FREAKS
TCM, 9:15 p.m. ET
Tonight, in anticipation of Halloween, TCM presents a prime-time lineup that’s so good, it’s scary – and vice versa. The triple feature begins at 8 p.m. ET with 1927’s The Unknown, an early Lon Chaney film, also starring Joan Crawford, directed by Tod Browning. It concludes at 10:30 p.m. ET with 1946’s Bedlam, a moody Boris Karloff film sometimes known as Chamber of Horrors. But the evening’s centerpiece is another Browning movie, the 1932 cult masterpiece Freaks. How good is it? Well, I just showed it to my Film History and Appreciation class at Rowan University last week, and it’ll be on the midterm. Featured performers include many actual sideshow veterans, including Siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton and Josephine Joseph, billed as the half-woman, half-man.