Daddy Daughter Scary Horror 6.10 (Freaks, 1932)

Join Eric & Serling as they catch up to the almost lost sideshow masterpiece from 1932 that is Tod Browning's "Freaks".  And thanks for hanging in there with us over our little vacation from the 'cast.  We are back and ONE OF YOU!!!!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

How long do you think you could last buried alive?

SPEAKER_01 0:03

An hour.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Yeah. I'd pay to see that. We'll do it. Here, I'll give you fifty cents right now.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Fifty cents. Yeah, I mean, we're back. Welcome.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

We are. It has been a long, luxurious while since we've been in front of these here microphones.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

We took some time off for the holidays.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

We sure did. Holidays and then some.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Don't know if you noticed or not out there. We kind of took January and February off.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

We absolutely and completely took January and February off.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

A lot of holidays going on in these two months. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Count Valentine's and Presidents.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

But there was stuff going on.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Brown Hogg, Martin Luther, Ramadan. There was stuff going on. And we had two massive snowstorms to enjoy. Which translated to days of shoveling because my snowblower got delivered four days after the first blizzard and I was already finished clearing most of the driveway.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Most?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

53% is still most. Yeah. I'd have shoveled more if it hadn't been from a fractured rib.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Yeah, dad slipped and fell. Um you are not used to walking on snow, which is then covered with a hard, thick, sleek layer of ice.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

I know I was out of practice from living in LA for so long. But it was also Ray was pulling me in one direction. I was trying to grab mailbox. It was bad. That's all I can't recommend this enough to the audience. Always try to never ever break a rib at any cost because recovery is long and painful.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

And then we also saw some theater.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Yeah, your first trip to NYC. We had a lot going on in January.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Many fantastic distractions. I don't regret any of it except my rib. So that's why you haven't been hearing too much of us lately.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

But shows go on breaks, right? Like TV shows between seasons, or they do for sure.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

And we had gone what? Like almost two years of this show doing at least two episodes a month, sometimes as many as four or five, sometimes six in a month. Six months. That was a crazy pace.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

We used to do that many?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Um Yeah, in the early days, before the format of the show really developed into what it is now. And before we moved.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

And I started a new school and you started your new job and everything was just really busy.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Especially the last six months. A lot a lot to go through.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

But we're back, and we're going to try to commit to how many shows a month? Two? Four?

SPEAKER_00 2:52

I I think we're gonna say two to three. Two is a safe promise, though, I think.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

We can do two. Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

I believe it to be so.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

So we're back with Freaks 1932. So what was your first time like seeing this movie?

SPEAKER_00 3:05

My first so I saw this movie late at night. I think on New Year's Eve, maybe, when I was fourteen or fifteen. Unedited, no commercial breaks, was on PBS, and I was fascinated by it. I'd read about it and seen pictures in like books and magazines, and I knew it was this notoriously polarizing movie when it came out.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

But it's the same director that did Dracula, which everyone loved until they put this on screen. So that kind of ruined his career.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Yeah, and I wasn't necessarily impressed that it was by the same director as Dracula, because I never really loved Dracula that much. But this one had a nasty reputation, caused a lot of controversy when it was released just one year after Dracula. But yeah, essentially ruined Todd Browning's career. Um and first, I have to say I was really impressed with your reaction to this.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

And the first twenty minutes really catch your eye and it really sells you into this because you're like wow, uh a trapeze artist, uh half woman, half man, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

But you were immediately taken in and you connected to the characters, and you really along for the whole sort of lengthily established plot. And our main guy, the dwarf Hans just being uh taken advantage of and abused by Cleopatra, the beautiful trapeze artist.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

She was awful. Very very hateable, very good, very good, John.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yeah, she was written that way, and I think she uh acted in such a way that made you hate her too.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

But you have to wait a long way to see her come up in but very worth it. Good. So let's uh go blow by blow through 1932's Freaks.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Alright. Uh the story starts off with Cleopatra, who we've already mentioned. Personally, I was not attracted to her, and everyone says, like, oh, she's the beautiful, but you can't do it.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

She was made out to be the lovely lady of the flying trapeze, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Because bad personalities affect your looks in my world mainly, but like Good.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

