2005 marked the 125th anniversary of the birth of American filmmaker Tod Browning although he would never have thought of himself as such. He was just a movie director plain and simple but a director of great originality, a master of the macabre, an Alfred Hitchcock before Hitchcock. Today he would be compared to such contemporary directors as Guy Maddin and David Lynch, who both have credited him as a source of inspiration.
Browning is best known today for one of his lesser efforts, the 1931 version of DRACULA. It officially launched the Golden Age of American horror films. Although a bonafide classic, its reputation rests more on the presence of iconic star Bela Lugosi than it does on Browning although the first half of the film which takes place at Dracula’s castle is full of his signature touches. The second half is essentially a photographed stage play. Browning began his career in the Silent Era and had trouble adapting o sound where the visual aspect of a movie became less important.
The other Browning film that is relatively well known today, if only by reputation, is 1932’s FREAKS, a circus melodrama that featured real life human curios such as Siamese twins, pinheads, and a legless man. The film had a disastrous preview, wound up being edited from 90 to 61 minutes, and effectively ended the director’s career in Hollywood although he still had a couple of tricks up his sleeve. Two of those tricks will make their DVD debut later this year.
Warner Home Video is releasing a three DVD set of 6 feature films entitled HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS OF HORROR. Included in the set are Browning’s MARK OF THE VAMPIRE from 1935 and THE DEVIL DOLL from 1936. The former gives Bela Lugosi a chance to reprise Dracula but under another name. THE DEVIL DOLL features a highly original scenario of a Devil’s Island escapee who disguise himself as a woman and then shrinks people to the size of Barbie dolls in order to enact his revenge. It also features a virtuoso performance from Lionel Barrymore.
There are currently two other Tod Browning movies available on DVD and they are both from the Silent Era. THE WICKED DARLING (1919) was the first collaboration between Browning and Lon Chaney. It starred the then popular Priscilla Dean, an actress who was no shrinking violet and could dish it out as well as take it. THE UNKNOWN (1927) has a carnival setting similar to FREAKS and features Chaney as well as up-and-coming MGM actress named Joan Crawford.
Because of the failure and notoriety of FREAKS, Browning could no longer pick his own projects. He was given the choice of either remakes or projects that no one else wanted. After MIRACLES FOR SALE, a 1939 film about rivalry among magicians that starred Robert Young, he walked away from the movie business and never looked back. Tod Browning died in 1962 in his native Louisville at the age of 82 all but forgotten by critics and moviegoers. Hopefully more of his celluloid legacy will be made available on DVD. For more background on his life and career, check out David J. Skal’s biography, THE DARK CARNIVAL.
The Capsule Critic 