Tod Browning
From Oneiropedia
Tod Browning was an auteur, a genius, and one of the greatest directors of all time.
Life
Browning left home to join the circus, where he worked for a while before getting into pictures with D.W. Griffith. The circus would give him plenty of inspirations for his later films. He directed plenty of silents, especially several collaborations with Lon Chaney, Sr. Chaney had been cast in 1931's Dracula, but when he died in 1930, the role instead went to Bela Lugosi, who gave a stunning performance in an equally stunning, atmospheric, and artistic movie that pretty much defined the horror genre.
The next year, Browning made his most ambitious and infamous film, Freaks, with a cast including countless real, live circus freaks. MGM head Irving G. Thalberg let production continue, although F. Scott Fitzgerald threw up when he saw Siamese twins eating. But the movie was made- to the SHOCK and HORROR of audiences! It was critically panned, banned for years, and destroyed Browning's career. After Freaks, he went on to make Mark of the Vampire (a 1935 remake of his earlier London After Midnight) and The Devil-Doll, among others, but he was pretty much blacklisted. This was the ignoble end of one of the most horrific careers in all of film.
Filmography
- London After Midnight (1927)
- The Unknown (1927)
- West of Zanzibar (1928)
- The Thirteenth Chair (1929)
- Dracula (1931)
- Freaks (1932)
- Mark of the Vampire (1935)
- The Devil-Doll (1936)
