♪
Poor freakish thing,
There is no escape.
Not until all questions have been answered.
By you, and by all upon whom I would call.
For I have been summoned to this place.
Driven, like percival, to find a thing most rare.
Though the grail I seek is one of flesh.
Corrupted. Diseased.
Perfect in its monstrous imperfection.
Before this night is through, I will find my grail.
One more pure freak to add to our unhappy number.
Now...
Tell me, dear one,
How did you come to be here?
I committed a sin.
Give us your sin.
That's easy, isn't it?
I was born.
As all men must be.
Only I weren't like all other men.
In our street, that was a problem.
Lads learned early on how to scrap.
Only I couldn't get close enough to scrap back,
Not with these.
The doctors took my legs
When I was two years old,
Owing to a spinal condition.
After that, my parents lost faith.
They left me in a basket
On the doorstep of the children's home.
I never saw them again.
A sad story, but common.
You do not amuse, girl.
Make me weep tears of sorrow for you.
Lay bare your greatest shame.
Play with us!
Oh, my innocent ones.
How you move my heart.
There can be no shame with you.
No shame.
My whole life is shame.
My only escape was in the dark.
I could lose myself in it.
There I was transported.
I wanted nothing more than to come to this land
Of opulence and glamour.
But when I arrived, it was the depression.
The country's... And mine.
After the children's home, I ended up on the streets.
There was no work for someone like me.
Hell, there was no work for anyone at that time.
The darkest moment, girl.
We would have it.
It was jealousy.
Even hate.
He didn't deserve it.
And I guess I hit an artery.
I didn't think of those legs as part of him.
Just the things that I would never have.
He died.
Yes.
But he inspired you to perform.
He did.
And I was tired of the streets.
Tired of being laughed at,
Of being attacked, of being called "seal boy."
The world hated me.
But no more than I hated myself.
They wanted a monster?
I decided to give them one.
I could never make the world love me.
Maybe I could make it fear me.
Why not the face?
I thought about it.
But at the last minute, I chickened out.
Why?
'cause I have a handsome face.
I have the face of a pretty lad.
Can you imagine this mug on a normal body?
I could've ruled the world.
You are not the one.
There is another, my children.
Another visit I must make.
Maestro?
Willkommen.
I hope I'm not disturbing you, fraulein.
Oh, not at all.
I have been expecting you.
Although it was rather rude of you
To run off like that after my number.
Perhaps you needed to...
Collect yourself.
I imagine you don't see such authentic talent very often.
May I sit?
It would be better over there.
We have business to discuss.
And you wouldn't be the first young man to show up
Expecting a lesson in love.
Are you going to say something about my number?
I've been trying out some new phrasing,
Though it is a challenge for an artist like myself to work
With such run-of-the-mill accompaniment.
I suppose I should consider myself lucky
That there is at least one freak on the circuit
Who knows how to read music.
They are not known for their culture.
Which is something we should discuss.
I'm going to need a new arranger
If I am to develop a contemporary nightclub act.
Cat got your tongue?
My talent has been known to render
Men speechless, but you'll have to get over it
If we are going to work together.
It is not your talent that renders me speechless.
It is your delusional ignorance.
Excuse me?
You are a tattered waste of oxygen
Who bolsters herself with contempt for others.
I am not here to take you on to greatness, woman.
I am here to take someone with me to the other side,
Perhaps you.
Get out of my tent!
This is not amusing.
Whoever it is under that mask,
You've come to the wrong tent
For your silly little Halloween prank.
This isn't a prank, my lovely.
No!
I am their guardian!
I'm their minder! I'm not one of them!
I'm not... Don't!
Don't, don't, don't.
I don't understand.
I am not one of them.
Oh, I understand.
There is nothing more craven than a freak like yourself.
Someone who would pretend to be the benevolent zookeeper,
But she is nothing
But a pernicious, diseased animal herself.
Now...
...Tell me all about your darkest hour.
What happened?
I think we ran out of gas.
You think I was born yesterday?
What's next? Do you want to go for a stroll in the woods?
Yeah, actually. We have to get off the road.
There's a curfew.
