An Auteur Study on Tod Browning

By Anna McDonnell
Tod Browning is often referred to as the first Master of Macabre; he played a significant
part in the development of the Horror genre in film. This was most notably because of his films
Dracula, London After Midnight or Freaks, though Freaks is the perfect example of what a Tod
Browning movie usually was. Freaks was not a horror film, it was wonderfully Pre-Code and
showcased the strange and the shocking and the ugly side of a circus. A majority of his films
were not meant to be taken as horror films. Brownings films most often were focused on the
bizarre or sinful, he did not just create another glamorous golden Hollywood film for profit.
There are several distinguishing characteristics that make up a typical Tod Browning film.
Tod Browning was obsessed with the strange his entire life. He ran away from his family
at the age of 16 to join the circus and later became an actor and director. His experiences in the
circus gave him an understanding of the weird and served as inspiration, which can been seen
through many of his films like Freaks or The Unknown. He seemed to keep similar themes
throughout a number of his silent films; there were many love triangles and antiheroes who
evoked empathy from audiences. Lon Chaney in particular seemed to perfectly portray many of
these roles.
Browning may have recycled themes, but he did it successfully. This was especially so
with Lon Chaney, most if not all of his characters were a sort of antihero or villain in love with a
woman he could never have. Browning knew how to utilize Chaneys talents in and out of
makeup. Both actor and director had a deep understanding of people who were different and it
showed through their work together. Browning/Chaney villains were always surprisingly
human; underneath the ugliness was still a heart.
The Unknown consists of many of these aspects. Set in the circus, Chaney plays circus
freak Alonzo the Armless who is actually a dangerous criminal in hiding. Chaney plays on our
sympathies, for he is hopelessly in love with Nanon (played by Joan Crawford) whom ends up
falling in love with the strong-man of the circus instead of Alonzo; a similar love triangle to the
one used in Freaks. Although we find out that Alonzo has lied about his lack of arms and he
murders a man, we still cannot hate him completely because of how much he cares for Nanon.
Like many of the characters in Brownings films, he successfully earns our pity.
In The Blackbird, Chaney again plays a character lying about his identity, switching
between the criminal The Blackbird and his good-hearted bishop twin brother. Again he is
hopelessly in love with a woman who does not love him, and since it is a Tod Browning film we
know that ultimately things will not end in Chaneys favor. We pity The Blackbird and we like his
alter-ego, he seems genuine but again the character is just another lost soul. As usual we are
left feeling empathetic, and his death in the end is very sad.
There is definitely a predictability about Tod Browning films. The overall content may be
significantly different but if there is one thing that Browning never leaves out, its death. From
Where East Is East to Dracula, his films always ended with death but still a happy ending. In
Where East Is East, another Lon Chaney movie, the plot consists of familiarly daring Browning
themes such as infidelity, and even hints at a lesbian relationship between two characters. He
often made good use of the Pre-Hays Code freedoms. Chaney didnt play his regular antihero
role in this film; he was the loving, tough father of a girl ready to be married to her true love.
His ex-wife comes into the picture as the villain who is the very definition of a femme fatale,
attempting to steal her daughters dearly beloved. At the sight of the angry ape that Chaney
keeps in a cage, it is apparent how the story will end. Chaney releases the ape on his ex-wife,
who kills her and almost kills Chaney. Browning has used the ape before, notably in his film The
Unholy Three. The ending is the happy yet solemn ending Tod Browning always has, that of the
girl and the boy happily married at last but saying goodbye to her dying father. Dracula, The
Unknown, The Blackbird, etc. all end with the main couple happily together through the death
of another.
Browning stuck with the same actors for a lot of his films. He made ten films with Lon
Chaney, all very successful. He also worked well with a young Lionel Barrymore and Bela Lugosi.
At times his movies seemed to be built around the talents of the specific actor. Bela Lugosi
created one of the most famous icons in history in Dracula. He was very dramatic and the entire
film was more like a stage play, with not a lot of camera movement and overacting. He did the
same in Mark of the Vampire. This was Lugosis type of talent, he spent years on the stage
before moving to film. Lon Chaney was good at the misfits and could do almost anything with
his makeup; Browning also knew that he could fit into any role he threw at him. Lionel
Barrymore made a good villain in a number of his films. Depending on the actor he used, you
could tell what some of the plot points were going to be.