I hope they always do.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Anyway, she starts flirting with a man who is a dwarf, Hans, and it's kind of like fake flirting because she's just flirting with him because of his money.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Yeah, don't do that.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

I will never, I would never.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

I know you.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Um Hans the Dwarf guy also has a cute friend, Frida, who was adorable in the movie and seems so kind and sweet and is caring and were they brother and sister in real life? I hope not, because they played lovers in this.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

I know, but they could just be really good actors.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Oh. Uh and she loves Hans, and she's really worried about him getting with someone who is so cruel and is leaning towards just his money. And Hans and Cleopatra start to talk about getting married.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Of course. Yeah, she's gotta get close to that moolah.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Cleopatra has a secret lover who is the strong man, but respectfully, he looks like he couldn't even lift a bag of twigs.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Yeah, strong man. Strongman of the circus. I would want my carnival money back if that's what I got to see, paying to see a strong man. I think I I might have a better body than this strongman of the circus. He looks like arms, we're so scrawny. Yeah, I'm gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

He's like leg day and arm day and abs day.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

But they they call him Hercules.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah. And Cleopatra and Hercules have a plan to poison Hans after she marries him so that they can steal all of his money. And Hans is so sweet in this, and he's but he's so blindsided by the love and Wizard of Oz. Okay. There's also this like romantic relationship between these two people, Venus and Front.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Frozo. Frozo. Yes, she's the seal, the like the animal trainer for the circus and he's like the clown.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:52

He's always working on some gimmick. It's kind of it's kind of entertaining.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

But they're a good couple. They're cute together and they're happy with each other, and they're very like playful. But yeah, so Hans and Cleopatra get married, and everyone's invited, and there's a lot of all the freaks around the table. Speaking of some of the freaks, there's a lot of really, really cool people there. There's an armless and legless man and woman. There was the giant, there were the Siamese twins, a half man, half woman.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

We'll talk about all these guys.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

And all the freaks at the table start chanting, one of us, one of us, because she's marrying their Hans, and now they accept her into their tribe, into their culture, kind of.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Yeah, but that's not what she wants. And she is clearly horrified at uh what they intend to be a very kind gesture.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Yeah, so she freaks out and starts mocking them.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

She turns into a freak. Yes, Steve. She turns into a freak. Right? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

You need to chill out.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

I hate her.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

But yeah, she rejects their kind gestures completely. And the next day, one of the freaks, I love this guy. First thought, can we just talk about this one freak?

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Who's always sort of in the shadows and over here and sort of spying. He wears that cool hat and he's the one who flicks the knife.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Yes, and he was always mysterious and I'm loving it. Um but yeah, he overhears, he listens in on the secret conversation with Cleopatra and Hercules, where they're discussing their nefarious plan. And he's so mysterious with doing it.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Yeah, and he tells everybody else, and then they start hatching a little plan of their own.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

And uh there's a brutal revenge sequence that starts on a stormy night as the carnival is on the move uh to the next little town. Carriages are rolling their way through the woods and the ever thickening mud and murk, and Hercules sneaks his way into Venus' carriage and tries to kill her because she knows what uh he and Cleopatra are up to.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

I also think he was a little bit jealous because he and Venus used to be a thing. Yeah. And then there was that whole subject.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

I think they had a pretty stormy relationship, and then she she realized that Frozo was her guy.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Getting back to the story, Cleopatra's with Hans, who she has been feeding poison to for several days now. Or so she thought. Hans already knew her scheme from the day that they were married.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Yeah, he had the down low on her.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

And he also saw her kissing the strongman. Like, they did it out in the open.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Yeah, they weren't subtle about it. And I think the point is, like, the freaks, quote unquote freaks, yeah, they're this tight community that that they look out for each other.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

If you break one of them, they're gonna break, they're gonna break.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

So what happens?

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Cleopatra gives him the spoon with the poison on it, lying to him, saying that it's medicine, but he stops her and demands to see the bottle of poison he knows she has hidden in her pocket.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

That's a cool scene.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Yeah, and a whole fight breaks out. Like, I love all the freaks just like climbing out.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

They band together.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Yeah. I can admit that it was a little weird where like it was just the second he was like, Give me the bottle. All right. Look, we're not giving our opinions, huh? No, but like the freaks just like crawled out from under the bed, and I was like, Where were they all hiding?