Unless you want to spend the night in jail,
We have to hide from the cops.
You coming?
Come on, let's go.
We got to get off the road. Let's go.
Come on. Don't-don't touch me!
I haven't decided about you.
Well, you're a fortune teller--
Can't you tell my intentions? That's the problem.
I know every guy's intentions.
well, sassy,
Lucky for you, you're not my type.
I'm also smart enough to know that
Guys aren't so picky in the dark.
Listen, I'm not the one you have to worry about, toots.
It's the townies, the cops.
Do you have any idea how much they hate us?
At best, we're tolerated because we make them feel grateful
They're normal.
So let me get this straight.
A pretty face is not your type?
shit. Come on.
We got to go. Let's go.
Am I gonna die?
Listen to me.
I'm not gonna die here,
And neither are you.
Is he dead?
No.
He's just weak from hunger.
The clown makes us watch him, but he doesn't feed us.
Watch him do what?
Clown stuff.
Come here. I need you to help me.
I need you to help me untie this knot.
Come on. Just try. I can't.
It's too tight. Look, I need you to just try.
Oh, come on. Hurry.
There. There.
There's only been one car in the last ten minutes.
Can't we just walk back to camp?
When you're right, you're right.
Just in case, let's stay in the shadows.
Let's go this way.
Help me! Help!
Shh. Get down.
No! No!
What was that?
Nothing good.
Where are you going?
See if I can help her.
Well...
Shit.
Thank you for these.
I prefer to be upright
When I'm entertaining a handsome stranger--
At least, when we start.
I am not a man anymore.
You cannot play on
My appetites for mercy.
He is in charge now.
He feeds off pain, regret,
The delicious moment when hope is lost,
The sweet bleeding of a broken heart.
Do you want to hear about marlene?
He wants your misery.
He wants the true darkness.
♪
Berlin. 1932.
No... No!
It was said you could get the blow job of your life
For an american nickel.
It was sexual chaos.
All of the pain and humiliation
Of germany's surrender, the anger...
Before there was hitler to channel it into another war,
The citizens of germany
Expressed their misery with their cocks.
Any deviance you could imagine,
You could have.
Animals, scat,
Amputees, hunchbacks...
And in the darkest corner of it all,
I found myself.
Ne.
No?
Ne.
Ja. Woof.
Unable to find work on the stage, starving.
But even in that world, I was a star.
I was a minette, a french cat.
I worked only at the top hotels.
But I wasn't like the rest of those whores.
I never let my clients touch me,
Let alone put their filth inside of me.
I gained a reputation for being the one you went to
When you were looking for something...
...Creative.
No one puts on a show better than I do.
And in time, I began to attract clients.
And an audience.
I called them the watchers.
I never knew their names, but they paid well,
And never in marks.
You trade away your humanity
Trick by trick.
In the end,
I wasn't elsa.
I was nothing.
A ghost. Like you.
I came all this way to hear your story.
I told you it. Not the worst of it.
Tell me about your legs.
Stay here.
No way. Stay.
No.
Holy shit. What?
Those are the missing kids. This is the guy.
This is the killer.
He's a maniac.
We got to get the cops.
Time for the real Halloween show to begin.
My ambition was my downfall.
The watchers made blue movies,
And I was their top seller.
They said I made men ejaculate gold.
But this one was different.
There was no costar.
Usually there was a boy or girl,
A streetwalker or runaway.
But there was just me.
And I'd been drugged.
Enough to be powerless but not enough to forget.
Not enough to not understand.
Not enough to dull the pain.
Snuff films, they call them.
They told me
I was one of the lucky ones.
They just...
Left me there to die.
Who saved you?
the soldier boy.
He had fallen in love with his whore.
He followed me everywhere.
He rushed in the minute they left.
I will never forgive him for it.
They passed the film around
Berlin, munich.
I hear a copy even made it to vienna.
I was a star.
But my career was over.
It was all over for me.
I had the most...
Beautiful legs.
She is the one.
Yes.
I am the one.
Take me, please.
I know now. I can't deny it.
Please.
There is nothing left for me.
It's all over.
Are you ready? Yes!
