“A genius of the weird.”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Click here to read entire review

“Sin and lust will rule the big screen as Film Forum celebrates macabre master Browning... [who] created a gloriously gruesome body of work that romanticized villainy and perversity as no other director previously had, and few have since. In his day he may have been an outsider, but the ensuing decades have irrefutably proved he was well ahead of the game.”
– Cullen Gallagher, L Magazine
Click here to read entire review

“DON'T MISS! Browning made movies about the strange but almost true lives of carnies, devil dolls, and vampires and Film Forum presents ten treats.”
– New York magazine

“SEE AS MANY OF THESE AS YOU CAN! The best Browning films have that scary, musty feel of Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard:
hauteur and entitlement cut short by awful fate.”
– Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
Click here to read entire review

“Our gimcrack Poe, crowned 'The First Diabolist of the Cinema'.... Browning issued cinematic Guignols from sepulchral sets,
untouched by natural light. His name on a titlecard was a carnival spiel invitation to step right up to a personal cabinet of curiosities:
Hungarians, amputees (gaffed and real), mad apes, sneak-thieves, incest, armadillos, knife throwers.”
– Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice
Click here to read entire review

MAY 11 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

FREAKS

(1932) “One of us, one of us,” chant the Half-Boy, the Living Skeleton, the Bearded Lady, the Living Torso, the Siamese Twins, and the Pinheads, at the — doomed — wedding of height-challenged Harry Earles and Junoesque aerialist Olga Baclanova. ”Anyone who considers this entertainment should be placed in the pathological ward.” — Harrison’s Reports, 1932. Approx 64 minutes.
6:15, 9:00

“Browning’s masterpiece. If the heart of the horror movie is the annihilating Other,
the Other has never appeared with more vividness, teasing sympathy, and terror than in this.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“Still a shocker.” – Pauline Kael

“May be one of the most compassionate films ever made.” – Andrew Sarris

“For pure sensationalism Freaks tops any picture yet produced.” – Louella Parsons

“Superb and unique... Although using real freaks, Browning’s treatment is never voyeuristic or condescending,
but sympathetic in such a way that after a few minutes we almost cease to perceive them as in any way abnormal.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)

“A picture not to be easily forgotten… one of the most profound anti-climaxes of them all.” – The New York Times

THE UNHOLY THREE

(1925) Ventriloquist Lon Chaney, midget Harry Earles (Freaks) and strongman Victor McLaglen team up for burglary, until murder ensues and that darn gorilla steps in. Made the Times’ 10 best list! Approx 86 minutes.
7:35

“Served as a source for all that is best in the horror movie.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

“Chaney isn't legless, he isn't this, that or the other thing in deformities.
He's just Lon Chaney and he's great... But boys, it's a picture - and what a picture!”
– Variety, 1925

“A much under-rated silent. As the dynamics of the odd trio change,
the macabre observations and remarkable visuals are expertly handled.”
– Channel 4 Film

“Alert editing supplies a kinesis of its own, and what goes on inside the frame is so fascinating, so finely composed, that the result is never static and makes for tense and tough grotesque drama. This picture approaches greatness in its ease and mastery with which cruelty and laughter are combined.”
– Elliott Stein

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MAY 18 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE DEVIL DOLL

(1936) Devil’s Island escapee Lionel Barrymore shrinks humans to get revenge on the three men who framed him. Co-written by Erich von Stroheim! “Among its many kinky delights are sadomasochism and transvestism.” – Dave Kehr. Approx 79 minutes.
6:35, 9:35

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“Delightfully macabre. Shows that Browning's lighter side
is no less abnormal and fiendish than his darker journeys.”
– Cullen Gallagher, L Magazine

“Grotesque, slightly horrible and consistently interesting.”
– The New York Times

“Fairly certain to return in nightmares.”
– Pauline Kael

WHERE EAST IS EAST

(1929) Animal trapper Chaney resorts to beastly means to protect daughter Lupe Velez and fiancé from the sexual wiles of his estranged wife. The director and star’s final collaboration. Approx 65 minutes.
8:10

“A downriver Indo-Chinese idyll capsized by Estelle Taylor's vamping.”
– Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice

“A wild finale that borrows both from Edgar Allen Poe and Erich von Stronheim,
the whole film has that unhealthy morbidity typical of Browning and Chaney.”
– William K. Everson

“Reputed to be Browning's most sadistic work.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

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MAY 25 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

THE UNKNOWN

(1927) Chaney’s “Alonzo, the Armless Wonder” finds the perfect match in 21-year-old Joan Crawford’s Estrellita, who “wishes God had taken the arms from all men.” But then, after adjustments, she makes an exception! Approx 63 minutes.
7:00, 9:40

View excerpt: Low | High

“Overlooked and underrated. Without hesitation, a modern masterpiece for the current century. This delirious, outrageous l'amour fou - a chilling, genuinely disturbing and haunting melodrama - is what cinema should be all about: a suspension of belief in the face of a story that defies all logic yet rings true to the deeper human emotions.”
– Michael Koller, Senses of Cinema