SPEAKER_00 10:03

That's the point.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Like little birds.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

They're all over the place. You can't get away from them. They always got their eye on you.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

But yeah, a whole fight breaks out, and all the freaks work together to bring the evil two some down. Fozo saves Venus from Hercules, and the freaks take their revenge. And the ending is great, and I can I I love the acting. It's You'd love the acting. Yeah. Except from Cleopatra, I hate you.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Alright, well, yeah, we're not gonna spoil the ending yet, so watch uh watch the movie for yourself. Trailer.

SPEAKER_04 10:34

We didn't lie to you. We told you we had living.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Yeah, what are you going for this?

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Eleven. Why eleven? It's in black and white. It's pretty like it's pretty tame.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

People have all of their rods and cones formed in their eyes by eleven. They can handle color.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Um I'm gonna go ten. To your point, it's from the early thirties, so there's not too much to worry about. But it really is all about how your kid would react to watching people with actual serious deformities as main characters carrying out a 70-minute, not quite 70-minute story.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

And that sequence in the storm, all of them crawling in the mud. It gets a little bit freaky.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

One of the greatest, scariest five minutes, I think, in a movie ever would still make my top ten list. How come you wait?

SPEAKER_01 12:37

How come you waited so long to show me this? I think I thought you were a little young for it.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

And Dad.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

I watched Alien before.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

No, not that I didn't think you could handle the horror and the dread of that revenge sequence, but I didn't think you would have the attention span to last with the story until it really got going. But I was wrong. You probably could have handled this at 10. But we'll go 11. Yeah. Or go 10.5, because that's what we normally do. We split the difference.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

Yeah, I'm alright with that.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Okay. Um, is this do we recommend that people watch this? Yeah. You gotta watch this. This is in the Pantheon of classics. Uh, so go watch.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Deep dive.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Alright, so it's 1932. It's one year after Universal put out Dracula and Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Well, that wasn't the same studio. That was, I think, maybe Paramount. But yeah, but the point is everyone was jumping onto the horror movie bandwagon because even though America was going through the Great Depression, did have they talked to you about the Great Depression at school at all? Do you know what it was?

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Uh yeah, we've talked about it a lot.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Yeah, so there was there was the stock market crash of 1929. Um banks were really crooked back then and they were out of control and everybody was accumulating a ton of debt. Um, there was super high unemployment.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

But people still found a way to go pay and see a movie because they were depressed greatly. Uh but that's sometimes when people need the most entertainment.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Yeah, so movies flourished during this time because people got to go in and forget about the troubles for a little while. And horror movies at that time, they were giving a different kind of entertainment experience.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Yeah, and they were like, well, as bad as my life is.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Yeah, at least I'm not undead.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Yeah. Or stitched together from corpses.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Yeah, or being chased through the rain and mud by revenged thirsty carnival freaks. I mean, that already makes me feel a lot better about my life overall. And I've got a really tough week coming up at work.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Oh, boo. Um, but people didn't like this movie, at least not back then. It was too much for them. I d I never understood that. Like they were going through the Great Depression. What do you mean it was too much?

SPEAKER_00 14:52

This really pushed people beyond the fringe of what they had experienced on the screen. And critics hated it. And while they were making it, the studio MGM, they immediately gr regretted saying yes to this movie being made because now all their beautiful actors and all the self-important studio execs and their beautiful suits, they had to deal with these real-life circus and sideshow attractions on the lot with them in the parking lot, walking to the stages, eating with them in the studio cafeteria until they kicked them out.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Wait, they didn't let the freaks eat with the actors? They didn't That sounded bad. Wait, I'm sorry. Wait, they didn't let them have their meals in the same place as the normal at no sounds. Wait, they didn't let them have horrible at this. Wait, they didn't ha let them have food.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Okay, okay. So yeah, uh the guys who ran MGM, Irving Thalberg, talking to you, they set up a special tented area for the actors and freaks. Almost like you would quarantine people in a camp.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

Ugh.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Um Yeah, because they didn't want to see actors like Johnny Eck, who was born without the entire lower half of his body. They used to get around just those arms.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

We can join twins, the Hilton sisters, who were very popular performers throughout the world.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

They were famous. They were jazz train musicians. Violet uh on the left side, or she may have been on the right, but she played saxophone. I think Daisy, her sister, played violin. I may have that mixed up. Strike that, reverse it, don't hold me to it.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Uh and then your favorite.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Oh, who do you think was my favorite? The guy with the knife?