Yes, yes, I am ready.
I am ready. Take me.
Please. Take me.
Take me! What are you waiting for?!
Please! Go on. Please take me!
Do you hear music?
Ladies...
And gentlemen!
Creatures of all kinds!
Children of all ages!
You nasty little brats.
Welcome to the greatest
Show on...
Earth!
Meet my lovely assistant...
Tiny tits.
And...
My accompanist... The amazing mr. Clown!
I've always wondered
How this trick was done.
Haven't you?
Well...
Let's find out.
Shall we?
No!
Everybody run! Run!
Wait!
We're not finished!
Don't stop now.
We came for a show.
Get back here!
I haven't finished my show!
Oh, he's close.
Which way is the road?
Just everyone stop, okay?
Quiet.
The road's that way.
Take them and call the police, okay?
Go! Come on! Come on!
It's all trick and no treat from here on out!
Catch me if you can, asshole!
You ruined my Halloween!
You stupid girl!
I hate you, I hate you, I hate you,
I hate you, I hate you!
If I have to ask you a second time,
I fear it will be less polite.
Remove your mask.
Tell me your story.
Calm yourself.
Focus your mind, and I will understand you.
Begin at the beginning.
It was 1943.
Ah, the world in flames.
People were in need of clowns and laughter.
I was the special children's clown
To rusty westchester's traveling carnival.
I made 'em laugh.
I love the children.
But not the freaks.
They're mean.
Yeah, I like it when they sit
On your lap and they do that wiggle thing.
Yeah.
How'd he get that job, anyway?
Yeah, I mean, we got the seniority.
Yeah.
Well, we ought to take care of that.
Aye. Aye. Yeah.
Let's go.
I feel good.
Hey.
Hey, simpleton. Yeah, you.
Come here, come here.
Yeah, come on, come on.
Yeah, come here, come here.
Here. Have a smoke.
Have a seat.
Sit down, right here.
Yeah.
It... Burns my throat.
"it burns my throat."
How come you talk so stupid?
Your mama drop you on your head?
How'd you know that?
Uh, it wasn't her fault.
Too many cocktails.
It wa... It wasn't so funny.
Oh, it's funny all right. Hey.
I hear you like to do funny things
With the little kiddies. Oh...
I heard you like to take advantage... Oh...
...'cause they think you're a simpleton.
no. I love the kids.
No, that's not what they say.
aw, I didn't do nothing bad.
Wait.
What did I do? W-what'd they say, anyway?
Cops are coming soon. Oh.
They're gonna put you in jail.
Jail's for bad people.
I'm a good person. Mama said so.
Do you hear that? I think the cops are coming.
Uh-oh, you better scram, simpleton,
you better run extra fast.
Run, run! Boo!
Never cared for dwarves.
Power mad, the lot of them.
So they drove you out.
Word... Travels around
In the carny circuit.
I couldn't...
Be a clown anymore.
So I came home to jupiter.
But mama had died.
I had a idea.
I would turn the garbage
Into gold.
Like rumpelstiltskin.
Uh, how about spouty?
No.
This one...
Kids ain't gonna go for these.
Oh, you're wrong.
This will be a big hit with the kids.
I said no.
Look at that one!
Hey, boy.
Don't you want this?
Huh? Isn't this your favorite toy?
He doesn't want your filthy whirligig.
Kids love me.
I know better than anybody else what kids want.
Hey, hey, keep your distance.
You're one of those twisted types
That-that does stuff to kids.
That's a lie.
That's a bad,
Bad lie.
I'm a good person.
Hey.
You better get out of here
Or I'm gonna call the police.
I thought...
"I'm so dumb...
...I can't even kill myself."
But then...
Then I had one good idea.
That's right, folks, everyone's having fun.
Come right up, come right up. Human oddities--
The greatest on earth.
They'll curl your hair and scare your bloomers off.
♪ gimme, come on down ♪
♪ it's a parade.
Don't mind him, folks. He's just a little bit kooky.
You want a balloon, you're gonna have to pay me.
That's all right, we love everyone here.
Come on down, come on down,
Poor creature. Get on in there. Have fun...
