Preview
  • Dark Carnival

  • The Secret World of Tod Browning, Hollywood's Master of Macabre
  • By: David J. Skal, Elias Savada
  • Narrated by: David J. Skal
  • Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (10 ratings)

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Dark Carnival

By: David J. Skal, Elias Savada
Narrated by: David J. Skal
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Publisher's summary

One of the most original and unsettling filmmakers of all time—the creator of the horror classics Dracula and Freaks, among others—Tod Browning is also one of the most enigmatic directors who ever worked in Hollywood. A complicated, troubled, and fiercely private man, he confounded would-be biographers hoping to penetrate his secret, obsessive world—both during his lifetime and afterward.

Now, film historians David J. Skal and Elias Savada, using newly discovered family documents and revealing published interviews with friends and colleagues, join forces for the first full-length biography of the man who earned a reputation as "the Edgar Allan Poe of the cinema."

The authors chronicle Browning's turn-of-the-century flight from an eccentric Louisville family into the world of carnival sideshows (where he began his career literally buried alive) and vaudeville, his disastrous first marriage, his rapid climb to riches in the burgeoning silent film industry, and the alcoholism that would plague him throughout his life.

Browning's legendary collaborations with Lon Chaney, Sr., and Bela "Dracula" Lugosi are explored in depth, along with the studio politics that ended his career after the bizarre circus drama Freaks—a cult classic today—proved to be one of the biggest box-office disasters of the early thirties.

©1995 David J. Skal and Elias Savada (P)2022 Oasis Audio
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What listeners say about Dark Carnival

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Obscure Legend

Not much is known about Browning other than his work has a deep darkness often. I like deep dives into early film classics, and this is a really good read for me. I learned a lot, yet he will still be something of a mystery. I appreciate the author telling this story.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

a carnival of souls cinema

some people will be fascinated by his early life around the turn of the century in Kentucky: the famous Kentucky Slugger Uncle : running away from home to join the circus: others will only focus on his macabre monster movies and wonder if he was really a sadistic bastard who treated everyone like shit.

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One of us...

Great for the Browning, Lugosi, Chaney Sr., and/or Freaks enthusiast. Mileage might vary for those outside of those domains, as I can imagine it might be a bit dry. I absolutely loved it. Narration can be a killer on this type of book, but thankfully this reader was spot on.

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