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Uh no, the guy in the p like the potato sack. Oh, Prince Randy.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Yes. Yes, born with no arms or legs, but that scene where he rolls himself a cigarette and lights it with his tongue.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Incredible. Excellent. And then when he's snaking his way through the mud with a knife in his mouth. Yeah. And didn't you say he had like fourteen kids?

SPEAKER_00 16:50

I don't think it was that many. But yeah, this guy, this limbless guy, he uh got the job done, if you know what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

In this movie and in his personal life.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Um, but once the movie finished shooting, the studio hated it so much that they edited it down before they released it.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Yeah, twenty-some minutes were cut out of this thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

That's why it's a short movie.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Yeah, and that cut footage is gone. The studio just wanted this movie over and done with, but it was directed by the guy who made a fortune with Dracula, so they put it out. But yeah, they they quickly just buried it when the public and the critical reception was so terrible.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Well, let's see what people wanted to watch instead that year. 1932.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

What have we got?

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Murders in the Room Orgue.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Okay, that's Bellilogosi. So this is a continuation of Studios churning out horror. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Island of Lost Souls.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Yeah, that's a great one. We're definitely going to watch that coming up.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

The Mask is based on A.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

E. Wells' story.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

The Mask of Fu Machu.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

The Mask of Fu Machu.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Yeah. The Monster Walks.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Mm-hmm. Never seen it.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Old Dark House.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Yeah, that's overrated. But that's by James Whale, the same guy who did Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

The Horror and Sinister Hands. See, not a great year. Go see Freaks. You're doing this wrong.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Yeah, Freaks is the best, I would say the best horror movie that came out this year for sure.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Even though Oh, and White Zombie.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Oh, White Zombie's good. So Bella Legosi had a pretty good year this year. Um cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Cool, cool, cool.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

We're watching Brooklyn 99. Um binging it.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

What's your one-word review for this?

SPEAKER_00 18:28

That's a good question. It's hard for this one because the experience takes me to a lot of places, you know?

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

What's your one-word review?

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Shocking. Because I think it's shocking first off, like the message that it holds and everything that goes on during the story. And mainly because of the message, because it's a little bit of don't judge a book by its cover because you don't know what the book knows. And I don't know, it's it's really hard to really sum this movie up in just one word because it's so much.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

And it's Yeah, I have to hyphenate my one-word review.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Which sometimes I do to cheat a little bit. But I said um karmically pleasing. Because you know you know what karma is? Yeah. Yeah. So b bad people do bad stuff, and then happens to them, and then they come back in their next life as like, I don't know, slug versus good people. Hopefully good things happen, hopefully they come back as a dolphin or something cool.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Really, Dad.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Sea otter, maybe. But the ending is worth the wait because you finally get to witness karmically.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

There's so much that goes on in the story. What do you mean? Like you're not just sitting there waiting.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

So it's building and building, and you hate her more and more and more, and now you hate Hercules too. And then once it resolves what they did to her as punishment for her incredible cruelty is made her a freak. Right? Sideshow karma. Yeah. Carni karma. I like that.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Carney karma?

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Yeah. That's my new two-word review.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Carney Karmic.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Alright, pluses. Let's say what we love.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Yeah, what'd you like about this?

SPEAKER_01 20:15

It's all real.

unknown 20:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

And the way these people lived and made a career and just did basic everyday things that you take for granted. It's all on screen. It's all very fascinating. And they all seem like such sweet people. They all seem like if you ran into them on the street, they'd be like, hey.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Well, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

But they're certainly very supportive of their little community in this movie, and I think they were in real life too. But the the movie really does take a lot of time establishing them as characters and showing you their relationships with one another. And um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

I I love that. And it's not really a horror movie until the very end when they hunt down Cleopatra and the strong man.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

But yeah, I love that turn when they let those two know that they know what they've been up to. The movie turns dark and terrifying on a very thin dime.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

And that hunt down scene sticks in your head.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Forever.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

It's so memorable.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

There has truly been nothing like it since. Because, like you said, they they were real and it feels real. Anything else you liked? Um I mean, I think that pretty much is it. It is very watchable. It is very short. It wraps up very abruptly, but the ending is fun. Um he spotlight for the episode what?