It's a sad tale, isn't it?
A pitiful one.
So noble.
So misunderstood.
Tell me about the children.
I saved 'em.
From what did you save them, I wonder?
From the freaks!
The evil, mean freaks!
The children forgot
That they loved me.
The freaks were stealing 'em,
Just like before.
I knew what I had to do.
I had to get 'em back.
I made a funny show for 'em.
Their parents were mean.
I gave 'em candy.
I didn't make 'em do any chores.
no, no!
I got a pretty babysitter for 'em.
No!
I'm a good clown.
I have met many a craven killer,
Many a sniveling coward in my time,
But every one of them could admit the blackness
In their own hearts when the hour came.
You...
Have caused the demon... To weep.
I don't understand.
Stand up, clown.
You are the one.
♪
Come, brother.
Join us.
♪
You can run, but you can't hide.
Not for long.
So you never saw his face,
This man who was going to cut you in half?
He wore a mask the whole time,
And I was in that box, so I couldn't really get a good look.
But they were both dressed like clowns?
Did you hear anything?
One talked, the other one didn't say a word.
Would you recognize his voice if you heard it again?
Sounded muffled through the plastic.
Yet other little kids
Were able to see the man with his mask off.
They're in pretty bad shape, but we'll get a description.
All I know is they were both crazy.
The clown that was killed here--
Did you see what happened?
Nobody would blame you if you had to defend yourself.
Killing a maniac like that would be a public service.
I didn't see anything.
Important thing is
You brought these kids back to their families alive.
Way I see it,
You're a hero, young lady.
No.
Jimmy's the real hero.
I didn't do anything special.
I like you, kid.
Humility is gonna take you a long way.
Detective, why don't you write your name down
So the reporters can spell it when I talk to them.
I'm gonna tell them about the real hero.
You pulling my leg?
The real hero is the person
Who got killed at the police station
After you arrested him.
Meep didn't deserve to die.
And somebody is going to pay for what happened to my friend.
Where the hell have you been?!
Curfew's lifted.
What?
Have they caught the killer?
He did.
Caught the killer.
Saved the kids.
Saved everybody.
I got to pee.
You try holding it on a bike for five miles.
That girl has cast a spell.
She's not the only one.
The camp had a visitor last night.
Edward mordrake.
He came to you, too?
Not to me, but he claimed his freak.
Was es loss?
They've finally come
To run us out.
You jimmy?
What do you and the rest of this mob want?
We wanted to thank you.
You saved our son.
You saved our town.
I want to shake your hand.
Jessie?
Homemade brownies. I only had one.
Thank you.
Are you a real lady?
Jessie! Manners!
Oh, that's okay, darling.
I'm a lady.
And then some.
♪
Ladies and gentlemen!
One and all.
We would like to
Invite you
To our grand command performance tonight.
Here in our big top.
Tickets are available over there
At the box office.
Space them closer together.
You wanted to see us?
Yes.
We have a sold-out show tonight,
And I've made some changes to the set list.
No, I get it.
Now that there's a full house, we're warming up for you.
Don't be silly.
You're warming up for the pinheads.
You can't be serious.
But it's our faces on the banner.
But that was last week, liebchen.
We took that banner down.
Uh, knock, knock?
Uh, sorry...
To bother you folks-- I, uh... I was hoping
To buy a ticket to the show,
But it seems to be sold out.
I'm here from, uh,
Out of town.
Yeah, hollywood,
California, is where I call home.
Hollywood?
Richard spencer.
Talent scout.
I think we can find you a seat.
Ah...
Oh, for the love of christopher!
Really? Is that what you tore up
All those fine things to make?
Don't let your mother see you like that.
She's been running around all day
Trying to find you the proper costume--
Not that you would appreciate it.
So go change, and take this tray
To your mother.
She's feeling a weakness from running around.
Halloween is over.
Get bent and take this tray.
Enough of this! I'm not afraid of you.
You little made-in- the-shade white boy.
You can barely wash your own ass.
I know, 'cause I wash
Your shitty drawers.
I'll take it myself. Move!
♪
Captioned by media access group at wgbh access.Wgbh.Org