Well being a Google addict this should tell you all about Greystone Manor

http://www.seeing-stars.com/Live/Greystone.shtml

As for Freaks being like Elephant man...only Badger can answer that as I haven't seen Freaks...it was just the write up made me think of Elephant man

Thanks Adrift! It is kind of a shame Greystone is is not being used to it's full potential.

Quote:

In September of 2008, Presidential candidate Barack Obama held a $28,500-per-plate fundraiser at the Beverly Hills mansion, which drew the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Steven Spielberg, Tobey Maguire, Jodie Foster, Eddie Murphy, Barbara Mandel, Antonio Banderas, Will Ferrell and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Wow...that must have been quite a party! No wonder he could afford prime time TV ads the last week of the campaign!

Yep. His "star" friends paved the way!

Adrift, Freaks was banned in The United Kingdom for many years. Until around 1962, in fact.

Wikipedia entry

Quote:

The central story is of a self-serving trapeze artist named Cleopatra (Olga Baclanova) who seduces and eventually marries a sideshow midget, Hans (Harry Earles), after learning of his large inheritance. At their wedding reception, the other "freaks" resolve that they will accept Cleopatra in spite of her being a "normal" outsider, and hold an initiation ceremony, wherein they pass a massive goblet of wine around the table while chanting, "We accept her! We accept her! One of us! One of us! Gooble gobble, gooble gobble! One of us! One of us!" The ceremony frightens the drunken Cleopatra, who accidentally reveals that she has been having an affair with Hercules (Henry Victor), the strong man; she mocks the freaks, tosses the wine in their faces and drives them away. Despite being humiliated, Hans remains with Cleopatra. Shortly thereafter, Hans is taken ill (presumably from having too much to drink at the wedding feast, but actually from poison that Cleopatra slipped him) and Cleopatra begins slipping poison into Hans' medicine to kill him so that she can inherit his money and run away with Hercules. One of the circus performers overhears Cleopatra talking to Hercules about the murder plot, and tells the other freaks and Hans; in the film's climax, the freaks attack Cleopatra and Hercules with guns, knives, and various edged weapons, hideously mutilating them. Though Hercules is never seen again, the original ending of the film had the freaks castrating him - the audience sees him later singing in falsetto. The film concludes with a revelation of Cleopatra's fate: her tongue cut out, one eye gouged and legs hacked off, she has been reduced to performing in a sideshow as the imbecile squawking "human chicken".

When the movie first came out, audiences reacted so strongly that many scenes had to be cut and have never been found again. One woman sued the studio claiming that it caused her to have a miscarriage.

I just asked my son Justin if he ever saw this movie and HE DID! Said it is the freakiest damn movie ever! Said it was just weird - but he did like torso man

Another really good movie by Tod Browning (he directed "Freaks") is "The Unknown" starring Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford. It's a silent film about a circus perfomer named "Alonzo the Armless Wonder" who does an knife throwing act with his feet. Joan Crawford is his partner in the act and he is in love with her as is the circus strongman. However, she has a fear of being held in a man's arms which is why she spends most of her time with Alonzo although she is not in love with him.

Very early in the movie we discover that Alonzo actually does have arms. However, he keeps them bound to his side because he's a fugitive and he has a double thumb on one hand. Later, the circus owner discovers his secret and Alonzo murders him. Nanon (Joan Crawford) witnesses it but the only thing she sees is that the killer had a double thumb on his hand.

Alonzo leaves the circus under guise of illness and goes to a doctor whom he forces to amputate his arms at least in part because he thinks it will make Nanon love him. Of course, she has no idea that he does have arms but I suppose that because they are living together it would be a matter of time before she found out his secret.

When he recovers from the surgery, he returns to the circus and a jubilantly happy Nanon who embraces him and observes that something is different about him. "I have lost flesh", he says. She then tells him she has wonderful news for him and leaves the room. When she returns, she is with the strongman. "We wanted you to be the first to know our happiness". They are engaged to be married. The strongman puts his arms around her and she takes one of his hands and says something along the lines of " Remember when I was afraid of a man's hands? Because of him, I'm no longer afraid."

While all this is going on, you see Alonzo's face going from eager anticipation to bewilderment to utter devastation in the space of seconds. He starts laughing and crying at the same time which frightens the happy couple. Burt Lancaster said he considered that scene the most emotionally compelling work by an actor ever.

It's a short movie by today's standards, only a little over an hour.

Wow, the Unknown sounds really bizarre and sad while freaks sounds bizarre, twisted, and gorey.

I like eccletic movies too, but disturbing ones usually don't go on my list of favorites. For example, Silence of the Lambs is a great flick, but because of the disturbing nature of it I don't include it as one of my top favs. Not that it was not an outstanding movie with stellar acting, it is just not one I chose to see more than once or twice.

Now Slingblade, that is one of the disturbing ones that is so beautiful and beautifully scripted and acted, that it goes on my list of all time favs. Heartbreaking and somehow uplifting at the same time.

EEK! I loved The Exorcist!! Scared the crap out of me! Went home and slept on my parents bedroom floor! Saw it a few more times after that!

OMG I LOVE JENNIFER SAUNDERS!! I've never seen that sketch. I am a HUGE Ab Fab fan. I have all the episodes plus the movie The Last Shout.

I've never seen The Exorcist nor do I want to. I would be too scared.

I've seen some of The Vicar of Dibley. Just a few on PBS. But I've seen ALL of Ab Fab Sweetie Darling.

I am an ABFab fan too! When I am lucky enough to catch it on Bravo that is-which is rare these days!