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Prince Randian.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

You're gonna spotlight my favorite freak?

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Yes, excellent. Of course.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

I thought you might go Todd Browning. Can I just say something about Todd Browning? Yes. That might explain why this was like his pet project that he was so obsessed with making. He grew up in a carnival. So they called him the living corpse. His big trick was he would get buried alive in a coffin. And then he would stay in the coffin. So people would pay. They would watch him be buried in the ground, and then he would be hanging out in the coffin and he would have some water and he would have little he had little malt balls like whoppers that he would eat and away to go to the bathroom, and then he was able to last down there for two days, and then they would dig him up. Can you imagine being in a little dark box for two days, knowing that you had six feet of earth on top of you? I couldn't do it. I'd freak out. How long do you think you could last buried alive?

SPEAKER_01 22:30

An hour.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Yeah. I'd pay to see that. Let's go do it. Here, I'll give you fifty cents right now.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Fifty cents?

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Well, I'm going back to 1920s carnival prices.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Okay, this is a long spotlight.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Alright, so gimme Prince Randy.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Also nicknamed the Pillow Man, the Snake Man, the Human Torso, and the Human Caterpillar. That one was mean.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

At least they put the human in front of all those.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

He was an American performer.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

He wasn't born in America, though, was he?

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Okay. Great research.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

But he became a famous limbless sideshow performer of the early 1900s, best known for his ability to roll cigarettes with his slips.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

So they just they would Todd Browning gathered these performers together and just was like, we're gonna roll the camera, do what you do. And that's kind of why it works. You're watching a freak show.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Your words, not mine.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

He married early in life to a Hindu woman known as Princess Sarah. The couple had four daughters plus a son who later became his manager.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 23:37

Yeah. Um he sadly died at 7 p.m. on December 19th, 1932, age 60 63 of a heart attack shortly after his last performance at Sam Wagner's 14th Street Museum in New York. Thank you for that death fact.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Wow. So he lived a pretty long time, especially for back then, and especially for a guy who uh couldn't exercise much and smoked a lot.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Yeah. Um when your main ability is smoking, but Amen, Prince Randy. Yeah, love. But yeah, he was born with a congenital syndrome that left him without limbs.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

So his fa he and all of his kids were fully formed. They were born with all their Oh yeah. Maybe it's gipsy generation, even though it's congenital.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

And he had Amelia syndrome.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

What is that?

SPEAKER_01 24:27

Oh wait, no, tetraemelia syndrome. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

Your friend Amelia has Amelia syndrome.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

No, it it had like this little dot, and I didn't read the slash.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

So what's tetraemelia syndrome or whatever it is?

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Tetraamalia syndrome is a syndrome where it's I figured it was a syndrome. Dead.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Any um facts for me or you're looking this up on the fly?

unknown 24:52

God.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

It's an extremely rare inherited autosomal recessive disorder.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

Pretty sure some of those words are not being pronounced right, but okay, good. Um before we get into what we didn't like about it.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

No, I don't think so. I just alright.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

I didn't love the acting. It's old acting.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

The the actors that uh the non-freaky ones, even, they're acting for the stage instead of for the movie camera. And I think acting was very big back then. They they they were still figuring out you could have some subtlety to your acting.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Yeah, every reaction is kind of like Terry from Brooklyn 99, and it's very over excessive.

unknown 25:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

So we're not alone we're slamming who? We're slamming Amelia, Terry, I'm sorry, Amelia Irving Thalberg. I have a lot of haters on this podcast. How about SGS moments? There there had to have been some certain got surprised. Maybe you didn't get scared. What about the scene where they're closing in on Cleopatra and Hercules, though? That has to count for an SGS.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Fine.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

How about Prince Randy and rolling that cigarette? You loved it. Certainly got impressed at the very least. So you had some definite reactions to these, but I think really you were fascinated just watching the actors, like you said, doing normal everyday things, just e eating a bowl of soup and drinking a glass of wine with her her feet.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

It was a really incredible. I I loved it.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

I love that you love this movie. Um guess what this got on Rotten Tomatoes.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Um 73%.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

It's 95%.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Yay!

