The Criterion Collection
Freaks / The Unknown / The Mystic: Tod Browning’s Sideshow Shockers
Edition no. 1194
Buy Physical Copy At:
Freaks | The Unknown | The Mystic
Licensor Information
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, George Eastman Museum
Directed by: Tod Browning
Featuring: Wallace Ford, Lon Chaney, Aileen Pringle, Leila Hyams, Norman Kerry, Conway Tearle, Olga Baclanova, Joan Crawford, Mitchell Lewis, Roscoe Ates, Robert Ober, Henry Victor, Stanton Heck, Harry Earles, David Torrence, Daisy Earles, Gladys Hulette, Daisy Hilton, Violet Hilton
The world is a carnival of criminality, corruption, and psychosexual 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 (The Unknown and Freaks) and a long-unavailable rarity (The Mystic), 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.
Details by Film
Freaks
Year: 1932
Time: 64
Aspect Ratios
1.37:1
Audio
English Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Streaming Options
1612.
+583
Stream
Rent
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The Unknown
Year: 1927
Time: 67
Aspect Ratios
Audio
Streaming Options
The Mystic
Year: 1925
Time: 70
Aspect Ratios
1.33:1
Audio
Musical Score Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0
Streaming Options
Free
2
Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Format:
DVD
Discs:
DVD-9 (2 Discs)
Total: 2 Discs
Regions:
1 (DVD)
Aspect Ratio:
1.37:1
1.33:1
Audio Options:
English Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Musical Score Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0
Resolution:
480p/29.97
Subtitles:
English
Supplements
Types of Supplements Included: Documentary, Introduction, Alternate Scene, Interview, Audio Recording, Slide Show, Insert, Audio Commentary
- New audio commentary for Freaks by film scholar David J. Skal
- New audio commentary for The Unknown by film scholar David J. Skal
- Introduction to The Mystic by film scholar David J. Skal
- New interview with author Megan Abbott about director Tod Browning and pre-Code horror
- Archival documentary on Freaks
- Reading of “Spurs,” the short story by Tod Robbins on which Freaks is based
- Prologue to Freaks, which was added to the film in 1947
- Program on the alternate endings to Freaks
- Video gallery of portraits from Freaks
- An essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme
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Freaks
The Unknown
The Mystic
Picture
Audio
Supplements
Artwork
Restoration Information
Freaks
Restoration by:
The Criterion Collection
Warner Bros.
Year: 2023
Scanned at: 5K Digital
Restored at: 2K Digital
Sources:
35mm Nitrate duplicate negative
35mm Safety print
The Unknown
Restoration by:
George Eastman Museum
Year: 2022
Scanned at: 2K Digital
Restored at: 2K Digital
Sources:
35mm Nitrate print
The Mystic
Restoration by:
The Criterion Collection
Warner Bros.
Year: 2023
Scanned at: 2K Digital
Restored at: 2K Digital
Sources:
35mm Safety fine-grain
Release Notes on Restoration
Freaks
Freaks is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1. This new digital master was created from a 35 mm nitrate dupe negative and a 35 mm safety print, both of which were scanned in 5K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner at PRO-TEK Vaults in Burbank, California. Color was done by Mishel Hassidim at Resillion in New York. The original monaural soundtrack was restored by The Criterion Collection from an archival two-inch magnetic soundtrack.
The Unknown
The Unknown reconstruction and restoration was undertaken in 2022 by the George Eastman Museum from the only two surviving nitrate prints, a French-language version in the museum's collection and a Czech-language version in the Nardoni filmovy archiv in Prague. The film is presented in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and was restored in 2K resolution.
The Mystic
The Mystic is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. This new digital master was created from a 35 mm safety fine grain, which was scanned in 2K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner at Roundabout Entertainment in Burbank, California. Color was done by Michel Hassidim at Resillion in New York.