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Freaks
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Actress Olga Baclanova stands in a doorway with a startled expression in a circus setting, while two men look up at her in a scene from the 1932 film Freaks.
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Actress Olga Baclanova stands in a doorway with a startled expression in a circus setting, while two men look up at her in a scene from the 1932 film Freaks.
Freaks Olga Baclanova in Freaks (1932), directed by Tod Browning.

Freaks

film by Browning [1932]
Written by
Lee Pfeiffer
Author/co-author of numerous books about the cinema and is regarded as one of the foremost James Bond scholars. His book The Essential Bond: An Authorized Guide to the World of 007 (written with...
Lee Pfeiffer
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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ā€¢History

Freaks, American horror film, released in 1932, a grotesque revenge melodrama in which director Tod Browning explored the world of carnival sideshows and the ā€œfreaksā€ that starred in them. The story centres on the machinations of a femme fatale, the ā€œnormalā€ trapeze artist Cleopatra (played by Olga Baclanova), who seduces and marries one of the ā€œfreaks,ā€ the little person Hans (Harry Earles), after learning that he has inherited a large fortune. Once the other sideshow...

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