The Criterion Collection’s Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers box set includes restorations of three essential movies from the macabre director’s filmography: The Unknown, Freaks, and the home video premiere of The Mystic. From the beginning of Browning’s obsessive, cinematic depictions of circus acts in The Mystic to his sideshow swan song with Freaks, Criterion’s box set gives viewers all the context necessary to appreciate this thrilling slice of film history. Although Browning directed many films before, and a few after, his run of carnival-centered thrillers continues to influence filmmakers into the modern day, such as Guillermo del Toro. No silent, horror, or classic film collection should be considered complete without a copy of Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers.
The Mystic, previously unavailable for home viewing, stands out in this curated trilogy as a bridge from Browning’ penchant for crime stories—like in Outside the Law and The Unholy Three—into a world of carnivals and circus tents. Aileen Pringle stars as the titular mystic, Zora, a young Romani woman who performs a spiritualist gimmick - with help from her father and assistant - meant to entertain and shock paying, Hungarian audiences. When an American con artist discovers their act, he brings them to New York City with the goal of tricking an heiress out of her fortune. While the film’s second half is reminiscent (bordering on derivative) of Browning’s earlier thrillers, the first focuses on Zora's act and its effect on audience members, both the eager and the skeptical.
Despite their ten film-long working relationship, The Unknown is the only film in this Tod Browning box set starring the Man of a Thousand Faces: Lon Chaney Sr. The most widely accessible title in Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers, Criterion makes the movie worth its spot in the trilogy with a 2022 restoration and reconstruction from the George Eastman Museum. Chaney plays Alonzo, a killer with an easily identifiable abnormality: two thumbs on his left hand. To avoid arrest, he pretends to be disabled by tying his arms against his torso and performing as an armless knife thrower in a circus. He tries to win over the circus owner’s beautiful daughter, Nanon (a young Joan Crawford), who is unaware of his ruse and dreadfully phobic of men’s arms. When Nanon’s father discovers Alonzo’s secret, desperate and grotesque measures are taken.
And finally, 1932’s Freaks —released only a year after Browning’s success with Dracula for Universal Pictures—marked the beginning of the end of his filmmaking career due to the film’s extremely negative reception. However, modern viewers will be pleased to discover a humanizing, historical record of disabled performers. The film follows the lovestruck Hans (circus performer Harry Earles, known for both versions of The Unholy Three and a member of the Lollipop Guild in The Wizard of Oz), a little person, as he attempts to court a typical-sized woman, Cleopatra. In a classic case of “who is the real ‘freak,’” Cleopatra only encourages his affections as part of a despicable plot to poison Hans for his money. Upon discovery of her ulterior motives, the circus’ close-knit tribe of performers bands together to punish this cruel outsider. This infamous film has been out-of-print on DVD for years, but now audiences new and old can enjoy Freaks in the best quality possible, with Criterion’s new restoration and a wealth of supplementary materials.
In addition to the two discs containing three films and bonus features, Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers includes an essay written by prolific film historian and critic Farran Smith Nehme. Often citing the out-of-print biography by David J. Skal and Elias Savada, Dark Carnival, Smith Nehme provides a brief but detailed overview of Browning’s life and analysis of the films within this box set. Considering most readers cannot easily access Skal and Savada’s book, this essay provides vital historical context to the films.
From opportunistic spiritualists to sympathetic carnival performers, Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers brings three films from his cinematic “dark carnival” into the 21st century, in a collection worthy of these landmark films. Media librarians and general audiences alike would be amiss not to consider adding this thrilling trilogy of deception, fear, and ultimately, humanity to their film collections.
What type of library programming could use Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers?
Libraries could use Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers for unique Halloween time programming with a spotlight on silent horror films.
What kind of film series would Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers fit in?
The Mystic could be played alongside movies like Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler or William Cameron Menzies and Kenneth MacKenna’s The Spider in a series about spiritualism in the movies. Freaks could be programmed in a series about disability representation onscreen. The Unknown is essential to any Lon Chaney Sr. retrospective, perhaps on a double bill with The Penalty (In the former, he had to bind his arms to the side, and in the latter, he had to rig his calves behind his thighs!)
What type of college/university professors would find Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers valuable?
Film history professors will especially find Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers valuable for making long unavailable films from one of the pioneering directors in horror cinema – specifically The Mystic - finally accessible. History and sociology professors might also appreciate Freaks as a historical document of disability in the 20th century.