Freaks was a milestone in cinema history. Never before had someone done something
like it. Tod Browning brought us into the lives of these real circus people, he showed the
audiences that these people live normal lives outside of the circus. For example, the Bearded
Lady has a baby with the Human Skeleton, the Siamese twins get engaged, the Pinheads have
fun like regular children, Hans and Friedas relationship troubles, etc. Browning gave us a look
inside the circus that he knew. The irony of it all was that the perfectly normal looking
characters were the real freaks. The deceptiveness of Cleopatra and Hercules was uglier than
anything else, because they took advantage of good people. Brownings obsession with the
strange was shown in full through Freaks, which was a huge misfire with audiences and it was
banned for years. Freaks was definitely done for the love the film, though the only unsettling
factor, that ultimately makes people consider it a horror film, is the ending. After all he did to
make them the normal ones, Browning ended up making these characters look like monsters
crawling through the mud anyway. Again, it was not the typical happy ending but the typical
Tod Browning ending.
In films like Outside The Law or The Road To Mandalay we see Browning also has a
respect for or fascination with Eastern culture. Most silent films were often very stereotypical
and unkind to characters of that background. Browning may have had stereotypical Asians in
some of his films, but they were treated with respect and were often key characters. In Outside
The Law Chaney again is in a dual role, playing the rotten gangster Black Mike and a wise
Chinese sage named Ah Wing. Confucianism and morality are present themes in this film, and
these characters often gave helpful advice to the protagonists. As in Brownings fascination,
one can see through the scenery or characters. Madame de Sylva in Where East Is East was very
slick and mysteriously alluring. He often made Eastern culture seem very mysterious and far
away, but not in a negative sense.
London After Midnight is quite possibly the most sought after lost film. It was Tod
Brownings first experience with vampires, and he later remade it somewhat into Mark of the
Vampire starring Bela Lugosi and Lionel Barrymore. London After Midnight was a successful
Browning/Chaney paring film probably because of Chaneys makeup, the few who saw it before
the last known copy was destroyed recount the plot as being bland. Browning had tried a hand
at a sort of mystery/detective story with this film. He still kept the same sort of shady, evil
characters and mysterious murders like the rest of his movies. When it came to vampires, The
Man in the Beaver Hat was nothing like Lugosis Dracula. Though exaggerated more because it
was supposed to be a man in disguise, had Chaney lived to be in Brownings Dracula, it is
apparent that the Dracula the world knows today would be very different.
The Unholy Three and The Devil Doll were films where again Browning utilized his ability
to recycle certain plot devices. In both films, Lon Chaney and Lionel Barrymore resemble each
other in character; they both play criminals in hiding disguised as a sweet old woman.
Barrymores character is different in that he was not originally a criminal, he was just consumed
by the hatred he had for the people who framed him. Again we have a typical Tod Browning
villain who only became bad because of unfortunate circumstances. Chaneys character Echo
in The Unholy Three was once again a hardened criminal, in love with the girl in his gang who
ends up falling for the good guy. Except at the very beginning and very end, Browning has Echo
as quite a miscreant. Even as the old woman, he could pop out of that character and throw
murderous scowl. By the end of the film he becomes more human when he saves the good guy
and lets the girl he loves go with the one she truly loves despite everything. The ending is very
solemn yet happy again, with Chaney waving goodbye to his love with his little ventriloquist
puppets hand and his trademark saying, Thats all there is to life-- a little laughtera little
tear. Browning could always make an audience really feel for a character, good or bad.
Tod Browning was one of the masters of overall cinema, he knew how to tell a story he
liked. He was daring for his era. He was a bizarre person himself, though you had to be to make
such films as he did. He depicted the not so glamorous side of life, unlike his contemporaries.
And although he may have often used the same themes, each film was as unique as the next.










Sources for some material: www.wikipedia.org, www.imdb.com