Tod Browning, having earned his fame during the silent film era, never really took to the talking picture form. Partly owing to the director's inexperience and partly due to the fact that Freaks cast a slew of people with little to no acting experience alongside several heavily-accented thespians, much of the dialogue seems stunted or forced, even for an era often criticized by modern viewers for awkward speech. Yet, the dialogue is at least consistently passable, and occasionally quite good. Still, Browning's reluctance to abandon the visual tactics he perfected during the silent film era during awkward forays into talking pictures yielded some truly beautiful visual sequences. For instance, as film historian and Browning biographer David J. Skal observes during his commentary on Freaks, the wedding banquet scene is so expertly choreographed that the removal of sound from the film would not prevent the viewer from understanding what occurs or from feeling the range of emotions the director strives to elicit. (The scene was, in fact, largely filmed without sound, with the soundtrack added during production).

Which brings me to the DVD bonus features. Unless I missed an Easter Egg or something, I watched the alternate endings (which were, for the most part, truncated versions of the film's conclusion), the documentary "Freaks: Sideshow Cinema," the Prologue tacked onto the film for its revival in the sixties, and listened to the commentary track in its entirety and I can't say that I was elated.

First of all, the Prologue is merely a preachy curio with marginal historical significance. The alternate endings, even with Skal's commentary, are not terribly interesting since the film's real "deleted scenes" were so deleted that they no longer exist in any form. The hour-long documentary, however, has its merits. Despite its occasionally fluffy content, the program does seek to answer many of the questions viewers of the film have. In addition to the decent case made for the film's significance as a cultural and historical artifact and the occasionally interesting information about the predictably varied public reception of the film, Sideshow Cinema unearths the biographies of many of the cast members before, during, and after the filming of Freaks. Additionally, the documentary reveals the ways in which the film was marketed, recounts the script's genesis, and gives a good introduction to Hollywood's milieu in the time preceding the implementation of the censorious Production Code.

Likewise, Skal's commentary provides a wealth of interesting information about the cast of the film and highlights some of Browning's best directorial decisions. You know, standard fare for DVD commentary. The commentary track's greatest virtue, however, is Skal's occasional explication of some of the more baffling parts of Freaks. Since nearly one-third of the film was lopped off Freaks in order to appease nervous studio executives, several key scenes contain peculiar, unexplained dialogue or footage. Skal does his best to fill in the blanks, which is a considerable task given the fact that so much of the film was swept off of the cutting room floor and into cinematic oblivion. That said, the commentary is difficult to listen to at times. Whereas the best DVD commentaries tend to be the extemporaneous musings and anecdotal remembrances of cast and crew members, Skal's commentary was clearly written on paper and read aloud. On several occasions, Skal misreads or awkwardly emphasizes his speech. In other words, the pitfalls of high school oratory abound in Skal's commentary. What irks me most is how forced and unnatural the commentary sounds as a result. Rather than resemble a conversation or a good lecture, Skal's commentary reminds me of the sort of person who reads aloud from a tourist guidebook when his or her companions are trying to look at something and resent the distraction. Still, the information is often quite helpful in building a better appreciation of the film. It would just work better as liner notes. After all, if you can't read your own words to make them sound natural, you should stick to good-old black-and-white print. That way, at least, you won't ruin anything for anyone. To Skal's credit, though, he does mention the Ramones, whose "Pinhead" brought the film to my attention in the first place.