“One of the great silent movies, astonishing in its intensity, this is by far the best of the remarkable series of Browning/Chaney collaborations. A resplendent study in morbid psychology.”
– Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

“This deliciously morbid Grand Guignol piece is one of the oddest stories ever filmed by a major studio.”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice

“Chaney's brilliance was hardly limited to facial expressions, and his malleable physique and fearlessness of playing villains
made him the perfect model for Browning. The Unknown is arguably the apex of their collaboration.”
– Cullen Gallagher, L Magazine

“Perhaps the strangest and most compelling of Browning’s collaborations with Chaney.” – Dave Kehr

FAST WORKERS

(1933) Pre-Code comedy with morbid twists, as suave riveter John Gilbert tries saving buddy Robert Armstrong from the clutches of golddigging dame Mae Clarke. Approx 66 minutes.
5:40, 8:20

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“Unsuitable for children, adolescents and Sundays.”
– Harrison’s Reports

“A perversely fascinating melodrama cut with streetwise humor.
Browning's style here has echoes of his work with Lon Chaney, Sr.,
approaching a level of masochistic tragedy in its depiction of the easily duped Gilbert.”
– Brian Cady

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JUNE 1 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

WEST OF ZANZIBAR

(1928) Lon Chaney earns his nickname “Dead Legs” after coming in second in a showdown with wife-stealing Lionel Barrymore, but gets revenge by getting Barrymore’s “daughter” slated for human sacrifice — but there’s this final twist. Approx 68 minutes.
7:45 , 10:25* (*musical soundtrack)

“Lesser-known and ripe for rediscovery! Browning's Heart of Darkness...
sweaty with colonialist perversion, pent-up sexual rage, and incestuous desires,
Cheney's paraplegic is one of his most unsettling characters.”
– Cullen Gallagher, L Magazine

“Revolting from start to finish.” – Chicago Tribune, 1928

“Malarial-delirous!” – Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice

“An orgy of revenge and retribution from the team of Browning and Chaney—
this may be the meanest of films from those two meanies. Lushly shot...
The sometimes indifferent Browning really got up for this one.”
– Guy Maddin

“An outpouring of the cesspools of Hollywood!” – Harrison’s Reports

MARK OF THE VAMPIRE

(1935) Bela Lugosi as a vampire of Prague in remake of Chaney & Browning’s now-lost London After Midnight. A pair of Lionels (Barrymore and Atwill) stalks him in surprise-laden mystery that parodies newborn horror movie conventions. Approx 61 minutes.
6:30, 9:10

View the trailer: Low | High

“One of the classics of the horror genre, extremely clever and surprising.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“Has enough style to warrant an honoured place among early horror films. Lashings of lore and atmosphere
(strange noises, dancing peasants, bats, spiders and cobwebs) embellish an amusing tale of strange deaths at a sinister castle. A real touch of class is present in James Wong Howe's magnificent photography, not to mention Carol Borland's stunning apparition as a vampire.”
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)

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JUNE 8 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

DRACULA

(1931) “I never drink ...wine” — but the Count’s beverage preferences remain obvious in the classic portrayal by Bela Lugosi in legendary adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic of vampirism — with Dwight Frye creating another cinema icon as the memorably servile, fly-gulping Renfield. Approx 75 minutes.
6:30, 9:30

Find out about the real Count Dracula from "Fact or Fiction? [mp3 file]

View the trailer : Low | High
“Browning invested the Bram Stoker character with an erotic weirdness that established the vampire
as the ultimate exotic lover. Bela Lugosi's elegant turn retains its tang.”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“The eerie silence of Dracula, matched with the elegant camera movement of Karl Freund, rebels against the dominant strain of
overly talkative, static Hollywood films of the time, and shows that a lack of sound is sometimes most effective..”
– Cullen Gallagher, L Magazine

“The Rosetta stone of vampire flicks... Lugosi's performance is still the ultimate in Eastern Euro-creepiness. Gives us shivers!”
– Time Out New York

“The atmosphere of this film — from set design and camerawork to Lugosi's mesmerizingly slow acting style —
is intense and downbeat, and Browning shows the irresistible seductiveness of the vampires' world.
This film is always worth revisiting, particularly on the big screen where its visual pleasures are shown to best advantage.”
– Bright Lights Film Journal

THE BLACK BIRD

(1926) Chaney in dual role as Limehouse thug and crippled minister who share a horrible secret in fog-clouded, crime-laden London. Approx 74 minutes.
. 8:00

“Chaney's transformation scenes are remarkable,
as are the beautifully atmospheric Limehouse sets..”
– Elliott Stein, Village Voice

“Chaney and Browning repeat offended with boldly illogical crimes set in faraway ports-of-call...
The Blackbird revels in the 'stream of (mashed) human faces'!”
– Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice

“One of the finest exemplifications of screen artistry.”
– New York Times, 1926

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