SPEAKER_00 26:39

But now again, so proud that takes into account some of those initial reviews from 1932. But what happened is in the 60s this movie got rediscovered, and people realized it was this lost classic. So that's where a lot of the reviews that are being used for the Rotten Tomato Score is being kind of pulled from. Um are we here yet? Or do have we I fear feel like there might be are we forgetting anything? Flyfight Freeze. Oh, right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

Oh begin the fight and who just probably give it a fight.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

So fight. Who fights in this movie?

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Uh everyone.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

Freaks fight when they find that one of their own is getting taken advantage of.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

And Frida fights her urge to stop fighting.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Frida really fights for Hans. Um flight.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

I mean, Cleopatra.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Uh, Hercules particularly tries to get away but doesn't get very far. I think they had a worse ending for Hercules' plan, but they wouldn't let him shoot it.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Because take away your manhood. Exactly. That's what they wanted to do.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

So they wanted to hit to turn him into a sideshow attraction at the end of the movie, like they do with her. They turn her into this weird bird freak thing. So what was once beautiful is now an ugly atrocity to be stared at looked at. Ugly duckling. So fight, flight. How about freeze? Cleopatra kind of freezes when she realizes the jig is up. Yeah. Yeah. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Venus freezes when Hercules is just like when he's a few.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

Yeah, she has to wait for Frozo or Fozo to kind of come and save her.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Yeah. Guess the Tomato.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

Guess the Tomato. Guess the tomato. Tell us how we play Guess the Tomato, Sterling.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Okay, so you will give me hints on a movie.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Hard at first, and then getting So I pick a movie that has the same rotten tomato score as Freaks, and then I give you hints. And then we start with like five points. Yeah. If you get it right away, you get the more points. But every time I have to give you another clue, what happens?

SPEAKER_01 28:46

I either get less of something or I get more of something. We don't know what the something is. I know.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

I have a lot of power during this segment of the podcast. Yeah, that's what he is. The point value goes down with every clue I have to give you. But the clues make it way, way easier to guess the movie. So uh 95% of Rotten Tomatoes. That puts us in Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse territory. Charade, which is uh Audrey Hepburn movie, she was in My Fair Lady, and uh Sabrina.

SPEAKER_03 29:14

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Uh a Nightmare on Elm Street, the original Really? Nightmare on Elm Street got 95%. Another horror movie, It Follows, which we have not seen, but we will in a couple of seasons. So let's start with five points here. So this 95% Rotten Tomatoes movie started life as a poem written by the director of the movie in 1982 when he was an animator for Disney Studios. And then he finally got to make it into a movie after he had a couple big hits as a young up-and-coming very visionary director.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

So it's a Disney movie?

SPEAKER_00 29:50

It's not a Disney movie, but the director of it used to work for Disney as an animator because he has a very visual style to his movies.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

I I feel like it's wait, is it one of those movies where it's Is it animated?

SPEAKER_00 30:05

It is animated of a sort.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

Wait, so is it kind of like Is it kind of like the um Do you have a guess? Wait, no. Is it kind of like that movie where it was like Spider-Man Spider-Man is it like Spider-Man into the Spider-Man?

SPEAKER_00 30:21

No, it's not that kind of animation.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

My little pony?

SPEAKER_00 30:26

No.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

So here's what I got for you for the tomato. So you missed the first one. I'm scared.

SPEAKER_03 30:32

Good news is it's chocolate. I got chocolate for you.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

The bad news is it's 80% cocoa chocolate. So we're gonna see how you like this. Here, try a little piece of that. Keep in mind, just keep saying to yourself, this is chocolate. You don't mind it, huh? It's not too bitter for you. Oh. It's gonna be less torture than I thought. So we'll save the rest, unless you're trying to play a mind game on me, and it's really horrible, but you're trying to get me to think that you don't mind it so much. So I won't give you as many when you get the next clue wrong, which is this. This movie was nominated for best visual effects at the 1993 Oscar, and it was the first time an animated movie got nominated for best visual effects. So that tells you something about the kinds of visual effects that they were using for this. And again, animated of a kind, not the drawing kind of animated. One other piece of chocolate? There you go.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Jeez, that's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Next clue. It's gonna get start getting easier. Krista Randon, one of your faves, and someone we might just be hearing more about sometime soon on the podcast. He voices a character in this 95% rotten tomato movie. Voices a character.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

Oh, it's on the tip of my tongue, I swear.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

What, the chocolate or the movie that you'd have no idea?

