Tod Browning’s 1932 tale of love and deception among the members of a carnival sideshow was banned for years by the BBFC on the grounds that it “exploited for commercial reasons the deformed people that it claimed to dignify”. Today, Browning’s sympathies are clear; if there are “freaks” on display here, they are not the versatile performers to whom the title seems to allude. Now accepted as a modern classic, Freaks boasts a memorable turn by Johnny Eck that would inspire the casting of the drones from Doug Trumbull’s sentimental 70s sci-fi charmer Silent Running. As Trumbull recalled: “Here’s this remarkable, beautiful guy, with this amazing agility. Not once do you feel horrified. You are amazed and respectful at his adjustment.”
