Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers: The Mystic, The Unknown, Freaks Criterion Blu-ray Review

#todbrowning #lonchaney #criterion #bluray
I review the Criterion Collection release of Tod Browning's Sideshow Shockers. This set brings together a new restoration of the rarely seen silent film THE MYSTIC, the new scan and restoration of the iconic FREAKS and the major draw: the new extended restoration of the silent masterpiece THE UNKNOWN which restores crucial missing footage to the film which is arguably the greatest of Tod Browning's collaborations with Lon Chaney Sr. THE UNKNOWN remains just as powerful and this has been increased further with the runtime now being extended to just over an hour. Chaney's performance is arguably one of if not his greatest work. It remains one of the greatest and most haunting performances in all of cinema.
Criterion has made a nice looking package release with many great legacy supplements featuring the incredibly work of the late David J. Seal who also contributed a new commentary for this extended version of The Unknown. Sadly there are few new supplements and Criterion's encoding issues unfortunately pop up in two spots-one of them being in a shot during the climax of FREAKS.
Still this is an excellent must own release for all film collections and libraries which hopefully will encourage more people to dig more deeply into the dark emotionally charged cinematic works of Tod Browning. It is worth every penny for the new restoration of THE UNKNOWN and for David Skal's incredible contributions in the supplements.
00:00 Dedication card and Intro goof
01:19 Introduction
04:16 The Mystic
11:20 Picture Quality
13:45 Audio Quality
16:04 Supplemental Features-David J. Skal’s contributions
19:33 The Unknown
37:19 Summary
40:08 Picture Quality
45:20 Audio Quality
46:03 Supplemental Features
51:29 Freaks
01:12:32 Picture Quality
01:17:04 Bad encoding and frozen grain on one shot
01:21:30 Audio Quality
01:24:16 Supplemental Features
01:35:32 Packaging and Artwork
01:39:41 Final Summary

[@dr.coffinnails]

Also devastated by the loss of David J. Skal. His commentaries were always a delight.

[@ericlewis217]

Nice to see the David J. Skal mention at the beginning. Easily my favorite horror historian. I am buying this mainly for The Unknown. I’ve never loved Freaks but any time a Chaney film is restored it’s a purchase. Possibly the greatest character actor ever.

[@mikevalenzuela3974]

I used to listed to his Dracula audio comentary at least once a week back in the day

[@HoorayTV21]

The Unknown was one of my MUST have restorations. Glad it happened. Was actually just buying this when I saw this review.

[@slumberwall]

I've just seen The Mystic for the first time; it's an entertaining story, the restoration looks amazing, and the soundtrack is one of the best ever for a silent film. The last act of the film is weaker and not very convincingly pulled-off, but it's a revelation to find a good film from a hundred years ago I'd never even heard of before.

[@tinypurplefishes2903]

I’m admittedly one of those going into this release for Freaks. It is in my top three favorite pre-code films, and it’s such a relief it finally has a (mostly) improved master. I wish that maybe they had gone a bit easier on the audio noise reduction, but thankfully it’s nothing overscrubbed. In spite of the film being butchered by the studio, it still somehow shines through into being a great film. Also incredibly far ahead of its time Great to see The Unknown and The Mystic getting some attention too, and the new scores are fantastic. I admittedly don’t have a ton of history with the later, in large part because it’s been a pain to even be able to view it, but it was great to see a Browning film I had never seen before Overall very happy I picked this up. It feels like we have been very lucky recently with silent and early talkie blu ray releases, and long may that continue!

[@michely.gervais4637]

I enjoyed this so much. I appreciated being educated on the other two lesser known films also. I love that you included so many screen captures as you described the stories.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

Thanks, I put a lot of effort in making screencaps directly from the disc and then trying to layer them into the discussion points for each film. It takes a lot of time to do but I feel it’s worthwhile.

[@SlashManEXE]

Silent-era organs are capable of a lot of impressive effects. Some of the instrument options are capable of mimicking a chorus, and there’s often sound effects built in as well (like percussion and “door knocking”). So long as you’re not hearing distinct voices in the soundtrack, it’s likely not unrealistic for the era.

[@melissaking6019]

Just ordered this Bluray. The Unknown is the Browning-Chaney collaboration masterpiece. Chaney's performance packs such a wallop. He sublimely hits every note on the scale of human emotions as Alonzo. Burt Lancaster once told Chaney historian Michael Blake that Lon's performance toward the climax of the film with Crawford and Kerry is the most powerful piece of acting he'd ever seen. Quite a compliment.

[@el4174]

Just saw Freaks finally last month...good stuff...I'll check the others

[@nitrateglow2087]

I picked up this set as soon as I could, mainly for The Unknown. I still need to rewatch it in this new version and Freaks has been due for a rewatch from me for years now. I just watched The Mystic tonight and enjoyed it, though you'd expect the ending to be much darker given how intense the melodrama gets.

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

The new scans are all sensational and I’m glad I hadn’t seen The Mystic fully before this set. Freaks looks very good despite the elements outside the one shot I highlighted. But the major achievement is The Unknown and that restored footage which helps the overall flow tremendously!!

[@1dbanner]

We all have to checkout eventually, but the way David Skal was forced to go out is so egregious.

[@yousellouts]

Fantastic review as always. Shame about the encoding issues but not surprising for a Criterion title. Are we going to be getting a video about the ordeal with your Panasonic player at some stage?

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

Thanks! Yes a video on the ub820 headaches is certainly coming. I managed to get it going again, so I’m trying to see how long it lasts before potentially having the tray go bad again. I’m now trying to catch up with the UHD reviews I was working on when it started going bad.

[@yousellouts]

@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader Shame about the player but good to hear some new reviews are coming. I've recently made the 4K plunge and bought my first 4K TV and player. I haven't set everything up yet because I have to have a shelf modified and rearrange some things in my room first. I went with a Sony A90K OLED and a UB820, which is disconcerting after reading about the issues you've had with it but there just aren't any other options right now. Unfortunately Sony have opted for making lower end models which don't seem to have some of the specific hardware issues that the UB820 has but have more disc playback issues and inferior performance.

[@garyrichardson475]

In David J. Skal's "Introduction" to The Mystic he explains everything that happens, including the ending. There's no excuse for that especially since most are seeing it for the first time. They could at least named it something other than "Introduction". Fortunately, I was able to abort in time when I saw how detailed he was getting.

[@rickdrais9737]

I was a bit disappointed by Freaks. Yes, it’s a 2K restoration, but on my 4K TV it looks no better than my old DVD. Nice, but no real improvement

[@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader]

The elements are so limited that you’re basically stuck with how they are and rendering them with a new scan so that the 1080p version will jump ahead of the DVD. But they are limited greatly so when comparing it might not seem like that much of a jump. I thought they did the best they could and that the picture was improved but the audio is where it’s really neck and neck between the two. They used the same source and in spots they’re nearly identical-in others the bd is a tad better and in others the dvd is preferable.

[@rickdrais9737]

@@DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader perhaps I should give it another watch. I guess what I was mostly disappointed in was the fact that the picture really didn’t jump out at me. Still, a second watch can reveal things that you might not notice on first watch. I’m not sorry I bought it, just a teeny bit let-down. Like I said, maybe a second watch might help