SPEAKER_01 32:02

The movie. No, I really do.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

Oh, you do?

SPEAKER_01 32:04

I don't know the name though.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

You're gonna get it after this next clue. The very great and sadly late Catherine O'Hara also provided a voice for this movie and sang in it. Chris Sarandon didn't sing for his character.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Wait, he was a nightmare before Christmas? Yeah. He was?

SPEAKER_00 32:21

Yeah, he he's the voice of Jack Skellington.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

He does sing, Daddy.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

He doesn't sing. Yes, he does. No, Danny Elfman sings for him. But Chris Sarandon does the dialogue for him. So yeah, Nightmare Before Christmas, 95%. Rotten Tomatoes. Uh I want to go one higher or one lower?

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Lower.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Than this movie. Lower. It's 94%. The recent movie just came out, One Battle After Another, nominated for a bunch of Oscars this year. Groundhog Day. My Fair Lady, we were just talking about that. The Birds is one lower than this movie. Would you say that? I wouldn't.

SPEAKER_03 32:56

No.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Avengers Endgame, the original Frankenstein was one lower than this movie. Really? The original Frankenstein's better than this. And the live-action jungle book.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Aw, I remember that.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

One higher than this, 96%. Lego movie. The first one. Halloween. I'm proud. The first one. Halloween's better than this. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. King Kong and the original. And Night of the Living Dead. Alright. So this is a pretty good company. Pretty high. Very high Rotten Tomato score, especially for a horror movie. Um what are you giving us on the Ferometer?

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Um I gave it a 0.5. Whoa. Yeah, sorry. It's not necessarily scary, but there's that scene with like I mean that scene. Yeah, it's it's kind of point five.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Yeah, I mean, I think even though 90% of the movie isn't scary at all, I'm going 6.5.

SPEAKER_03 34:02

Really?

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Solely because of that thunderstorm stalk down sequence. It deserves it. Controversial rating from Dad, maybe, but I am immovable on that.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

Alright.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

That's a huge gap for us.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

You're gonna hate me.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Phenometer.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Nine. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

So you would watch this movie again?

SPEAKER_01 34:22

I would watch it four times. Again. No.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

Well, you gotta study for your Yeah, I gotta study. Uh why is it so fun for you? Just because it's fascinating to watch?

SPEAKER_01 34:33

Yes, and also it's entertaining. And it's it's incredible to just watch this plot going on, and then you're like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

It really does you in for a ride. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

So it's very thrilling. Alright. Um I went three.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

I think it's more fascinating than fun. Yeah, I I don't have a ball watching this movie. Uh you get sort of tipped off balance.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Yeah, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

But uh but you can definitely find yourself cheering when those tables turn up.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Uh how about the impactometer?

SPEAKER_01 35:08

I said an eight point five.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

I said eight. So we're pretty close on that. Why eight point five for you?

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Because it's like you said before, I think, um, you're not the same after watching this movie. It changes you. And like you you realize, wow, these people had to live with the disabilities and the abilities that they've required now. And it's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

And the different sort of treatment back in the day, even when they were making the movie, right?

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

Uh yeah, I said eight. So any movie that inspires outrage initially and then pops its head up again two decades later and then sticks around. You gotta show that some impactometer love and respect, right? And people still talk about this movie, they pay homage to it, and it's because it was strong enough to survive its initial burying.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

So next time on DDSH, we need a we need like a little boom, boom, boom, boom, next time on D DSH.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

We need like start working on that.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

No, I don't want to. I'm too busy. I gotta study. Um so next time on DDSH, DD Sped.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

What's coming?

SPEAKER_01 36:21

What happens when a guy comes back from a crazy war where he was a combat photographer and decides to go into movie makeup and takes all that terrible carnage that he saw in the jungles of Vietnam and turns it into a new wave of ultra gore realism?

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Mm-hmm. What happens?

SPEAKER_01 36:39

I don't know. We haven't watched it.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

Come back to the next and it's great to be back.