What made the film so damn shocking? Perhaps it’s because the so-called straight characters are the freaks and the so-called freaks are everyday people just like you and I. Of course, there would be many people made to feel uncomfortable with the freaks’ matter-of-fact treatment.

Speaking of folks made uncomfortable, there’s always the account of MGM Studios’ reaction to the FREAKS cast from an article called “The Making of Freaks” (originally 1973 by Mark Frank).

“By late October 1931, carloads of freaks were beginning to arrive at M-G-M studio, much to the consternation of the personnel there, most of whom did not expect such a materialization of ‘talent.’ While the newcomers were getting acquainted with their new surroundings, popping in and out of alleyways, the weak-hearted secretaries went scurrying about in the opposite direction. During those first days of the freaks’ immigration, opposition to the production grew to alarming proportions. Louis B. Mayer, executive president, who had somehow allowed this enterprise to slip through his fingers, was now furiously against allowing the project to continue. Many of his executives, spurred on by producer Harry Rapf, were trying to organize a petition calling on (Irving) Thalberg to halt the ugly venture. Their argument concerned the Metro commissary, where they believed it would become unbearable to dine with Prince Randian or Zip the Pin-Head.

“Thalberg, having complete faith in his strange little undertaking, stood fast against the barrage of criticism, and continued his ardent support for the film. Within a few days, word came from the higher-ups that the freaks, with the exceptions of Harry and Daisy Earles and the Hilton Twins, were banned from the commissary. In order to accommodate them a private room, especially fitted for them to dine in, was constructed just off the set. Metro also had the cast quartered in a hotel in Culver City, where they were shipped every night as soon as work was over.”

Just another case of life imitating art or art imitating life, since one of the centerpiece scenes in FREAKS involves a wedding feast for “straight” Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) and “freak” Hans (Harry Earles). Cleopatra and her real lover Hercules have conspired to kill Hans for his fortune, slipping poison into his wine. Straights are the real freaks, indeed. Hans’ sideshow friends have joined him for this special occasion and they decide they will accept Cleopatra as one of them. They pass “a loving cup” around the table and begin chanting “We accept her, one of us. We accept her, one of us. Gooble-gobble, gooble-gobble” (later inspiration for the chant in the Ramones’ “Pinhead”). Cleopatra is so disgusted by this development that, with the loving cup finally in hand, she goes on a rant, “You dirty, slimy freaks! Freaks, freaks, freaks! You fools! Make me one of you, will you?,” and she tosses the wine literally back in their faces.

FREAKS leaves an indelible mark on viewers and that’s mainly because of its unforgettable characters. That’s definitely why it’s one of my very favorite films and has been since I first watched it on video nearly 20 years ago.

Here’s a few briefs on some of these incredible characters:

• English born conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton (1908-69) play basically themselves in FREAKS. They were born joined at their hips and buttocks and they shared blood circulation but no major organs. Their showbiz career began early, touring Britain at age 3, and they were exploited by their various managers throughout their careers; they formed their own jazz band and had been a hit on the vaudeville circuit. Their great moment in FREAKS involved one twin kissing her lover passionately while the other just stood there vicariously pleasured. The Hilton Sisters (better than Paris and Nicky) ended up working at a grocery store in Charlotte, North Carolina, and they were found dead at their home after neither reported for work on January 4, 1969.

• Johnny Eck (1911-91) was born Johnny Eckhardt in Baltimore, Maryland, 20 minutes after a twin brother. Johnny was born with no lower half, while his twin brother Robert was born a normal and healthy child. Eck not only appeared in sideshows and films, but he found time to be (most notably) an artist, a musician, and a photographer. Eck, hyped as “The Most Remarkable Man Alive,” performed for the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Odditorium at the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago, to help support his family during the Great Depression. Eck and Browning became close friends.

• Prince Randian (1871-1934) plays “The Living Torso” in FREAKS and he gets another one of the great moments when he lights up a cigarette. This longtime carnival and circus performer earned names like “The Snake Man,” “The Human Torso,” and “The Human Caterpillar.” He fathered four children (three daughters and one son) with his wife, known as Princess Sarah.

• Real-life siblings Harry (1902-85) and Daisy Earles (1907-80) play Hans and Frieda, who are engaged before Cleopatra steals away Hans. Harry and Daisy were part of four siblings, along with Gracie and Tiny, known and billed as either The Doll Family or The Earles Family. They were all featured in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus for decades. Harry appeared in films THE UNHOLY THREE (both the 1925 silent and the 1930 sound remake, the first directed by Browning and both featuring Lon Chaney) and THE WIZARD OF OZ (where he’s a member of the Lollipop Guild). Daisy made her final screen appearance with a small part in Cecil B. DeMille’s THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.

• Then there’s the iconographic Schlitzie (1901-71), a microcephalic who inspired Bill Griffith’s “Zippy the Pinhead” comic and the Ramones’ “Pinhead” (inspired by the film in general but especially Schlitzie and the wedding feast). Microcephalics were normally promoted as “pinheads” or “missing links.” From “The Making of Freaks”: “One of those selected (to be in FREAKS) was Schlitzie, the Pin-Head, who was a most unusual character. In a conquest of personality, it was claimed that she was a woman, since she dressed like one, but it was also rumored that she was a man. Furthermore, it was said that Schlitzie was neither one nor the other. This conflict of identity did not seem to affect her zeal to work in pictures, especially FREAKS, for on any day that she was not scheduled for filming she would make such a fuss at the hotel that they would have to bring her over to the set and let her sit there. She could very well afford this sort of behavior because, being very well managed, she had amassed a sizeable wealth in diamond rings and apartment houses.” Billed as female, Schlitzie was in fact male.