THE TITLE of Freaks is a less-than-subtle pointer to how un-PC this 1932 movie is.

Banned in the UK until the Sixties, and blighting its director Tod Browning's career, this is still a shocking, unapologetic movie.

Set in a circus, the actors are genuine circus performers whose physical deformities are exploited to maximum effect in this black comedy.

What is said to have most shocked Thirties audiences, and caused MGM to remove their logo from the film, is the way the movie made audiences look directly at the maimed and deformed performers, contrasting their sense of honour and mutual respect with the corruption of the outwardly beautiful trapeze artist, Cleopatra, and the handsome strong man, Hercules.

Cleopatra marries Hans, a midget, for his money, causing the circus people to exact a gruesome revenge on her.

Despite the subject matter, the film is considered to be a classic and is a big hit with critics and film fans alike.

Freaks is being shown in a double bill with Tod Browning's The Devil-Doll, released in 1936.

The movie centres on an escaped convict who is running a macabre toyshop where the dolls are real people who have been shrunk.

The dolls set out to take revenge on behalf of the shopkeeper against those who wrongly sent him to prison on the hostile Devil's Island.

Less popular than Freaks the film was still a groundbreaking horror movie that may cause you to never look at your Sindy doll in the same way again. SC

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