{"product_id":"freaks-the-unknown-the-mystic-bd","title":"Freaks\/The Unknown\/The Mystic: Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers - Blu-ray","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"celwidget aplus-module 3p-module-b aplus-standard\" data-csa-c-id=\"tqdmah-fasusm-wovolv-v4a461\" data-cel-widget=\"aplus-3p-module-b\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"aplus-module-wrapper aplus-3p-fixed-width\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"a-spacing-base\"\u003eThe world is a carnival of criminality, corruption, and strangeness in the twisted pre-Code shockers of Tod Browning. Early Hollywood’s edgiest auteur, Browning drew on his experiences as a circus performer to create subversive pulp entertainments set amid the world of traveling sideshows, which, with their air of the exotic and the disreputable, provided a pungent backdrop for his sordid tales of outcasts, cons, villains, and vagabonds. Bringing together two of his defining works (\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Unknown\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eFreaks\u003c\/span\u003e) and a long-unavailable rarity (\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Mystic\u003c\/span\u003e), this cabinet of pre-Code curiosities reveals a master of the morbid whose ability to unsettle is matched only by his daring compassion for society’s most downtrodden.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"a-spacing-base\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eFreaks (1932)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"a-spacing-base\"\u003eThe most transgressive film produced by a major American studio in the 1930s, Tod Browning’s crowning achievement has haunted the margins of cinema for nearly one hundred years. An unforgettable cast of real-life sideshow performers portray the entertainers in a traveling circus who, shunned by mainstream society, live according to their own code—one of radical acceptance for the fellow oppressed and, as the show’s beautiful but cruel trapeze artist learns, of terrifying retribution for those who cross them. Received with revulsion by viewers upon its initial release, Freaks effectively ended Browning’s career but can now be seen for what it is: an audacious cry for understanding and a singular experience of nightmarish, almost avant-garde power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"a-spacing-base\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eThe Unknown (1927)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"a-spacing-base\"\u003eThe most celebrated and exquisitely perverse of the many collaborations between Tod Browning and his legendary leading man Lon Chaney, The Unknown features a wrenchingly physical performance from “the Man of a Thousand Faces” as the armless Spanish knife thrower Alonzo (he flings daggers with his feet) whose dastardly infatuation with his beautiful assistant (Joan Crawford)—a woman, it just so happens, who cannot bear to be touched by the hands of any man—drives him to unspeakable extremes. Sadomasochistic obsession, deception, murder, disfigurement, and a spectacular Grand Guignol climax—Browning wrings every last frisson from the lurid premise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"a-spacing-base\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eThe Mystic (1925)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"a-spacing-base\"\u003eA fantastically atmospheric but rarely seen missing link in the development of Tod Browning’s artistry, set amid his favored milieu of shadowy sideshows and clever criminals, The Mystic provides a striking showcase for silent-era diva Aileen Pringle, who sports a series of memorably outré looks (courtesy of art-deco designer Erté) as Zara, a phony psychic in a Hungarian carnival who, under the guidance of a Svengali-like con man (Conway Tearle), crashes—and proceeds to swindle—American high society. Browning’s fascination with the weird is on full display in the eerie séance sequences, while his subversive moral ambiguity extends surprising sympathy to even the most seemingly irredeemable of antiheroes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"celwidget aplus-module launchpad-brand-description-left aplus-standard\" data-csa-c-id=\"agt45c-48c3hz-uzst4m-8jlszi\" data-cel-widget=\"aplus-launchpad-brand-description-left\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-section launchpad-module launchpad-module-brand-description-left\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-section launchpad-text-left-justify\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eSPECIAL EDITION FEATURES\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"a-unordered-list a-vertical\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003eNew 2K digital restoration of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eFreaks,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003ewith uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003eNew 2K digital reconstruction and restoration of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Unknown\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eby the George Eastman Museum, with a new score by composer Philip Carli\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003eNew 2K digital restoration of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Mystic,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003ewith a new score by composer Dean Hurley\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003eAudio commentaries on\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eFreaks\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Unknown\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand an introduction to\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Mystic\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eby film scholar David J. Skal\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003eNew interview with author Megan Abbott about director Tod Browning and pre-Code horror\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003eArchival documentary on\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eFreaks\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003eEpisode from 2019 of critic Kristen Lopez’s podcast\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eTicklish Business\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eabout disability representation in Freaks\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003eReading by Skal of “Spurs,” the short story by Tod Robbins on which\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eFreaks\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis based\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003ePrologue to\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eFreaks,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003ewhich was added to the film in 1947\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003eProgram on the alternate endings to\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eFreaks\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003eVideo gallery of portraits from\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eFreaks\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003eEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003ePLUS: An essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003eNew cover by Raphael Geroni\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Criterion Collection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46217962258606,"sku":"CC3492BDUK","price":54.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0583\/4614\/3918\/files\/freaks_Lime_Light_Front_BD.png?v=1752590729","url":"https:\/\/limelightcollection.co.uk\/en-us\/products\/freaks-the-unknown-the-mystic-bd","provider":"Limelight Collection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}