Freaks T-Shirt 1932 Film
- Freaks is a classic film from 1932 and amongst the early classics of horror films during that time period; this Freaks T-Shirt portrays every character from it.
- The black Freaks T-Shirt features an onset of characters above 3 panels with a question accompanying each panel, the most recognizable being "Can A Full Grown Woman Truly Love A Midget?"
- In between the panels and the characters, this Freaks T-Shirt states "The Story Of The Love Life Of The Sideshow," a perfect sentence demonstrating a tone of the film.
- The Freaks T-Shirt also features a review from Louella Parsons, the first American movie columnist.
If you like this Freaks T-Shirt, check out the other horror tees like our Return of The Living Dead Shirt !
Freaks 1932
Tod Browning was tempted to answer the question: Can a full grown woman truly love a MIDGET ? by telling the story of the love life of the sideshow in his film Freaks, 1932. It was a very odd film during it's time and was distributed by MGM. Freaks has shown to be one of the most gruesome films amongst its classic black and white horror films, as well as one of the most controversial. Making rare appearances since its release, labeled as "brutal and grotesque" in Canada and banned in Britain for thirty years, it has reached a cult status as a great film masterpiece.
What separates this film from others is its actual sideshow freaks, human-beings of every conceivable physical aberration. However, the film later shows an antithesis with the traveling members of the carnival becoming the ravenous, murderous freaks! When one beautiful trapeze artist discovers one of the freaks has a small fortune, she seduces him into marriage. But when she and her strongman lover plot to kill him after the wedding, the enraged freaks defend their friend and take revenge on them, transforming them into real freaks.
Directed in Los Angeles, MGM previewed early screenings which received harsh reaction from audiences who found the film too grotesque. Art director Merrill Pye stated that "Halfway through the preview, a lot of people got up and ran out. They didn't walk out. They ran out." There was a case in which a woman even threatened to sue MGM, claiming the film had caused her miscarriage.
The response to this feedback was for the film to be significantly cut, and additional alternate footage was incorporated to help increase the running time. The final abridged cut of the film was released in February 1932 and ran about 64 minutes, compared to 90; the original version no longer exists. Even with the time cut, Freaks still gained recognition due to the fact that its characters were portrayed by people who worked as sideshow performers and had real disabilities. These cast members included dwarf siblings Harry and Daisy Earles; Johnny Eck, who had sacral agenenis; the conjoined twin sisters Daisy and Violet Hilton; and Schlitzie, a man with microcephaly.
During the early 1960s, Freaks was rediscovered as a counterculture cult film, particularly in Europe. It was screened at the 1962 Venice Film Festival, and was eventually shown for the first time in the United Kingdom. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the film was regularly shown at midnight movie screenings in the United States. Film scholar Jennifer Peterson cites Freaks as one of the 50 most important American films ever made. The film was also a great inspiration for the fourth season of American Horror Story, titled Freak Show.
