Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers (1925-1932)

Contents: The Mystic (1925), The Unknown (1927) and Freaks (1932).

The Criterion Collection goes sideshow in this multifilm offering of director Tod Browning’s dark circus productions. Our question is: For a more complete examination of Browning’s sideshow shockers, where is The Show (1927)?

This Blu-ray Disc edition has been mastered at high-resolution from archival 35mm prints, including two silent era Browning films: a 2K digital restoration of The Mystic (1925) starring Aileen Pringle and Conway Tearle, a 2K digital reconstruction and restoration of The Unknown (1927) starring Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford, and a 2K digital restoration of the early sound film cult classic Freaks (1932).

The silent films are accompanied by music scores composed and performed by Philip Carli and Dean Hurley.

Beyond our interest in silent films, the big question from collectors inevitably will be, “Is this presentation of Freaks better than the Warner Home Video DVD edition from 2006?” The answer is YES. We compared both editions on DVD and found a satisfying improvement in picture quality with nearly none of the noticable film grain that made the older Warner edition look a little rough. This BD edition looks even better. The greyscale ranges of both editions were close to being the same, that is well-balanced from highlights to shadows, with the occasional hot highlights that appear to be present in the source print material. (An example would be the face highlights of the carnival barker as he introduces the unseen Cleopatra to the gawkers around him.) Also, this Criterion edition does not windowbox the film’s opening credits (as was the common practice twenty years ago when CRT televisions with picture overscan cropping were still the main viewing device utilized in most households). For most collectors, the improvements in this Criterion edition will make the cost of upgrading Freaks well worth the set’s list price cost.

Supplementary material includes a 2K digital restoration of The Mystic with music by Dean Hurley; a 2K digital reconstruction and restoration of The Unknown by the George Eastman Museum with music by Philip Carli; a 2K digital restoration of Freaks with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; audio commentary by film historian David J. Skal for The Unknown and Freaks; an introduction to The Mystic by David J. Skal (9 minutes); an interview with author Megan Abbott on director Tod Browning and pre-Code horror; an archival documentary on Freaks; a reading of “Spurs,” the short story by Tod Robbins on which Freaks was based; the 1947 prologue to Freaks, which was added to the film; a featurette on the alternate endings to Freaks; a gallery of portraits from Freaks; English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing; and an essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme.

For our comparative reviews of the individual silent films in this collection, see our The Mystic on home video and The Unknown on home video pages.

This is the Blu-ray Disc premiere of The Unknown and Freaks, and the home video premiere of The Mystic. Sight unseen, we highly recommend this edition of these films.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region A Blu-ray Disc edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region A Blu-ray Disc edition is also available directly from . . .

This DVD edition has been mastered at high-resolution from archival 35mm prints, including two silent era Browning films: a 2K digital restoration of The Mystic (1925) starring Aileen Pringle and Conway Tearle, a 2K digital reconstruction and restoration of The Unknown (1927) starring Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford, and a 2K digital restoration of the early sound film cult classic Freaks (1932).

The silent films are accompanied by music scores composed and performed by Philip Carli and Dean Hurley.

Outside of our interest in silent films, the big question inevitably will be, “Is this presentation of Freaks better than the Warner Home Video DVD edition from 2006?” The answer is YES. We compared both editions on DVD and found a satisfying improvement in picture quality with nearly none of the noticable film grain that made the older Warner edition look a little rough. The greyscale ranges of both editions were close to being the same, that is well-balanced from highlights to shadows, with the occasional hot highlights that appear to be present in the source print material. (An example would be the face highlights of the carnival barker as he introduces the unseen Cleopatra to the gawkers around him.) Also, this Criterion edition does not windowbox the film’s opening credits (as was the common practice twenty years ago when CRT televisions with picture overscan cropping were still the main viewing device utilized in most households). For most collectors, the improvements in this Criterion edition will make the cost of upgrading Freaks well worth the set’s list price cost.

Supplementary material includes a 2K digital restoration of The Mystic with music by Dean Hurley; a 2K digital reconstruction and restoration of The Unknown by the George Eastman Museum with music by Philip Carli; a 2K digital restoration of Freaks; audio commentary by film historian David J. Skal for The Unknown and Freaks; an introduction to The Mystic by David J. Skal; an interview with author Megan Abbott on director Tod Browning and pre-Code horror; an archival documentary on Freaks; a reading of “Spurs,” the short story by Tod Robbins on which Freaks was based; the 1947 prologue to Freaks, which was added to the film; a featurette on the alternate endings to Freaks; a gallery of portraits from Freaks; English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing; and an essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme.

For our comparative reviews of the individual silent films in this collection, see our The Mystic on home video and The Unknown on home video pages.

This remaster of The Unknown and Freaks includes the home video premiere of The Mystic. We highly recommend this edition of these films to those who prefer DVD discs.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
United Kingdom: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 1 NTSC DVD edition from Amazon.co.uk. Support Silent Era.
This Region 1 NTSC DVD edition is also available directly from . . .

Other silent era LON CHANEY films available on home video.